Cardiac issues

[Sgt. Howard]

Whelp, today I truck my happy ass 90 miles South of where I live and book into a Motel 6. On the morning, I have a date with a cardio Cath table for my fourth stent- or whatever they deem adequate to the issues. Not all that worried, more concerned about 1.5 hours driving through Winter conditions than the procedure itself. At age 70, this is no big surprise.

I will notify this board upon my return, which should be tomorrow evening.

the Old Sgt.

[Dave]

Best of fortune to you, Greg... may it go well, smoothly and easily.

And don't run over any polar bears on the way there or back. In fact, avoid the nonpolar bears as well.

[Opus the Poet]

Is that like polar and nonpolar solvents?

[Just Old Al]

Polar and nonpolar solvents:

Yes, but more likely to attack anything moving rather than specific items.

Just as a note, I talked to the old man once he got out of surgery and all went well. I will leave him to regale you with the details, but he is still alive and well and is no longer circling the drain at a close radius.

I obviously need to hire a better grade of assassin...

[Dave]

Is that like polar and nonpolar solvents?

Yes, pretty much. You can tell the difference by the fur.

• Polar bear fur is wet.
• Non-polar bear fur is oily or greasy.

[Sgt. Howard]

Apparently, the original stent from 2007 re-clogged- as this is the artery that supplies the left anterior ventricle, it is often referred to as 'the widow maker'. A subsequent branch was also clogging. Both got stented. Today, I was lectured at ends about letting it get this bad. I already have scar tissue at ground zero- I will not survive another full occlusion.

Yes, it was that close.

I will be six months in recovery. I feel incredibly better, but I am not to push it. I will be relying on others for manual labor.

[Sgt. Howard]

Is that like polar and nonpolar solvents?

Yes, pretty much. You can tell the difference by the fur.

• Polar bear fur is wet.
• Non-polar bear fur is oily or greasy.

Polar, non-polar, bi-polar or whatever- nothing you cannot cure with .50 caliber Browning.

[Dave]

Polar, non-polar, bi-polar or whatever- nothing you cannot cure with .50 caliber Browning.

Unless they shoot first (here insert reference to "Support our right to arm bears" poster)

[Hansontoons]

I might guess that driving 90 miles in 1.5 hours during winter conditions would have the potential to get somewhat exciting?

Or at least that's what this near-sea level denizen would surmise.

Best wishes for a speedy and full recovery so you can return to your regularly scheduled shenanigans.

I had cataract surgery in September and it's been fantastic not having glasses on my face. Did have to hang a "WEAR SAFETY GLASSES" sign in the garage.

[Sgt. Howard]

Polar, non-polar, bi-polar or whatever- nothing you cannot cure with .50 caliber Browning.

Unless they shoot first (here insert reference to "Support our right to arm bears" poster)

Bears are notoriously poor shots.

[Sgt. Howard]

Polar, non-polar, bi-polar or whatever- nothing you cannot cure with .50 caliber Browning.

Unless they shoot first (here insert reference to "Support our right to arm bears" poster)

Bears are notoriously poor shots.

[Typeminer]

Apparently, the original stent from 2007 re-clogged- as this is the artery that supplies the left anterior ventricle, it is often referred to as 'the widow maker'. A subsequent branch was also clogging. Both got stented. Today, I was lectured at ends about letting it get this bad. I already have scar tissue at ground zero- I will not survive another full occlusion.

Yes, it was that close.

I will be six months in recovery. I feel incredibly better, but I am not to push it. I will be relying on others for manual labor.

Well, Sarge, glad you're alive! Be sure to do whatever maintenance they're giving you hell about.

My brother sorta tried to drop dead in the street at 59 on the day in 2016 that our nephew-in-law graduated from firefighter training, coincidentally while we were all walking downtown past a fire station. NIL recognized he was having a heart attack, he didn't want to believe it, NIL got the guys in the station to agree, and we hauled him to the local hospital, where they jammed 4 or 5 stents into him and loaded him up with nitroglycerin. That assured us that they were confident in their treatment--as everyone knows, when in doubt, you use C4 . . .

They also diagnosed diabetes. He lost a lot of weight and recovered really well. Still doing good at recent checkups, though he tends to slide on the diet.

I'm 70, never been overweight, no high blood pressure, no heart or vascular problems except an odd nerve path that probably is congenital and not in itself harmful--our dad had it, too. Brother and I got different deals in the gene shuffle. Men in Dad's family tend to have cardiac and vascular problems. Men in Mom's family tend to be thinner and live longer, but are prone to abdominal aneurysm.

[Typeminer]

Polar, non-polar, bi-polar or whatever- nothing you cannot cure with .50 caliber Browning.

Unless they shoot first (here insert reference to "Support our right to arm bears" poster)

Bears are notoriously poor shots.

Betcha Morty Nickelovich-Smythe (a.k.a. Doc) will STRONGLY disagree.

[Sgt. Howard]

Unless they shoot first (here insert reference to "Support our right to arm bears" poster)

Bears are notoriously poor shots.

Betcha Morty Nickelovich-Smythe (a.k.a. Doc) will STRONGLY disagree.

There's always the exception- after all, how many polar bears do you know that play with nuclear fusion?

[Opus the Poet]

The last few months have been interesting as I have been bouncing in and out of rehab, first 2 times were for falls. I tore my glute med and glute min on my right side as I was just walking to the bathroom after I got out of bed, which caused me to fall into a doorframe and tear my right rotator cuff, and which also jostled a narrowed cervical spine and pinched my spinal cord, at my C2-C3 vertebrae and numbed my entire right side from crown to the sole of my right foot. This collection of symptoms, can't walk, numb on one side of my body, and can't move my right arm, was initially interpreted as a stroke that I hadn't had...yet. They took me in and ran CAT scans and MRIs daily, and 3 days after I went in the finally found a stroke that I had while in the hospital. Because they were already treating me for a stroke it was minimal. I never even felt it, which was good because it was in the part of my brain that controls autonomous breathing and I would have died.

So they sent me to rehab, and 4 weeks after I fell I was released from rehab still having muscle spasms from the fall. Three days after I got home I had a muscle spasm and fell again, into the shower, that wasn't turned on. I landed on my back on a loofa shower mat, and spent 10 hours on my back loosing a little bit of skin from the high-traction bath mat every hour or so as I tried to get my feet on my walker so I could dump my cellular communication device out of the cargo basket that I had installed the night before after a one-day delivery from Amazon. Then I could call 911 for assistance. By the time I got to the ER I was bleeding a bit from where the skin wasn't and they had to treat that because I couldn't sleep until they started giving me IV morphine every 4 hours. Wheeeeee! That felt GOOOOOOOD! The bad thing was I had lost a lot of body fat the first time in rehab, and I fell before I had breakfast and then spent another 10 hours not eating, and I didn't get fed anything more than a few crackers until breakfast the next day and was starving! My blood sugar had dropped to low-normal and I was pre-diabetic so my normal was about 105-110 pre-prandial. By the time I got fed my sugars were about 60 I think? anywho while they were messing with the other thing the hospital decided to run a 2 hour MRI. And they found the stroke I had in the first hospital, plus 4 more that I had had earlier, estimated at sometime in the previous 4 years, plus a good mview of that rotator cuff and all the other tears in the rotator cuffs on both arms, 3 on the left and a total of 4 on the right including the one from the month before. I knew I had one per side because I hurt, I didn't know how many times I had done it. So after they got the scrapes on my back healed up enough I went back to that same rehab I had just gotten out of and went at the rehab with a vengeance.

So I was out of rehab for a month, and my wife was out of rehab for a little over a week, when I tried to stand up to get my wife ready for bed and couldn't. Another call to 911, and this time I was septic. Yep I went to the hospital and I was actually sick with something that was diagnosed as a kidney infection, so they started with IV fluids and IV antibiotics. I spent a week in the hospital until I got back a clean blood culture and back to that same rehab where everybody was glad to see me for the third time that year. I again attacked my rehab like I hated the place, because I couldn't sleep on the beds there, but this time I was building on the progress I had made the first 2 times and was really showing improvement over the second time in strength and flexibility and a little in balance

[Warrl]

Slightly relevant and somewhat amusing link

[Alkarii]

Given that my dad was a sergeant and passed away at 60, perhaps we should call you "The Older Sgt" instead?

That widowmaker artery you mentioned? That was one that almost got him when he got hospitalized for a heartattack the first time... which apparently was not actually his first. It had a stent in it, but it's possible that failed.

It sounds like a good sign that you're more concerned about traveling in the weather conditions you're getting/have, though.

[Sgt. Howard]

Given that my dad was a sergeant and passed away at 60, perhaps we should call you "The Older Sgt" instead?

That widowmaker artery you mentioned? That was one that almost got him when he got hospitalized for a heartattack the first time... which apparently was not actually his first. It had a stent in it, but it's possible that failed.

It sounds like a good sign that you're more concerned about traveling in the weather conditions you're getting/have, though.

In truth, the past year and a half has been one health issue after another. I am starting to recover with an eye out for the next issue to present itself.