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The Awakening — 31 Comments

  1. I kept looking in on your website in hope of good news – and here they are!

    Really glad you're back home in one piece!

  2. " they then tell me I have to exercise."

     

    What they actually said was 'exorcise' ! Your hearing is going in old age. You MUST exorcise all forms of enjoyment from your life or suffer 'premature DEATH'. No Sugar, No Salt, No Alcohol, No Fat and above all No nicotine. You will learn to love the tofu and the pleasant 'kick' from tepid sugar-FREE tonic water.

    • I promise faithfully to never put sugar or salt [especially salt] in my whiskey.  I think that's enough?

  3. abstemious … I had to go to ol' Mr. Webster on that one.
    I know how you feel about smoking.  Myself being a smoker for the past 44 years have come to a point where I feel it's been long enough.  When I run out of tubes (I roll my own) I will no longer smoke cigarettes and I feel OK about it.  You see in the past six months I have gone from being active to not being able to climb a set of stairs without being out of breath.  I feel that my lung capacity has been halved.  I went through a bunch of tests and it showed that my lungs are good for my age and the fact I smoke.  My doctor is convinced that if I quit cigarettes my breath will return, and I believe her this time.  Like walking through that door into the same life with subtle changes I have come to believe I will be better off not smoking.  So be it.  I also promise never, ever to become an anti-smoker!
    My thoughts and prayers are with you and Herself for many many happy years together.

    • I will must have to wait to see how things pan out.  I'm still having the odd puff of the pipe but not a often as before.  At one point, one of the nurses came in and offered me nicotine patches or gum.  I politely declined and told her I wasn't bothered at the lack of nicotine.  She seemed surprised [and even a little annoyed] presumably because she had been indoctrinated with the notion that I was a nicotine addict and either I should be screaming and climbing the walls, or else I was sneaking a smoke somewhere somehow.

  4. We are all immortal (within the limits of our consciousness). Now make the best use of your time!

     

  5. Having known a good number who have come through such experiences over the years, many of them regarded coming through as offering a completely new start and found themselves feeling completely rejuvenated.

    You have to be around for the moment when I finally come and sit outside the coffee shop again!

    • I'm not quite sure how I can make a fresh start but I know what you mean.  It has subtly changed my outlook on life.

      And don't worry – I have every intention of haunting the coffee shop for many years to come.

    • Thanks DW.  The griping seems to be taking a back seat at he moment, but we'll see how things go….

  6. It's a relief to learn you've been discharged. Of course they'll want follow up appointments because for all the bluster, you're still very fragile. 

    The exercise bit is hugely important GD and it's best you contact a gym for them to get you on to exercises to strengthen your core. A couple of visits, then you can get the equipment (second hand) and do them in your own place.

    I'm talking exercise bike, possibly rowing machine and a set of weights to no more than 5 kg.  Walks you can do with Penny.

    It was dismantling the study and creating the space for your other. Zero physical preparation and pushing yourself that helped trigger it.

    You may be aware of a condition called "survivor guilt". If not, take time and search engine it. Lots of things will happen to you up there in your head as you begin to question the big how and why it happened as it did. I had that real bad, hence the pass on.

    Next spring you'll be at the 3 score and 10. If you want to experience a few more then get yourself a gardener and a handyman, or bite the bullet and get into sheltered housing. (Not entirely a chide).

    On a lighter note, from across the pond, in case you missed it. 

    https://just-thinkin.net/2019/08/thinking-of-grandad/

     

    • It is an intense relief to be discharged.  I haven't heard from the hospital since, but I believe they are setting up appointments for specialised physiotherapy in the local hospital.  In the meantime I am walking like mad and avoiding any other form of exercise.  The garden is a mess at this stage!

      I saw Just Thinkin'.  Kirk lies to keep an eye on me!  He has become a good friend over the years,

    • Many thanks for your offer under my previous scribble, Darragh.  I should have replied then but things are still a bit in the air.

  7. This might sound strange but I’ve a defibrulator and a pacemaker unit fitted. I have to exercise so I was recommended Horse Riding. I don’t know how far you are from Borisoleigh in Co. Tipperary but if it isn’t too far my sister has an Equestrian Centre just up the road from the village.

    It’s also important to know the percentage your heart has degraded to. The reason I had a defib fitted because it was down to 30% ( A healthy heart is @ 60% ) and that’s when it can just cease to beat, so that’s the reason for the defib. ( At the last checkup it was up to 35%. Next month they’ll test me again to see if I’m stable…).

    Make an appointment with a heart specialist and discuss your situation with him, I can lift heavy stuff and I don’t get shouted at by the doctors. ( but then I am in France ).

    It’s quite possible to have an active life. The only reason I am not more busy is because some twat with a mobile drove into me whilst I was riding my motorcycle because he thought reading his girl friends text messages was more important than looking at the road. Walking has become a difficult thing for me.

    Despite being partially paralysed in my legs, I can, with assistance get on a horse. It’s amazing exercise!

    Don’t let them nanny you. Life can still be lived, it’s just the pace will be easier from now on.

    • There is supposed to be a lot more follow-up information coming down the line, so maybe I'll learn about such things as degradation then.  After all, it's only a little over a week since the "incident".  

      I never considered horse riding as a form of exercise.  There is a malicious rumour down the pub concerning myself and goat riding but I deny it vehemently.

  8. Glad to hear you are home and on the mend, it’s a shock to your whole system, I felt the same when I got the cancer dx but it passed in time. Not sure about lifestyle though, my son was lucky and we nagged him to see a Dr. about indigestion and breathlessness. He had a stent fitted before he had a heart attack, cousin had an attack and two stents and is fine now. Yet my cousins husband came back from walking the dog, complained about indigestion, wife called an ambulance but he didn’t even make it to the hospital. All were never smokers, light drinkers, slim and fit with no history of heart problems. So I don’t know what to make of it, maybe it’s just your luck!! Meantime relax and get spoiled until you process everything. Take care. Carol x

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  9. I've been away for a few days break and therefore have not been reading your blog. So I was surprised to read that you have been in hospital as a result of a heart attack. If it is any help, I would say you have had a good run as I suffered one of those 9 years ago (and I am considerably younger than you are). Of course the doctors will all concentrate on the fact that you are a pipe smoker and almost all of them will tell you that is what caused you to have a heart attack (I had the same lectures). Naturally, they are talking complete bollocks (as usual).

    Heart problems can be down to a number of things, the most important of which is that they are hereditary. I inherited my heart problems from my Father, who also had a heart attack at an even younger age than I was (and he was a lifetime non-smoker).

    Anyway, you will naturally feel out-of-sorts for a few days. You have been through quite an ordeal and all the work that your heart had to do to keep pumping will naturally have had a knock-on effect on how you feel (which is probably that you feel completely knackered most of the time currently). It'll get easier as the days go by and eventually you will start to feel your old-self again.

     

    I instantly recognised all of your symptoms (as I read back through your earlier blog entries) from where you felt the pain, to feeling nauseous, hot & dizzy, right down to finding yourself in hospital with the tube inserted up your arm and into the arteries around your heart (assume you had some stents put in? Were you able to watch it all happening on a computer screen while they did it ?  Weird experience).

    Anyway, take it easy over the next few days while your body recovers from the ordeal it has been through and you will soon start to feel your old self again.

    If it helps, I also blogged on my experiences in going through what you did. You'll probably recognise much of what I describe. You can read it at this link if you are inclined to compare notes 🙂  http://jester-midnightmusings.blogspot.com/2016/08/ecigs-and-heart-disease-patients-view.html

    Good to see you back home and online again

  10. Glad you’re home, GD. I’m sure you are too. On the exercise, I don’t suppose they defined what type of exercise they meant? To me that exercise means not sitting on your arse 24/7 but getting up, walking around on a regular basis, making your meals. things like that. Even drive if the docs feel it’s okay but don’t get aggravated at the traffic (yeah, right). If you have a lawn tractor (which I believe you do) you could even mow the lawn in the future? . What you can’t do is stay off the roof, let someone else do whatever needs done. Get somebody else to take care of the flat tire on the lawn tractor, someone else to trim the hedge, verge, brush–all that kind of stuff.

    And no more remodelling the manor. The reasons for the previous remodelling are obvious and well done to you, sir. However, if any more needs to be done, get someone else.

    And no, I don’t know who this mysterious “someone else” is. I wish I did but I don’t.

    And stress–avoid it as much as possible. That’s all I can say about that.

    Okay, enough of the advice. I know how much you love it when people try to tell you what to do. Probably as much as I do. Just take care of yourself.

  11. great that  you are back on the mend Grandad God Bless.

    Been missing your posts last few day!

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