These last few weeks have been very challenging. I have known for around 5 months that i had a heart issue=Aortic Valve Regurgitation. The top side effects are shortness of breathe and fatigue. I have never been able to do stuff without being short of breathe. My diagnoses of asthma was almost certainly wrong. This is something I was born with but just recently found out. A month or so before the Arnold Classic where I was competing at the XPCPOWERLIFTING meet I randomly fainted at my house. I have never passed out and went straight to the Dr. They found nothing all looked good. The only thing noticeable was a has an enlarged heart aka athletic heart. The dr said this is normal for athletes but wanted to follow up with a ultrasound and EKG. This is where they found my Valve was a mess. I knew I had to get it fixed ASAP but at all costs wanted to do another meet before and hold off until after GPC worlds in Vegas in sept. A few weeks ago I had the best squat in briefs 850x5 was easy. I feel like progress was going great. That night I was having very weird heartbeats and dizzy spells. I rushed to the ER that night and spent 2 days in the hospital. The Dr's said no more waiting that I needed surgery now that my heart could go into failure at anytime. The surgeon was out of town and would be back in a few days. I had three days until they could get me in so they made me wear a vest attached to a diffibulator. Surgery was last wed May 6th and was a success. Waking up after being put under with tubes in your belly, neck, dick isn't fun. The morphine got me through. It sucked when they pulled them out. I hate the feeling on pain pills and refused any past last sat. I spent 6days in the hospital and can say it was one of the worst things I have done. Going from never having surgery/stitches/etc this was tough. They had to saw my sternum open and crack me open to get to my heart. I have met for hours with the Dr's and they assured me this was a birth defect and nothing I have done. The Dr's know who I am and triple secured the bone back so it would be stronger than before. Right now the soreness is crazy feels like I trained upper body straight for a couple weeks. Coughing is terrible. I am not on bed rest and have been cleared to walk 40min a day. So I can go to work just no lifting. I have been back to work since I got discharged last tues and feel good just sore. I cannot do any lifting upper body wise for 8-10 more weeks. I will just mess with the belt squat/leg curl/walking lunges/etc until upper is allowed. My focus now is helping the lifters and athletes I train even more. All my focus is on them. My business is growing everyday and I will continue to focus on that. I had a lot of time to think and reflect while in and one major theme was LOYALTY. I had to let one of my favorite lifters go due to this. You would only understand how I feel if you are in my line of work. I have trained clients since 2001 and owned Tanks Training Facility for almost 6 years. I plan on becoming more involved on my logs and writing. Some articles on stuff I have seen and been through. My training will go back to normal once I am healed and my mindset is to compete and WIN the ARNOLD Classic 2016. My family has been amazing with the support. All my clients have been awesome as well. Want to thank Dave Tate for talking with me in depth also. Here is to getting better/bigger/badder and setting some Pr's on and off the platform.