Health Update

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Health Update was Originally Posted on January 19, 2014 by

I am on a friends computer and just lost the first paragraph of my blog, so I’ll post a short update today and follow this week with a more detailed one.

I had some medical issues. They did a quick EKG, saw nothing but scheduled a heart stress test. I flew to Honolulu’s Kaiser Hospital on Tuesday and started the test when they stopped it immediately and sent me to the Emergency room. Angina (heart pain) was the answer. They put a catheter up from my groin and found my arteries clogged, the “widow maker” was about 90% blocked.

They could not do angioplasty or a stent so they scheduled me for an operation on Friday. I had the closes on my back and closest family 1/4 world away, yet I do have an extended family of sorts here and helpful neighbors, etc.

The Operated on me, taking a vein from my left leg, (apparently) stopping my heart, patching the vein across all 4 aortas and gluing me (I think they use medical super glue) back together. I was in ICU for the rest of my stay, not because I was critical but because it was easier to monitor me there and they had other beds in the general hospital filed (I would have had a private room anyway to avoid infection from sick people).
The surgeons told me that I was an excellent candidate for this operation because my health was otherwise good, had not had any heart damage, strokes or attacks yet, had great circulation and was in otherwise very good health.

For Tuesdays release to go home, they paid for a friend to fly to Honolulu to accompany me back. I am staying at that friends house at the moment. My house is 4-wheel drive, remote and this was easy because I should have had someone watch me for a few days. I would not be allowed to drive for 2 weeks and that 2 weeks ends this week.

Although we suspected some type of inflammation in the kidneys/bladder, I was unable to “void” as usual. Along with the hemorrhoid,I was unable to go either way. I ended up heading to the local Emergency room. They did an ultrasound and found my bladder “gigantic” (a technical term I guess). I was getting side pain similar to kidney stones and started vomiting bile. They performed a CT scan and found no kidney stones. However the inserted a catheter and removed 1.3 liters of urine. Needless to say, that solved many problems at one time.

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The next day I was scheduled to go back for a blood test and fainted upon standing up. Although not eating or drinking much might cause this, the Emergency room did another X-Ray because there are two main reasons for that that concern them. One is the prostate medicine they put me on. If it was not that, their next step is to send me back to Honolulu because I may have an internal blood leak. Luckily the tests showed the cause to be the prostate medicine.

So yesterday, feeling much better, a friend drove me to McDonalds where I had a parfait (fruit and so on) as a morning small meal, then to the Post Office to pick up mail accumulating (and hold future mail just in case), then to the farm to pick some citrus, turn off the water and hot water heater, check emails, pay some bills electronically, then down the road to visit my dogs at the neighbors.

After that it was off to McDonalds for 2 pretty plain hamburgers and COSTCO where I walked quite a bit. I am supposed to be up to a mile a day by now.

Today it was off to the local supermarket and Subway for a healthy lunch.

I expect to be back home this week and can start driving by the end of the week. I have little pain (especially now that the hemorrhoid is shrinking).

I will have to limit what I can lift and eat better.

I can tell you that the HMO Kaiser Permanente here in Hawaii is rated quite highly and I am glad that I was out here with such good care.

I can also tell you if you have an option NOT to have to heart problems, now is the time to start. I stopped smoking decades ago and all the surgeons say that helped me considerably with my lung capacity and general health.

Also I think that even people who do not believe in a higher power in their lives may change that view one told that someone is going to cut your chest, stop your heart, patch it with a vein from youe leg and glue you back together. Those people may start to pray, just in case :-)

It is a humbling experience to go through this procedure and I have the scars to prove it!

I appreciate all of the kind words, prayers and hopes I would be OK. They are appreciated.

Over a decade ago I decided I wanted to move to Hawaii. I began making decisions based upon the question “does doing this get me any closer to moving”. Just by that one question, I started saving more money, spending less, and giving me a goal to head towards. It worked! I also began working upon another goal, a very selfish one, but one that has made me a better person. That goal is that when I die, I would like people to miss me and to want to come to my funeral. I know that is VERY SELFISH, but by trying to strive to that goal, I think I have tried to become a better person. I try to help others without expecting any reward. I try to treat other people with respect, even if they don’t agree with me or are wrong :-)

If I can do as well with my second goal as I did with my Hawaii goal, I will be a happy camper!