Hello ~ I'm Jeanne. I was diagnosed with HCM in July, had my appointments and met with Dr. Ommen on 10/4, and I have surgery scheduled with Dr. Schaff on 11/3. My head is maybe spinning a bit. In reading this thread, I noticed the deep exhale of the breath I didn't know I was holding. Thank you. I am relatively sure that I'll hit the place where I want to change my mind and go home, but I'm not there now; I'm not so much afraid of the surgery (yet), but as I read some of the blogs on Connect, I became really afraid that I'm not ready for the convalescence. My husband and 2 adult daughters will come for the surgery; we have an Airbnb rented for 2 days before & 7 days after the surgery, with the ability to leave early with no cost/penalty; one of the girls will fly home to DC, and the rest of us will drive the 500ish miles home to NE Indiana, with me in the back seat.
I'm a 72 year old woman; 3 years ago I was walking 10 miles a day; now, I'm proud when I can manage a mile, though I still go out to give it a try every day. I look forward to having my life again, but have hit panic that I should be better prepared before I take this on. I'll go back and read your posts again - perhaps I'll find that deep sigh of tension release again.