I Really Like Twitter, Facebook, And StumbleUpon, And It Sure Feels Good To Be Appreciated, Thank You Maria

Hi folks,

During a year of blogging, and exploration of online marketing and social networking, I have managed to find some tools that I really like. Surprisingly, the one piece of software that I initially considered to be of little value, Twitter, has turned out to be excellent in many ways. I attribute this little lesson to Victor, my bike guy, who said, “Kevin, just give Twitter another try, as it works for me and my business really effectively.”

With the help of Twitter, Facebook, and especially StumbleUpon, it has been a great week for my blog and I, including our having achieved a Google Page Rank of 3. Most importantly for me personally was the thanks I received for my blog post on ‘exercise following corrective surgery for aortic dissection.’ It came in the form of the following Tweet from Maria, a survivor of an ascending aortic dissection.

One of the most encouraging tweets I ever got, as it made me feel that what I am doing is really worthwhile.

I remember leaving the hospital with my aortic stent over a year ago, with the instructions that I could work out as before but I should go easy at first. I certainly appreciated the surgeon and his team, but his advice struck me as inadequate. I consequently researched my situation and found that no one really had any idea what was safe for me in terms of exercise. I discovered literature indicating that certain things were clearly not a good idea if you have an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and so I have been blogging in order to seek ‘people in the know.’

I found a great community of ‘aortically-challenged’ people, but they were all guessing just like me when it came to exercising for better health with a major aortic challenge. Since then I have been thinking hard about how we each should approach physical training, whatever our health challenge, as exercise is critical for long-term well-being. My background in the biological sciences has certainly helped, and so I cautiously give my advice or opinion on such matters. Maria clearly appreciated my doing this, as do some others.

Our Yard: This is why I want to live as long as I can, nature, friends, family, canine buddy, and all the rest.

The work of Benjamin Carey, as outlined in his book, ‘Barefoot in November,’ demonstrates that it is possible to undertake considerable amounts of exercise following ascending aortic surgery, as both he and his surgeon completed the New York City Marathon one year to the day of his surgery. These are the kinds of people who can inspire Maria and myself to stick with the program, and live our lives to the full. Our only real enemy is fear, which I guess is true of us all.

Most bloggers will tell you that there are days when writing quality posts is hard work. The single tweet above is all the motivation I need to keep going and, to be honest, most days it is great fun, as I learn something new each time I write a post.

Thanks again, Maria.

-k @FitOldDog