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Of a sort. I haven't been in much evidence for a while and there may be a good reason for it. A chance remark to my Renal consultant meant a trip to X-ray and the discovery that I have heart problems. I'm on the waiting list for a triple bypass.
Just a soreness in the left shoulder, I said. I could even feel a tender spot quite high up, I thought it was something muscular. Still, an X-ray wouldn't hurt, even though my autoimmune disease affects the lungs as well as my kidneys so I've been having pictures taken maybe four or five times a year.
This one had dye as well, through a cannula in my left elbow. The cardiac consultant immediately saw things he did not expect and said that I'd be down on the list for some work. (Side note: They took the cannula out and I was talking to the consultant when a nurse noticed I was leaking all over the floor. The next guy being prepped for the X-rays looked somewhat disturbed by this.)
So, another X-ray session and I was booked in for an angiogram. That wasn't pleasant and left bruising all over my right lower arm - all of which has now completely vanished. It looks like I have two blocked coronary arteries and also an aneurysm. The last means that it won't be a simple job, I'll be done in London at St Barts by folk who know what they are doing.
Oh, there's a 5% chance things could go wrong, if you know what I mean.
Funny thing is, before any of this there was nothing else to be noticed, apart from the fact that my blood pressure was a little high. Now perhaps half the population has what the medical profession considers to be high blood pressure so I was not too bothered by that. I was fairly active but I suspect the Covid lockdowns were what might have triggered it all off.
Now I get occasional pulses of pain under my left breast. They are just that - pulses, and there is no lasting pain. Very occasionally I have shortness of breath and it does not coincide with any exertion but that's all. Things are very, gradually, deteriorating and that may serve to move me up the queue. I'm on all kinds of tablets and that's fine. I'm still taking lower doses than my partner is!
I can't do much physical but I have to do a certain amount to prevent my lack of fitness getting worse. I'm still writing but it means my time has to be more carefully managed. VotV is still going and so are certain other projects. My efforts to get as much done - in case an abrupt halt comes - means that I do spend time writing when I should be doing more active things.
But something like this focuses the mind. I'm no longer young and I have to make certain changes and arrangements. That takes time and concentration.
I'm still here. I log in every day to see what is going on and I do read many of the posts. I regret that I cannot enter the contest, it would be too much of a distraction right now. Maybe in the summer?
Penny
Comments
Wishing You The Best!
Some because I am an avid fan of your writing. When ever one of your chapters show up on this site, I read it first before any other stories that I am following.
Some because I am somewhat familiar with what you are going through, having had two heart attacks, three stents and a pacemaker inserted, and taking enough pills that I kind of rattle around for a while after taking my daily doses.
Please do what you need to do to keep as healthy as you can.
Linda Jeffries
Too soon old, too late smart.
Thank you
Thank you for your kind words.
I have not, as yet, had any heart attack or anything like that, but I know I'm walking a little close to the cliff edge now. I'm trying to keep safe and keep going, which is what we should all be doing anyway.
By the sounds of things, this is yet another detail I share with many of the BC community!
Penny
Here's the very best I give you to better your chances:
>>> Get the f0rk off of >all< animal foods. <<<
Right now. Please.
Drop your intake of fats and oils as low as you manage. Especially leave off saturated fats and oils (in USA, label says how much of each), and all animal products.
Best how-to's that I know are:
https://www.pcrm.org/vegankickstart and
https://veganuary.com/ (they have a UK version.)
Both are >free<, both are join-anytime (today would be excellent) and both are free. They won't try to sell you anything (unless you want a book - and remember your Library first.)
---
Ask your doctors if there are safe exercises to do, a kind of pre-rehab, before your surgeries. If so, be diligent in doing them, before and after surgery
Also get checked for diabetes. Type-II can be reduced, often eliminated, via diet. It's from fats and oils, "carbs" are almost irrelevant.
=== ===
Me?
I have a 'zipper' scar in the middle of my chest, and a cow valve sewn into my heart. That was seven years ago.
I've been off of all animal foods since 2008.
---
Best of luck. The links I sent you will help you >make< some good 'luck'.
Please 'keep us posted'. Thanks!
Vegan or PETA diet?
I will not dispute your positive experience with a vegan diet. But I will respectfully ask you to refrain from pushing said diet on others!
We are all unique and therefore different from one-another. And each of our bodies reacts slightly different from others. So we all need to be careful as to how we convey our experiences, and the recommendations based on those experiences.
Personally I have an impressive list of plant based food intolerances, some are close to becoming allergies. Just as I also have a few animal based intolerances. But in order to keep my diet more-or-less in balance, I need to do just that: Balance plant and animal based ingredients in my food preparation.
Another issue I have with the whole vegan “philosophy” is the fact that many vegan food products are overflowing with chemicals, because people still want to eat bacon, sausages, hamburgers etc., but without the meat. And I have found that those chemicals have a very detrimental effect on my own well-being. So I am now also actively avoiding most vegan products, especially those that purport to be a replacement alternative for some meat based product. Your mileage may vary.
I find it hypocritical to say “I am vegan”, but then insist on consuming a chemical concoction because “I can not live without bacon for breakfast”.
Having had a bout of Hepatitis in early childhood, our family diet became more and more low fat. Frying, deep frying and even searing became increasingly rare in the food preparation at home. Boiling, steaming, baking and grilling (where the fat can drip away) became the go-to methods of food preparations.
For the first decade after high school graduation a lot of frying came back into my diet. And the result was a chronic light constipation, that ended up with a hemorrhoid surgery. So back to avoiding fat, especially while frying food. Then about 10 years ago I got diagnosed with “fat liver”. Likely a long term effect of Hepatitis, since I had been back to a low fat diet for over a decade again.
I try to avoid pork where-ever and when-ever possible, because it has a pretty high fat content and it disrupts my digestion resulting in constipation. With beef I select the lean cuts. And I prefer goat over lamb, because goats have overall leaner meat than sheep. With poultry (chicken, turkey, duck) the breast is the leanest, with the turkey upper thigh a close second. Fish is also a low fat alternative, if it is available and affordable, unless it is conserved in oil or deep fried.
In general I will remove as much excess fat from meat before cooking, and I refrain from adding fat or oil to the meat for cooking. If it needs some liquid to avoid sticking or burning, I add just a dash of water.
So yes, I subscribe to the PETA diet (People Eating Tasty Animals), each one of you is free to make their own choice.
For me, a low fat diet works best.
Diet
I do, actually, have a reasonably healthy diet. I'm in the UK which means that I don't face the same range of foods and food preparation techniques that are customary in the US.
I was a club cyclist for a good while until we moved to our present house and that tends to educate one about what is good and what is not, but I always ate properly before that, when possible. I have mostly kept up that diet but I notice that too much palm oil and sugar has crept into many common foods which we now try and avoid.
Since my partner had her heart bypass in 2010 that has informed our diet as well. I'm sure that the cardiac people will tell me what the current thinking on diet is whenever they get around to sorting my own problem out.
Thank you for your concern.
Penny
Positive attitude is priceless
I've had the great privilege of surviving two open heart surgeries, and learned quite a bit about medicine and myself in the bargain. It started with a degenerate (sic) mitral valve (repaired), followed some time later with heart failure (corrected) and a torn tricuspid valve (repaired). If I was a writer, I'd regale you with the whole story, but I digress.
I promised myself to focus all of my attention and energy on surviving the surgeries, and the rehab afterwards. I also committed to a date in the future when I could lament my tragic fate. When I got to the date, I found I didn't need the lamentation. I now cycle 20 miles a day as part of my everlasting rehab, and am glad to do it.
Your talent as a writer is widely known among us here, and I'm sure I speak for the group when I say we'll be sending all the good wishes and energy we can to help with your recovery.
Steve
Thank you
The fact that you have been there and done that (or had it done to you) twice encourages me no end. The fact that you can still cycle afterwards is also good news!
There is hope for the pile of bikes in my shed, then.
Thank you for your positive comment.
Penny
Priorities
We would have loved to have you participate in the contest.
Health first.
I concur on the vegan diet but don't feel you have to go overboard.
Strict anything is excessive.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Thanks, Jill
I did think seriously about writing something but I felt that would be a distraction too far, considering what else I am supposed to be doing.
Then this comes along and it is necessary to pause and think about the future, mine and other people's. I have commitments, probably too many. Time to sort priorities out. But one thing I won't do is to stop writing. It kinda goes along with breathing.
Penny
Good luck. You've already
Good luck. You've already beaten the odds, in a way - you have a full diagnosis and a plan to move ahead.
I was sitting in a cardiologists office a few days ago, (replacing a part in his pc) where he was talking with someone who had skipped two visits, and one of those was to get an ablading scheduled. a couple of days before that, someone who was VERY loud on another call with a different cardiologist complaining about not wanting to take his meds (and eventually having aspirin taken off because he was on another med to do the same job - and STILL yelling that he felt terrible because of the meds and didn't want them).
It's amazing how many people really die from suicide because living is inconvenient.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Keep in touch, please……….
So that we can follow along with you as you go through this.
Would that I could be there to offer support - a hand to hold, a shoulder to cry on, and a strong arm to hold you up when needed. But alas, all I have to offer are my thoughts and my words; I hope that they bring some strength when you need them.
Please keep us up to date so that we can keep you in our thoughts and prayers. I have not been on good speaking terms with God for some decades, but I do make an exception to the silence periodically when I see a friend in need. I’m not sure it does much good, but I hope that the Almighty feels that my words are worthy of listening.
Perhaps some day I will get an answer to a prayer, but knowing my luck it will be something along the lines of, “Leave the gun, bring the cannoli.”
But seriously, please, please, please stay in touch - and be well.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
I won't abandon BC
I can't say that I owe BC my life but I probably owe it my sanity.
The community here is probably unique, at least in the English-speaking world. It has helped me understand my own feelings and situation and I have watched it do the same for others including yourself.
I know that many here have reached the age when bits start going wrong or dropping off and I'm now in that age group as well. I am perhaps fortunate that I have kept well enough for so long.
I still feel the need to contribute to BC where and when I can, though. As Garia once said, "I'm not going anywhere."
Penny
Horror stories from a doctor's office
Yup. I have them too. Nine Years II II ago I was having trouble walking and after checking that I had insurance and Medicare all in ofder, I saw my GP. I posted a BP of 240/120 and filled five tubes with an amusing red vintage of my making. When my bloodwork came back I was scheduled for visit to a local big box hospital for the woman's health department. So no grams of legs and lower body (kidneys). A vascular surgeon trad the work and scheduled a visit to his office. Verdict: Peripheral Artery Disease. Since he disproved of my cigarette use he scheduled the next meeting in three months unless I quit smoking. I went home and put the pack in the display over the headboard along with the Bic lighter. On the 3rd of March 2015 I had my last cigarette. A couple of weeks later I went back. He sent me to a cardiologist who went to work. Stress test, cardiogram,echocardiogram, x-ray. It looks like could survive an angiogram. And I did. Verdict colluded femoral arteries (outside branch) and illiac it arteries. A trip back the next month and balloon angioplasty with two stents and I quit thinking of suicide. But dye they used had an adverse effect on kidney function. Two more trips two more stents in my illiac arteries and I felt better but we didn't address my femoral arteries. I had an Afib attack in the cardiac offices and went through emergency testing and began taking cumiden (Warfarin ) to avoid strokes. That is tricky stuff and through problems I had GI bleeds in 2019 and again in 2020. With my reduced kidney function my hemoglobin dropped to a level that earned me to trips to intensive care and colostomy each and every time. My kidney rating went level 5 CKD to ESKD. I got me a Vascular surgeon who put a graft in, high up on my left arm. By the second week of February my wife and I began training for in home dialysis. By April we were home and on our own five days a week. I was having trouble reading and was diagnosed with adult macular degeneration.
I get around with a roll around and a wheel chair and spend about five hours every other day hooked to my cycler. My wife and I are still very close after 53+ years of marriage and 3 years treating me. It is great to be alive.
Ron
Kidney function
That had not occurred to me until after I had had it done, but my Renal specialist asked for a blood test after my angiogram and my eGFR had gone down from ~60 to 50. That is normalised so that it means I went from 60% kidney capacity to 50%. Fortunately it has now climbed back up to 60.
My chest has always been non-optimal so I have never smoked, but for the first dozen years at work I worked in offices with heavy smokers. I would not be surprised if that had not affected my lungs some more. I suffer from the autoimmune disease Microscopic Polyangiitis, which affects particular sites in the lungs as well as the kidneys, which is why my Renal specialist keeps such a close eye on my lungs as well.
From August 2002 to September 2006 I worked as a national courier. This meant driving all over Great Britain (the island) delivering stuff, an average of 60,000 miles a year or 1,500 miles a week. Every week. That is what eventually broke my health and forced me to retire early, but I digress. Part of our remit was delivering medical equipment and we were available 24/7 (at decent rates). I carried many dialysis machines to patients at all ends of the country. I saw then what happened to people with kidney failure and I am just lucky that I dodged that bullet.
I salute your fortitude and am glad that you can still, presently, log on to BC and offer support to others like me. It is much appreciated.
Thank you.
Penny
Somehow, I missed...
this post. Please take care of yourself. When you are ready to post I'll read it, but I'd prefer you to take care of your health first. I will continue to watch for your stories and enjoy them as they come forth. Thanks for sharing.
Aine