IRONONLINE MOTIVATIONAL MOMENTS

Og's First Birthday

Irononliners -

On the evening of 26th of October 1998, my family was informed that if a new heart was not found for me, I would be dead within 24 hours. I didn't know this, but the faces of worried nurses are not difficult to read in such a situation. At 7pm, Doctor Sanchez of the transplant team entered the intensive care ward and said, "We have a heart for you. Two surgeons have flown to Southern Spain to check that it is suitable. If it is, you can expect to have a transplant performed at about 1am. If not, you continue waiting."

Four hours later, I was informed that the heart was good. A big moment. A couple of hours on, I was pushed at speed into the Operating Theatre and strapped to a cruciate operating table. My arms were tied to the limbs of the crucifix. The anaesthetist started to administer drugs...

For the previous months, I had been deteriorating slowly. I went from walking with a drip, to bedbound, to eventually not having the strength to raise my arms to feed myself. Yes, that's every bit as humiliating as it sounds. I spent the final month with an oxygen mask strapped to my face day and night. I couldn't eat and was fed intravenously. I weighed 110 pounds.

The operation was a success. Two weeks later, as I was lifted off the toilet by the nurse after attempting for a quarter of an hour to get upright, I decided never to be so frail again. A week later, I was walking around Madrid in the sunshine. A week after that, I was in the Canary Isles and had installed a static bike. Two weeks later I was doing 20 miles a day.

In March, I bought a set of dumbbells, mid-March, a multigym and became a gym member in May. These were great moves. It's a slow process rebuilding your self esteem in that situation. No one can touch me now. I have my independence.

So tomorrow, as you ready yourself for those first squats, maybe feeling a little tired, a little unmotivated, imagine if the challenge for your quads was simply to get off the toilet - and you couldn't make it - repeatedly....

Now go and lift.

Be well,

Og.

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