I would like to thank all the ABATE members for their prayers and well wishes during my recent hospital stay. It means a lot to me and helps with the healing process more than you know. I can't thank you enough for all the kind thoughts and wishes.
 To cut down on rumor control, I'll try to give you the short story about what took place. I went in to MUSC for a heart cath and possibly another stent. What they found was not good so the docs scheduled me for open heart surgery the next week.
 I went in for surgery Feb. 1st at 5:30 am. The surgery lasted approximately 5 hours. The docs removed veins from my left leg and chest cavity to replace 5 arteries in my heart. Yes, that's 5 and I don't know what they call that. By late that afternoon I was in ICU and sitting in a chair. I stayed in ICU for 2 days and they moved me to a room on the cardiac floor. On Friday Feb. 5th I was standing at the nurses station trying to get the nurses into a touch football game in the hallway as a warm up for super bowl Sunday..... They sent me home Saturday morning. So far everything is healing nicely. If you have to have your chest cracked, MUSC is a pretty good hospital with a fantastic staff.
 I''ll be out-of-commission for a few months and will probably miss most of our up coming events. The timing sucks but there aint much I can do about it. Am looking forward to being back in the wind very soon and seeing my ABATE brothers and sisters.

RIDE FREE
DeWaine "wiggy" Wiggins
Lowcountry Area co-ord.