I'm tired today. And a bit stressed. I've been dealing with trying to get approved to go to Mayo to get my pacemaker replaced and it hasn't been fun. But today I'm also thinking about how it was 50 years ago today that I had my first open heart surgery. It was called a Waterston shunt and was supposed to improve blood flow and cyanosis. It didn't help my cyanosis much, though because I still had blue lips and fingernails afterward. Me as a baby with my parents and brother. Me at 5 1/2 months old, 2 weeks before my first open heart surgery. It's amazing that my parents were even able to navigate the medical world at that time. They lived in rural Montana and then western North Dakota. Somehow, they managed to find a pediatric cardiologist in Bismarck who referred them to the University of Minnesota. Up until I had a heart catheterization, they had no idea what was going on with my heart. The doctors just thought that I had a hole in my heart, which is why I wasn't getting enough oxygen. They were stunned to learn that only one of my ventricles was fully functioning as my pulmonary artery and aorta both ascended from my right ventricle. I also had other septal defects and pulmonary stenosis. Eventually I was given the diagnosis of Double Outlet Right Ventricle.  My parents weren't given much hope back then following the first surgery. Doctors had no idea how long I would even live. Four years later in 1978, I had another surgery called the B...