Behind the Scenes
Well Sir.....It's late Saturday night, the rest of The Little Brother Project are on stage at Fin's in Clear Lake and I'm at home writing a blog. I have never missed nor did I ever plan on missing a show and it took a pretty big event to make that happen. We in LBP have always prided ourselves in being more than a band, we are a family and if you are reading this, you are a member of that family. With that in mind I decided to let you all in on what is going on with me and with us.
I was born with a fairly serious congenital heart defect and had open heart surgery at 7 months old (for those of you interested in that kind of stuff, I was born with Transposition of the great Arteries and the surgery was called a Mustard Procedure - I've hated mustard all of my life, maybe it's subconscious). I was very healthy throughout high school and into my twenties, (I had a pacemaker implanted at the age of twelve but that was a breeze) but have slowly been having more and more problems since then. About three years ago, I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Until now all I've had to do was take medicine and I've been mostly fine. A few weeks ago I started having a hard time breathing and was admitted to Methodist Hospital where they found out that I have a small hole in my heart allowing oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to mix therefore not supplying my body with enough oxygen. For most people correcting this would require a fairly routine surgery. My cardiologist (Dr. Vinay Thohan MD - amazing man) doesn't feel that surgery would be safe for my heart in it's already weak condition. So as of Friday I am on a heart transplant list and I'm supposed to be as dormant as possible until my number comes up.
I'm not one to talk much about feelings or butterflies- I'm much more of a spiders, snails and puppy dog tails kind of guy- but this has been a pretty tough couple of weeks. I just wanted to say that the support from my family, friends and total stangers has been unbelieveable. A lot of times it's hard to know who really cares but I've always known. I have an amazing family, amazing friends and most important, an amazing wife.
Heart transplants are pretty dicey but I'm very healthy otherwise and (like I said) have a great support group and I know I will see the other end of this. This year will be tough, they expect the surgery to happen in about 3 to 6 months and it will take a long time to fully recover after that.
So here I sit (surely one will stand...) while my brothers keep the ball rolling. We have a list of gigs that were already booked and I am very proud of my friends for living up to those commitments (and very thankful to Ron Batista of Drop Trio for stepping in during my absence). I plan to break Dr's orders and play our annual New Years Eve party at Deans so make sure you're there (don't make me guilt trip you, I have great guilt trip ammo this year) and we are recording our new album in January. I may sneak in a few other things if I can. But that doesn't mean LBP is on hiatis, we have Ron (a great player who we are very lucky to have) on board for as long as it takes and I will be supporting them afar. It would have been very easy to blow off everything because of me and I am so thankful and proud that they chose the harder road of keeping it going. Playing music with my friends for my friends is a very important part of who I am and looking forward to coming back will be a huge part of my recovery.
So even more than usual.....
Thanx for your support,
Coy Boazman - LBP Bass
p.s. If you have any questions,
mailto:http//coy@littlebrotherproject.com
posted by Coy - LBP Bass @ 11:00 PM
