Arnold has never been one of my favorite actors. I am not really a sci-fi kind of guy and his comedy attempts seemed to miss the mark for me. But of course still wishing him well after his surgery to replace a heart valve on Friday. Arnold is about twice my age at 70, but I am sure he has top notch doctors and hope for a speedy recovery.

There were some similarities to my own heart surgery last October. Like myself, this was Arnold's second replacement. He got 21 years from his first replaced valve, where I only got 6. 20 years is about average, although they think and hope the newer models will be lasting longer.

My surgery, this second time around was scheduled rather quickly. I found out on Saturday that I would be having surgery 2 days later. First thing my doctor did was tell me that I wasn't a candidate for newer less invasive robotic or catheter type surgery, of which I knew nothing about. Reason given was too much scar tissue from original surgery. I never figured out why the doctor would tell me there is a new less invasive procedure, but you are not a candidate. That was not helpful.

So Arnold was originally scheduled for one of these newer less invasive procedures. However during the procedure, something happened (as yet unexplained) and they had to switch back to emergency open heart surgery. I'll be interested to find out more details if they are ever released.

So while neither Arnold, nor myself benefited from these newer less invasive procedures this time, it is encouraging to know they are progressing in this area. In my mid 30's and with these things normally lasting 20-25 years, I face a reasonable good possibility of needing yet another replacement at sometime in my life. But with any luck it won't be the open heart, break the ribs open, painful/long recovery procedure both Arnold and myself have had to endure a second time.

Here's hoping for a speedy and minimally discomfort recovery to Arnold.