My daughter just reminded me, 12 years today!

That's what my mom said a long time ago . . .

Thumbs, I caught a cold from someone who came to a deposition sick. Spiked a fever a couple days later, and within a month was having trouble breathing. They figured it out four months later. The doc said it could have been a common virus that in this case did its damage to the heart muscle. With that damage, the heart started working harder, enlarged (viral cardiomyopathy), and eventually I had heart failure. Other than working too much too stressfully, my heart and general health had been fine. I had no underlying cardiac issues that I am aware of; in fact, I have always had really, really low cholesterol and an almost flipped LDL/HDL ration. I had the transplant in Sacramento, which has a small program with great results. I had some consultation with the UCSF docs, who are great, early on, but not at the transplant stage. The waiting list was short here and I went to the head of the line for my blood type, which was favorable in having a pretty deep pool. I waited five months; another guy with a less common blood type transplanted two weeks before me after waiting 14 months. If you could have mapped out a perfect path for this, mine was about as close to that as one could hope for.

Thanks again for the good wishes all; It's good to have some folks to talk moto with.