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| Do you take care of yourself?; COMING CLEAN | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 3 2010, 04:45 PM (642 Views) | |
| Admiralbill_gomec | Mar 3 2010, 04:45 PM Post #1 |
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UberAdmiral
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Many of you have commented to me, "Hey, you're not on here much anymore." While this is true there have been a few reasons. First and foremost I was putting in about fifty hours a week with my business and hadn't had a lot of free time. I was also helping a friend start a new business. I've helped a few people at church develop business plans in the past six months and word had gotten around there, too. There has been one other reason I haven't been on here. I had another cardiac scare two months ago. I had been getting fatigued a lot more easily and didn't have a lot of energy. I pretty much used the computer for work, not really feeling like logging on much. Since my angioplasty and stent emplacement ten years ago I've still been seeing a cardiologist every six months. I visited my cardiologist back on January 5th and told him how I was feeling. I had put off a nuclear stress test in July '09 because I messed up my knee again. He scheduled me for a new stress test on the 8th. The results didn't look good. I had 90 percent blockage in my Obtuse Marginal artery, I believe also known as the Circumflex artery. I also got sick in a trash can after drinking 96 ounces of water before and after the treadmill. Here's the odd thing. My total cholesterol (I do take anti-cholesterol medication) has been around 120, with HDL in the 50s. The main explainable reason for this blockage is that a piece of plaque could have broken off during some kind of exerting activity. That's what my cardiologist said. The following Monday I had a cardiac MRI at the Texas Heart Institute, which is part of St. Luke's Hospital in Houston's Med Center. By that Friday I was in a catheter lab getting a tube inserted into my leg. The procedure is a little more advanced than ten years ago, with a full color picture on a flatscreen replacing the older black-and-white fluoroscope. A quick inflate/deflate of the balloon (feels like you got punched in the chest for a second) and another stent emplacement (my first was in the Left Anterior Descending artery) and I was done. Three strips of tape close the puncture in the femoral artery and I'm back in the hospital room watching HGTV and eating a Harvest Burger. I went home the following afternoon, nearly as good as new. I try to take care of myself, so I was shocked to find out I was close to having a heart attack. Getting your cholesterol checked just isn't enough. One thing I realized after the procedure was how much more energy I had. As a result I spent more time with my family and working on a lot of side projects, which is another reason you don't see me here much. I've managed to reduce my work hours to about 40, which allows me some leeway in my workday. I started volunteering at one of our church's outreach programs two mornings a week, which feels more satisfying than just donating. It is amazing what a scare can do to you. In my case it gave me a reason focus my energies outward. I'm also teaching my crazy East Texas wife to shoot
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| Swidden | Mar 3 2010, 05:31 PM Post #2 |
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Adm. Gadfly-at-large; Provisional wRench-fly at large
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That blockage would scare the bejeezus out of me. Glad to know you're feeling better.
While not a bad idea in theory, this means you really better not get on her bad side...
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| Fesarius | Mar 3 2010, 06:39 PM Post #3 |
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Admiral
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Admiral, I'm glad you're okay. Seriously. Here's my short story. For three years, I smoked three packs of cigarettes per day. I smoked Camel and Lucky Strike, then Kool, then a ton of other brands. I tried to quit several times, but could never go more than a couple of days without smoking. Then, I had chest pains around age twenty, which convinced me to do two things. I quit smoking, and that same day I began running. I convinced myself that if I could go one week without a cigarette, that I would have it beaten. On the first day of quitting, I ran for thirty-three seconds (that was all I could do) on some power lines. Some thirty-two years later, I've run six marathons and dozens of other races, and have logged approximately 30,000 miles. I found that when I did something else with my time (like running), it helped me considerably in my quest to quit smoking. These days, I rebound (as in reboundology, a cellular exercise that rids the bodies of toxins and strengthens the cardiovascular system), run, and walk. I also have a very low fat intake in my diet. |
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| Admiralbill_gomec | Mar 4 2010, 10:27 AM Post #4 |
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UberAdmiral
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I gave her my 9mm Smith. I originally bought it as a CCW gun back in 2000, but never used it as such. She outshot me!! First time. While I was using a .40 and from a slightly longer distance (I shot at 10 yards, she was at 7), she had nice groupings. The last magazine I loaded for her was used for head shots. She had a few upper 7 ring hits, a miss, and three head shots, including one I call "The Tyson" (where someone's ear would be). |
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| Admiralbill_gomec | Mar 4 2010, 10:33 AM Post #5 |
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UberAdmiral
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Thanks, Fes!! Holy cow! Three packs. Logging 30,000 miles, too! Incredibly impressive! Good for you! Smart diet, too. Mine is low in sat fats, but I do love the peanut butter. One thing my first stent back in 2000 and my recent one this year did was convince my siblings to get regular cholesterol checks and stress tests. My brother-in-law just had a stress test last week and his doc found some buildup (65%) in a few arteries. He's bummed about taking Vytorin, even though he shouldn't be. |
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11:32 AM Jul 13