The Perfect Cascade of Events

Chest pains again, but this time I am up on the ski hill. I decide to go into the local Orthoedic Surgeon's office, he being a friend, close, and he really takes on anything. He has a young intern who is on rotation and she specializes in Family Medicine. I interrupted their lunch, but they took me on, did an EKG, checked all my vital signs, and hunted down another 2 year old EKG to look for changes. They decided they didn't see any changes, but wanted to do a fasting blood test. OK, I will come in the next day for that, and then we shall see.

Did the blood letting, which was my third in about 5 days. I am following up another problem caused by statins. So the next morning after getting the results, the PA who works in the office when the surgeon is doing surgery, spent over 15 minutes talking to me about his idea of what I should do, always telling me that he cannot make up my mind for me, that I had the choice and should do what I decided I should do. There was a blizzard outside. I got off the phone and said he thinks I should go to the ER. My husband said, 'lets go!' It took 30 minutesto get there, and when we got just past town, there was blue sky. At the ER, they whipped me into the exam room, hooked me up to monitors, jammed a IV line into my hand with great pain, and got the attending Dr. They asked all sorts of questions, and kept asking me if I had ever had a heart attack. Neither my husband or I had eaten, it being before noon, and my husband wandered in and out, alternating looking for a snack machine and checking on me. The Attending called a cardiologist in the next town, an hour away and they decided to send me in an ambulance to the hospital there and ICU for overnight monitoring.

By this time pain was just sort of a knot in my chest and I was feeling relieved. So since there was blizzard back home, my husband just decided to come on down to the next town after me, and get a motel. I left in the ambulance with a competent EMS who is studying to become a rescue medic in the Dept. of Defense. He monitored all my signs and I rocked back and forth. Somewhere in all that, perhaps it was the BP collar, I ended up with a sore right shoulder.

I could see blue sky through the window, and thought that things would be all right. We got to the hospital and I was taken right up to the ICU, plumped into bed and rewired, and more questions. My nurse was a tall blond with nice boobs, and a caring manner. Later I would find out she was my cardiologists partner. Handy! She treated me well, and kept me in the loop and explained things to me. They woke me regularly during the night for BP check, but I slept like a log! My night nurse informed me my rhythms were all over the chart: flutters, A Fib, PVC's, missed beats, extra beats, and on!

In the AM the tech nurse from the radiology lab. came to shoot me up with radiological material so they could see my heart in rest and after exercise. The material went into my IV line, but I felt it. After she left I noticed my hand swelling. I called for the nurse and she slid in, being a very beautiful lanquid type, and I asked if 'my hand should look like this?' 'Oh, no, I will have to change that! She came back with the things to start another IV and sais she called the tech and that the tech was sure she had pushed good enough to get the leathal stuff in my IV. Then I waited 45 minutes for them to come and get me for pictures to be taken, which means you lay under this claustrophobic machine that clicks and whirrs, and it made me close my eyes so I wouldn't be disturbed. Then back to my room to wait another 30 minutes and then in for the real torture, treadmills work! That is when they would know if I was in an active event or not.

Down I went, and then they hooked me up to monitors, a BP cuff on my arm, a cardiology Dr. in attendence as well as the treadmill tech, and the radiologic med. pusher. You start at a pretty good walk and elevated, then another level, little faster, a little more elevated, and then one more before the tech says, the next one you will be jogging so remember to tell us if you think you minght have one more minute left before you feel like you are done. Oh right! I had to get my exercise hear t rate up to 126 or over, and then they push the med, and then I have to keep it up for another minute! Whee! I did it, but it was close. I had a picture straight ahead of me with big horn sheep probably in the Canadian rockies. I held their eyes with mine, and I made it to where they could call it a successful test. Wow, I felt it, but I came down pretty fast to almost fast normal with the heart rate.

The final note in the results said I had 'extraordinarily high cardivascular fitness for a woman her age.' So take that you Republicans! I had no current event occurring, but I had had a heart attack somewhere along the way. By the results, they could not tell when it could have happened, and I didn't recognise anything, but I am all right!

I do have a lot of irregular rhythm, flutters, missed beats, extra beats, and because of that I will have to take a blood thinning med. I could throw a clot into my brain or somewhere, and then I would die. I am not ready yet! I am going to keep on trucking!

So the perfect cascade was the people I was involved with in this cardiac trip. It all fell into place, and worked for a positive outcome for me. Sometimes you are just lucky I guess, and now I continue down the path I was taking, to get to see my grandson get married and meet my first great grand baby girl! I feel the power of something out there, and it is good. Namaste

Blood Tests!

Over the past three days, I have had 4 vials of blood drawn. We are trying to find out what is going on with this old lady. Chest pains and liver tests running high. It is sort of like a perfect storm. I am getting ready for a trip, and it seems like my body says, 'wait a minute, was I consulted?' So I wait and wonder what it will all add up to be for the next phase of my life.

We have been having very cold weather, and that started my asthma acting up, breathing cold air, and I got to coughing, my chest feel tight, and then the sharp pains. Actually I wrote about the first manifestation with the statins, and now this is the next manifestation, sharp chest pains, being out of breath, tired, and just not feeling very good. Hey, I am working at trying to keep this body functioning. But age is piling up, the years being added. We will just have to see!

Coming Back

I haven't been on this for some time. Guess it is time to come back with something, anything to catch up! Been having lots of snow where we live, and more today. It is the kind that you really can't see very well if you are out in it, whiteout! Well, that is if you are elderly and at last facing up to your mortality!

My history goes from feeling really great in the summer, riding my road bike, blood tests all within normal range to feeling like I am going to explode. From July= good, to November= bad, and wondering what could have changed things so rapidly. I had been on my third full time statin to try and help lower my cholesterol, more importantly my triglycerides which seems to be genetic in my family as being high, and I was also having severe muscle pains in my thighs, knees, and groin area, and beyond. Well, it felt severe to me. It caused me to go and try to find out what was going on in my left knee! After the physiotherapy, and MRI, nothing was wrong but bone on bone and nothing to fix. So I tried to think of what I could do other than surgery which I don't want to do. Then at Thanksgiving gathering, I bloated up, gained about 6 lbs, was very uncomfortable, didn't want to eat much and decided I needed attention. I also had a tender hamstring on the same leg as the knee problem, and after I had intensive massage, limped a bit, swore I was getting tired of all of this, I stopped the statin. I had suspected maybe the statins were doing a number on my muscles. I went to see the local GP, had a blood test, and sure enough the AST (muscle damage revealing test) was elevated as was BUN (kidney function). Felt apprehensive about this. And now after two months, a liver etc. ultrasound, and worrying about hepatitis event, am feeling a bit better, although AST and ALT are still elevated. Guess I just have to heal!

But at my ascending age, I think I don't need a lot of miracle medicine that is going to make me better [NO], but maybe just a little more attention to my diet and keeping up the exercise! I know the drug companies want to sell their new wonder drugs, but maybe I should just try to keep on keeping on with attention to joive de vie! I just may be feeling a lot better than I was about three months ago!

Christmas Imminent, Thanksgiving Past

It is approaching once again! The time of insane spending which is, afterall, what keeps our country alive! But I realized some time ago that I don't need a whole lot once I have what counts. I now like hearing from my family, what is happening with them, are they healthy?, are they OK? So I am now going to try and glean what I see, what I hear, what I feel to make me feel like I am approaching Christmas, the time I want to celebrate something that really gives me chills of wonder, and says, you have got it. It is a special time to just be alive, happy, and connected with those you love. There is another being in the family, a little girl, and another on the way. Ah, so special, little girls. They will give this family balance as there have been so many boys, and let us all feel the wonder.

Women could probably get the whole world out of the fix it is in if the men would just let them. So everyone, reach out and try to make a small change in our global mess. Touch an old person who might not have anyone to celebrate the season with, give a buck or two to the pan handler, smile at people you pass on the street, and give from your heart where it is needed. Mentally hug your family whever they are, say a prayer for the whole world, and try and feel the pulse of the universe connecting toyou!

CODs

I forgot to mention what CODs are. Confused Old Duffer s. But perhaps we have not really totally arrived at that position. And Space is something to be considered. Each one of us needs some space, private space, quiet space, alone space, loud messy space, cluttered space, but there to we can adjust. I try meditation but there are too many space interrupters in this Space, so I guess I do my meditating when I am pulling weeds. The garden is a meditative space. Rocks moved for a better setting are meditative. Pulling small leaves of grass can become meditative. So I guess I am saying space is meditative!

I just read about centenarians. They are our 100 and older people. The Study done revealed that nothing they do or don't do makes a difference. It may be genetic loving a long life. So you might as well just live the life you want because it will either be long or it won't. So each day could as well come and go and you do what you want with it, cause you just don't know.

Family and CODs

It is a day of pouring rain. It is coming down so hard that you can hear it on the roof. Granted, the roof is metal, new in the last 6 months, but there is a small attic space between us and the roof. Pounding rain, and I contemplate the change in the house hold. We have had a visiting daughter and her dog. It was pleasant and warm with all of us here. Two dogs skirted each other carefully, but really were OK with the arrangements. The cat hissed when close to the new dog, looking a bit like a lion in miniature. There was laughter, and intense silence as daughter did her research, grading, and teaching on line. And she did a lot of driving exploring the surrounding territory filling us in with what she found. When we moved the towels out of the bathroom she used, it rang with the silence. It echoed. Frogs spent time in that bathroom waiting for the trip back home. I heard them burble a few times.

I thought about how older humans seem to need to move from home and go somewhere they have read about, sunshine, sand, townhouses filled with their kind and age. But I really think that is probably a mistake. I bet they really end up feeling lost and alone, and like what do I do now. And then there are usually masses of people, parading around, pushing you aside in grocery stores because they have to pee, but need to pay for their purchase. And they end up walking but not seeing where they are.

If you stay where you are familiar with the terrain, the weather, the services, and perhaps some of the people you know that are still living in the area, than you continue with your life, and it may just seem longer! To have a daughter filling the spaces with laughter and helping you chatter about things, makes you realize what empty can be when she leaves. So heed the decisions that can be made about what you do as you age. Stay where you can welcome the family and know where you are walking or riding. And perhaps the daughter, or the son, or the other daughter will come and visit. Well, really, she knows where you live. And the cat will adjust once again! And all the other kids might come and visit as well! Being old is liking your space if it remains the one you remember.

I still hear the rain, but the cat came in and is napping.