No Bad Days: Meet @moonboy

JOHN: What brought you to Mayo Clinic Connect? 

@moonboy: I’ve been looking for a support resource for survivors of aortic dissection. I don’t use social media so I stumbled across the Mayo Clinic Connect service in my search for support. My wife grew up in Rochester where we first met so I was very familiar with Mayo since many of her neighbors and family worked for the clinic.

JOHN: What motivates you to take part in the community?

@moonboy: Well, I’ve always volunteered because I think it’s critical to give back to my community. I’m an attorney and I’ve done a lot of pro bono work over my career for the Cancer Legal Center, the Federal Pro Se Project, the High School Mock Trial Program, the American Red Cross blood drive here in Como. Being a lawyer is a privilege, not a right.

 JOHN: What about Mayo Clinic Connect makes you feel comfortable to share and to be open with the community?

@moonboy: Look, I’m used to giving people candid advice about really difficult legal issues. With aortic dissection it’s no different — except that it’s life or death for these patients. Having survived a sudden complete aortic dissection in 2015 while on business in San Diego, I can assure you that my experience and tips I offer to Mayo Clinic Connect members is far away more important than a lot of things I do in my professional life. I feel like the support groups are a safety valve for people to be able to ask candid questions and get answers from people who have been through it. Unless you happen to have a thoracic surgeon who themselves has had an aortic dissection, I can assure you your medical providers can’t comprehend the impact it’s going to have on your life. I feel like Mayo Clinic Connect provides a really useful and meaningful way to express hard truths to people who have come looking for them. Once you leave the hospital after they have saved your life, the real work of recovery begins.

JOHN: What support groups do you participate in?

@moonboy: Aortic dissection discussions in Aortic Aneurysms.

JOHN: Tell us about a meaningful moment on Mayo Clinic Connect.

@moonboy: It’s hard to find anybody who can relate to the pain of a sudden ascending aortic dissection who has survived. I searched for years to try to find anyone that I could talk to about it because surviving it becomes a huge part of your identity. I never found anyone until I discovered Mayo Clinic Connect. There is one guy from Australia who survived a dissection, and I feel like he and I connect at a very different level.  A lot of the people who come to the group may post only one message.  I try to respond as fully and meaningfully as I can because I know that they may never revisit.  My goal is to engage the people who need it most. Sometimes one interaction is all it takes to change the course of someone’s life for the better.  That’s the goal.

JOHN: What surprised you the most about Mayo Clinic Connect?

@moonboy: Sometimes it surprises me when people are misinformed about the causes of aortic dissection, and how it’s treated. I have become an armchair expert on aortic dissection, having done a massive amount of reading on the subject, as well as having completely picked apart my own 1500 pages of medical records following my surgery at UCSD La Jolla. In case you think I can’t plug Mayo Clinic from San Diego, several of my doctors in the cardiothoracic ICU were Mayo trained so I was in good company even though I was 1,600 miles away from my home in St. Paul. I still talk to my thoracic surgeon, and we’ve become friends. He saved my life.

JOHN: What energizes you, or how do you find balance in your life?

@moonboy: Every day I wake up and it’s a gift. I understand just how precious life is and how lucky I am to have been given, basically time that now amounts to more than 10 bonus years. It has been the struggle of my life to climb back up from the bottom of that pit following my dissection, but I have hopefully contributed more than I have taken from my family and friends in that decade. It was particularly hard on my wife and children and has in many ways altered them as much as it has me. That’s something that they don’t talk about and something that I knew nothing about when I left the hospital 10 years ago. A near-death experience with a sudden aortic dissection impacts not just you but more importantly, everyone around you. I felt it is my duty and obligation to see that the people who supported me are likewise loved and supported for all they have been through. I had little kids at the time I dissected, and it traumatized them in a way that I really regret. Likewise, I spend my days trying to make up for my many shortcomings to my wife by building her garden trellises, flower planters, herb shelves, and whatever else she desires in life. I would not have survived without her love, patience, and support. I love her very much. She energizes me every day.

JOHN: Tell us about your favorite pastime or activity

@moonboy: I like to build anything I can out of wood. I am an amateur carpenter who can build a cedar deck, a birdhouse, or anything else made of wood that doesn’t have to look perfect.

JOHN: What do you appreciate most in your friends?

@moonboy: Candor

JOHN: Do you have a favorite quote, life motto or personal mantra?

@moonboy: “No Bad Days”

JOHN: Puppies or kittens?

@moonboy: Dogs. We have three rescue dogs who get twice monthly grooming, their own bedrooms, and lots of love. Border Collie/Vizsla (abandoned by breeder), Pekingese/Westie-poo (pet store closure) Pom-She Pomeranian Shiba Inu (illegal breeder).

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