True

Success

Had my right coronary artery rebuilt today. Three stents. Going a little stir crazy in the hospital. But soon back on the streets. Lookout world!

Thanks doc!

This explains a lot

Sometimes my words fail me.  From another INTJ

Could be the basis for this blog. 

" I use song lyrics (or quotes or many other things) written by others to communicate emotion. Symbols are also values as they communicate a message without having to use a bunch of words. Verbal expression of feelings is difficult because I'm almost self conscious about it. It's vocabulary I'm not used to using, and I witness others (feelers) using it in excess. I don't want you to think I'm just throwing words around. I have deep emotions, and while others may not see it, the connection that I seek makes it prevalent. I use the well written words of others to help me with this. And if I do say anything affectionate, it's a big deal."

 

"Buy the ticket, take the ride"

Today is brought to you by Hunter S. Thompson

"You won't find reasonable men on the tops of tall mountains.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

. “We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and — in spite of True Romance magazines — we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely — at least, not all the time — but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”

“The Edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others-the living-are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later.”

 “A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.”

The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

 “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”

That awkward age

"So it goes"

Thought for the day....

“So it goes” does not denote apathy . This phrase, repeated over and over, comes to represent the randomness of death — how death can come to anyone at any time — and to convey a sense of fatalism during wartime. That is, the constant repetition of “So it goes” by Kurt Vonnegut makes one ask themselves about the meaning of death (or its lack of meaning) and the incalculable human costs of war.

"Shit happens, and it's awful, but it's also okay. We deal with it because we have to."

So it goes

1 in a Million

I have been thinking about mortality lately.  My inquiring mind wants to know.  I have been diagnosed with a total occlusion of the right coronary artery.  I suffer from angina on heavy exertion.  I am not happy about it.

First course of action: treat it with expensive pills (and some cheap ones).  Exercise more.  That did not seem to work.  I get stressed when the angina kicks in.

Second course of action: angioplasty.  No one in Cincinnati doe this operation for a total occlusion.  Why is that?  Too risky, too many failures, incompetent?  Go to Columbus or Cleveland.  Spend three hours in the cath lab.  Been there done that.  Close but no cigar.  Let’s give it another shot in July.

Third course of action:  Google everything that you can find about total occlusions.  Read about mortality rates.  Some of them don’t sound so good…

Fourth course of action: open heart surgery.  That really does not sound like a lot of fun.  Crack open the chest, stop your heart, do the operation and hope that the heart restarts.  Leaves you with a nice scar and a lengthy recovery. 

Fifth course of action:  Ignore it and maybe it will go away.  Or maybe I will go away.

Which leaves me alone and overthinking.  I have had a pretty good run.  Most of the pieces are in place.  My sons will be ok.

I read that in the U.S. (USA Today) there will be 1 million angioplasties with stents this year.  That seems a little excessive for a country of 300 million.  I am one in a million.

 "We must pay greater attention to keeping our bodies and minds healthy and able to heal. Yet we are making it difficult for our defences to work. We allow things to be sold that should not be called food. Many have no nutritive value and lead to obesity, salt imbalance, and allergies."

David Suzuki