Here come the holidays...whoa! - from 12/12/2014

The 2014 McEntree

Hi again everyone. Once again I have to apologize for such a great length between blog posts. I did manage to get it in just under a month, so there's that, I guess.  Much has happened in the last 29 days. I was cleared to drive. This has been very important for many reasons. For one, I am able to take myself to cardiac rehab every day. I also am able to be much more independent. It helps Amy that she doesn't have to drive me on all of my errands. Mostly, though, it is important for my psyche. I must admit feeling a touch of cabin fever when I was unable to go out during the day.

A very sad day happened since my last post. My tenure at Glenmary Home Missioners as Associate Vocation Director officially came to a close. My short term disability expired and I put in my application for long term disability. Unfortunately, going on LTD means I must be officially terminated.  This is very difficult for many reasons. 

Glenmary provided a wonderful atmosphere to work in and I will miss all the road trips, visits with young men discerning a religious vocation and seeing Glenmary's missions in action.  Most of all, though, I will miss the great people I was privileged to work with, both in the vocation department and in the office.  I definitely will miss the card playing at break time. I pray that Glenmary finds the right person to help nurture many more vocations to Glenmary priesthood and brotherhood. But obviously, my focus is getting as well prepared and strong for transplant as I possibly can.

Cardiac rehab is consuming more and more of my Monday-Wednesday-Friday routine. At first, I thought I'd lose an hour or so a day, but now, I am excercising nearly that long, plus getting set up, cooled down and having blood pressure checks along the way. It pretty much consumes an entire morning or afternoon, depending on when I go.

I have also met several of the other rehabbers. Two of them have already had heart transplants, so it is great to be able to talk to them. The drawback is that I have to get there at 8:00 in order to catch them. That doesn't always happen. Jerry has been a very big help. He had an LVAD prior to his transplant so he knows my situation better than most folks. I am finding I have my good days and bad days at cardiac rehab, but I can also see a progression of having more energy and strength. I am told, being physically strong and mentally strong are very big factors in having the ability to approach and recover from transplant surgery.

So, not the holidays are quickly approaching. We are still getting things in order for that. I thought I would have tones of time to get ready this year. In some ways I have been able to do more to prepare for the season, but I'm still a bit overwhelmed by all there is to do. Hopefully Christmas cards will go out by early next week. It will include our annual Christmas letter, which we try to be creative with so we don't bore people.

Anyway, that's it for this update. Once again, I will try to be more active about posting in the coming weeks.

My friend Jodi and I at Glenmary