Friends and readers,
I had a stoke on Saturday. The docs say it was a small one. If so, I don’t ever want to have the big one.
I’m learning how to use the keyboard again.
I hope to resume blogging on Friday.
Category Archives: Health
2023 Recap
2023 was a strange year for writing. In some ways my output doesn’t seem very significant. But, then, the year brought many other things that pried me away from writing. We made six trips for family matters, Lynda had her heart irregularities leading to a pacemaker implant, home improvements led to the discovery of water damage that is taking much time to arrange for contractors to begin repairs.
Yet, I think I made some progress. Let’s see how it stacks up against the goals I published on January 6, 2023.
- Edit and publish The Key To Time Travel. Yes, I got this done. Publication was in June.
- Determine the structure of the overall A Walk Through Holy Week Bible study series, and whether it will be six parts or seven. It’s being taught in six parts over six Lent/Easter seasons, but I’m thinking it’s better as seven parts in books. I completed this, sometime in late spring. I settled on eight volumes rather than six or seven. All volumes are planned out and all chapters named.
- Finish/edit Part 4 (what may become Part 5) of AWTHW. Finished this, and it’s now on hold, waiting for earlier volumes to be finished and published.
- Finish/edit Part 3 (what may become Part 4) of AWTHW. Finished this (didn’t actually have much left to do on it), and it’s now on hold, waiting for earlier volumes to be finished and published.
- Write Part 5 (what may become Part 6) of AWTHW, simultaneously with teaching it. I’m pleased to say I finished this. It actually became Part 7 in the restructured series. It was done a couple of weeks before the last class.
- Start Part 1 of AWTHW, after determining the overall structure, of course. Not only did I start it, but I finished it and made one editing pass through it. Two more passes and it will be ready to publish.
- Depending on how work on this goes, publish some or all of the completed parts of the study. I decided to hold off publishing volumes out of sequence, so all the complete volumes are waiting for Volumes 1, 2, and 3 to be published.
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So far this has not found an audience on Kindle Vella. All 32 episodes have been published. Start writing the next book in the Documenting America series. It will cover the years 1761 to 1775 and is tentatively titled Run-up To Revolution. Yes, I finished this. I decided to publish it to Kindle Vella, chapter by chapter. In hindsight that was not a good decision, as it has not attracted a readership.
- One other item, which is non-commercial but which will be a book, is to start transcribing the letters from our years in Saudi Arabia (1981-1983). I don’t think this is something that I can finish in one year, given that it will be fill-in work when I have nothing else to do, but I’d like to at least start it. I’ll wait to start it, however, until I get a few more disaccumulation items done. No, I didn’t do this. The work of disaccumulation proved to be more time-consuming than expected. I made major progress on it, but I’m still a long way from done.
So all in all, I published only two items: one book, one book in serial format. Given the distractions, maybe that’s not too bad. And I did get a lot of writing done, even though it’s not yet published.
Time now to set some goals for 2024. That will be in my next post.
Oh the Pain of It
Dateline: 14 June 2023, Lake Jackson, Texas
We have been in Lake Jackson, Texas, since June 2, a combination of seeing our son-in-law installed as pastor of his new church, followed by grandparent duty for the oldest grandchild and five pets while the rest of the family went to our denomination’s General Assembly in Indianapolis.
You really can’t say you’re babysitting a 15-year-old. You’re just providing adult supervision and authority, and perhaps not much of either. For five days, we cared for the pets, and occasionally pried the teenager out of his room for some food or a game of Rummycube.
But, while the rest of the family was still there, maybe on our third day in town, I decided to go for a morning walk. I thought, why not take the dog with me, and give her some extra exercise. Her name is Cherry, but my name for her is Nuisance. Unfortunately, the dog and a snake saw each other before I saw the snake. They lunged at each other, stopping two feet from each other, Nuisance almost pulling my left arm off—or so it felt.
Back to the house, I self-assessed the damage and decided to go to urgent care. They determined nothing was broken, and the arm was still in its socket. It was just a bad sprain of a couple of muscles that come together at the shoulder, where the deltoid and the pecs come together. I was fitted with a sling and told to take lots of over-the-counter pain meds, and come back in a few days if it wasn’t better. Sleeping has been a little tough, but has gotten better every night.
It’s now nine days since the accident. Healing isn’t complete. but it’s come a long way. At first, I couldn’t raise my arm. I had to pull my left arm up with my right. Once I got it up there was no pain. Now I can raise it with just a little pain.
The first couple of days I couldn’t get my arm up to the computer keyboard. So it was a good thing I planned on taking the month of June off from writing. After a week of recovery, I was able to use a keyboard enough to do source gathering for my next Documenting America book. I didn’t finish, but I made a lot of progress for a man with a gimp arm.
Tomorrow we head home. It’s a 10-hour drive if we take only minimal stops. We’ll be on a road we’ve never taken before, at least for a good part of it.
I missed three writer group meetings this week, but that’s okay. I’ll catch them in July. Meanwhile, I’ll have half a month at home to read, clean up my writing area, or perhaps do a little editing of a Bible study, or plan out a new one. I have some books that were ordered that I need to mail out.
So, that’s my adventure to report, experienced and planned. Let the vacation commence.
I Guess I Was Tired
Here it is, Monday morning, 7:42 a.m. at the new Central Daylight Time, and I’m just getting around to writing my blog post. I didn’t get up until 7:02 a.m. today. I guess I was tired.
I taught adult Sunday school yesterday. That usually takes a lot out of me, both the preparation work and the teaching. I was exhausted as I made my way from the classroom to the sanctuary, and then as I sat through the church service.
When we got home, I ate our Subway lunch then put a roast on for supper. And off to the sunroom I went for my normal reading and nap time. I don’t always nap during these sessions, but I did yesterday. I like to take a walk then, but I was much too tired to do so. I went to my reading chair in the living room, where Lynda had a UFO program on. Just the thing to have in the background when you’re too tired to do much. I decided to forego my afternoon walk.
The next couple of hours are a blur. I caught up on e-mails. At 3:45 p.m. I added the veggies to the roast. I sent an e-mail to our Life Group with the prayer requests from the morning and the scripture we studied. I really can’t remember what else took up those couple of hours. But I did learn that I had left the charging cord to my computer in the Sunday school classroom. Alas, I won’t be going anywhere near the church this week. Well, I have a second cord I keep in The Dungeon, and fetched it. I can carry it up and down the stairs this week.
When the roast was done a little after 6:00 p.m., we ate, putting on a Miss Marple TV show, one of the ones from the 1980s in which Joan Hickson plays Miss Marple. When that was over, I pulled up on my computer the Bible study I’m writing, the one that my co-teacher and I are also teaching. I started writing on that around 8:30 p.m. or so, and when I stopped at 9:50 p.m., I discovered I had added 1,800 words, and was a little ahead of schedule on where I hope to be at that point in the week.
After that writing session was reading, putting pills together for this week, cleaning a bit in the kitchen, and to bed around 11:00 p.m., my usual time. I slept okay. Up several times in the night, but was able to get back to sleep each time. I woke this morning around 6:10 a.m., and rather than get up I decided to stay in bed until my normal 6:30 a.m. rising time. The next thing I knew it was 7:02 a.m. I never sleep that late.
But, of course, we changed this weekend to Daylight Saving Time. I lost an hour of sleep. It’s no wonder I was tired. It’s going to take a couple of days to fully adjust. And Saturday, I spent a fair amount of time pulling together our partnership income tax form. We trade stocks as a partnership, and that tax return is due March 15. That actually came together pretty well. I was able to complete and print the forms on Saturday. Today I will proof them and, assuming they are correct, make my copy and take them to mail today, two days early.
I also did some writing on Saturday, in the evening, on the Bible study as I prepared the lesson for yesterday. In that session I produced around 1,200 words. I think they were good words, but I’ll know more when I re-read them today at the beginning of my writing session.
So maybe I earned that tiredness. My blood sugar readings were good, as were my blood pressure. My weight is up a little as I’ve lost motivation to eat properly. I hope to get that motivation back today.
I think also the weight of everything I have to do this week was pressing on me. Tomorrow I make a presentation to the Northwest Arkansas Letter Writers Society (one of my clubs) on Historical Letter Collections, and I’m not ready yet. With banks failing this weekend, I know stock trading today will be intense. Wednesday are our annual eye exams. Thursday is Scribblers & Scribes writing critique group, and I have to decide what to prepare.
Oh, and this morning, I discovered that I also forgot my wireless mouse at church. It’s very hard to do my stock trading without that, and of course it’s important to overall computer use, so I guess I’ll make the 13 mile drive to church this afternoon and retrieve the forgotten items.
Obviously, I was tired.
A Comedy of…?
I think that line is usually finished with “errors”. A comedy of errors. Though I don’t remember exactly why or where that comes from. Maybe Shakespear. No matter.
That’s what yesterday morning was: a comedy of something. Problems. Troubles. Difficulties. Setbacks. I have to go back a few days to set this up—which I will try to do succinctly.
Lynda has had heart troubles for a while, mainly a-fib. At the same time she had high blood pressure and took a medication for that, or maybe it was two medications. One time she blacked out while walking the neighbors’ dog and fell face-first on their driveway.
When she was in the hospital in April 2020 for her burst appendix, her heart acted up. They worked on meds for that, eventually figured she needed an ablation, had that, and seemed a little better. Her episodes of a-fib slowly became fewer, less frequent, and less severe. But they still came, even more than a year after the procedure.
Then Sat night/Sun morning, she had a severe episode of her heart racing then stopping. I don’t mean stop racing, but stop all together. That kept her up in the night, but she was better by morning. Then it happened again on Sunday afternoon and on Monday sometime. Talks with the staff of her primary doc and cardiologist brought different answers. When it happened again Tuesday as we were about to eat supper, we went to the ER at our closest urgent care facility.
They were able to get an EKG just as an episode took place. Sure enough, we could see speeding up followed by missing beat. They decided to admit her to the main hospital, and took her by ambulance. After a few hours of monitoring, they decided she needed a pacemaker. But that couldn’t be done till the next morning, Wednesday, and would be followed by 24 hours of observation in the hospital.
I spent the night with her Tuesday, rushed home Wednesday to see to my meds, brush my teeth, get a few things; got back to the hospital literally two minutes before they wheeled her over to the OR. As the day went on she seemed ok and would likely be released on Thursday as planned. So I went home around 9 p.m. Wednesday.
That brings us to Thursday morning. Through a Messenger post, I learned that her heart was still racing some, making her sick, causing her to vomit and not keep her med down. I gathered the things that would be needed for her discharge, got in the car and—it wouldn’t start.
What now? It didn’t sound like a dead battery. I called AAA for a tow. Right as I was talking to their automated system, Lynda called to tell me what was happening with her. So I didn’t really hear what the auto system said, just that someone was coming and would be there in an hour. Lynda thought her discharge was still possible.
Great. My wife is sick in the hospital and I can’t make the 20-mile drive to see her. Then I remembered that our old minivan was back in running condition. Barely, but I could take it to get her. Except, AAA was on their way. And it had started snowing. One thing not working on the old minivan was the windshield wipers. No, I couldn’t take that.
Who could I call? Several people in church would help, if available. Maybe the shop would give me a loaner, though last time I needed one they didn’t have one. Hmmm. This was a major stress point for me.
Then things turned around. AAA got here, tested the battery, said it was bad, jumped it, and it started right up. It was a nearly 6-year-old battery. I drove it the four miles to the Dodge dealership and they got me right in. I drove back home, took care of a few things, and headed to the hospital.
It turned out Lynda’s pacemaker was working properly, but those gadgets are for the purpose of stimulating the heart when it beats too slowly or when it skips a beat When her heart started racing, it was also skipping a beat and the pacemaker kicked in. They control the proper beating of the heart with a combination of the pacemaker and medicine.
Except she was nauseous and couldn’t keep the medicine down and they didn’t want to re-start the IV to give the med intravenously. Problem upon problem.
Eventually, as the day wore on, she got a shot of anti-nausea medicine. She felt a little better as that kicked in and was able to keep her next heart pill down. By evening, she was much better and they were ready, not to release her, but move her out of intensive care. I went ahead and went home. As soon as I walked in the door, the hospital called. No, nothing was wrong. They told me they had finally moved her to a different room.
What a day it was. Problem upon problem. Except, one business adage is that there are no problems, only opportunities, right? Sure didn’t feel like it at the time. Her heart racing to 170 beats per minute. The car not starting. The nausea. The despondency that caused. The hours ticking by with no apparent solution coming. None of that felt like opportunities.
Our children called, which helped ease Lynda’s mental condition. A good friend from church, a woman whose husband was ill and had just been released from the same hospital the day before, called and prayed with her on the phone. Lynda’s brother called a couple of times. And, through social media, she was able to see an outpouring of love, prayer, and support.
Problems make you stronger, right? Perhaps so, but I never want to go through a day of problems like that again. Maybe some day we will look back on yesterday and be able to say it was a comedy of problems and laugh about it.
Maybe, maybe not. I just hope we don’t go through anything like that again.
Another Busy Day
Here it is, late on Friday afternoon, and I’m just now getting to my blog post. I have several posts started, but none close enough to complete to justify spending my currently limited brain capacity on.
I’m writing very little these days. Today is typical of that. I began the day, after devotions and prayer, transcribing and scanning old letters, putting them into Word files so I can get rid of the paper. I’m currently working on my old poetry notebook. I thought this was mostly critiques (which I also need to digitize) but it turns out, so far, to be mostly e-mails and IMs from what I call “the poetry wars” at Poem Kingdom and other places. The years covered are 2003-04-maybe 05. I’m able to “save-out” i.e. digitize close to 20 old emails a day and put those sheets in recycling.
This morning I got that done. I digitized 18 old e-mails. It seems like that’s not many. What I do is, after the scan is complete, I open the scan file in Word, save it as a Word docx to the right folder with the right, descriptive file name, and clean up the text. That means setting margins, eliminating formatting irregularities, changing the font, correcting outright scanner errors. So all this takes a little time, but that makes the file ready to be added to a collected correspondence file whenever I choose to do that—if ever.
I also, this morning, completed the inventory of the Stars and Stripes newspapers. This was specifically of the duplicates, which I am keeping and not donating to URI. Those duplicates are now in a box (a little bigger than necessary) and ready to be distributed to Dad’s descendants or kept by me. This special project is thus almost done. I only have to complete the boxing and decide if I want to ship them to URI soon or delay the donation to a future time, maybe sometime next year.
I also made my weekly run to Wal-Mart this morning, and almost got away without talking to anyone except the pharmacy clerk. Alas, the self-checkout station wouldn’t accept my dollar off coupon, and the cashier hoverer had to help me.
I got some time in the sunroom, most of which went to a nap (after sleeping less than optimally last night). Lynda and I took a walk on one of our easier trails this afternoon. I went 1.64 miles, her less. That was mostly in the shade with a nice breeze, and was pleasant.
The good day will not be marred by my having to go prepare supper. The microwave decided to die after just three years of service, so I am having to cook the old fashioned way and not really enjoying it. Tonight will be simple hamburgers, tomorrow frozen pizza, I guess.
Well, this isn’t much of a post, but it’s all my mind can take right now. Hopefully Monday I’ll complete my three-part book review. I have others lined up in the queue.
Oh, the other good news: Went for labs yesterday, with the result posted today. My A1C was down to 6.1!
A Busy Week Ahead
It’s Sunday evening as I write this, multi-tasking as we watch the specials about 9/11. I’m looking ahead to tomorrow, and realize I don’t have time to write the type of post I’d hoped to have for Monday. Even Friday is a little iffy for a post that takes a lot of time.
This is a killer week. Not so Monday and Friday, but the other days have a lot of activities and appointments.
First, I have two “gigs” this week. On Tuesday, I will repeat my presentation on the Universal Postal Union to the NW Arkansas Letter Writers Society. I made this presentation in May, but almost everyone who normally attends was gone that day. So I’ll do it again. Fortunately, all I have to do is dust off my PowerPoint and run through it once or twice.
Then, Wednesday morning, I am to be at John Tyson Elementary School in Springdale (40 mile drive), where I will make a presentation of There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel to Henry and Izzy, the two students I had Zoom meetings with about a writing project they were doing, then had them be beta readers for my book. They don’t know I’ll be there and giving them the finished book. This will be at 9:00 a.m.
Then, at 12:00 noon, I have an appointment with my cardiologist’s P.A. Hopefully I’ll learn how well the cardio rehab program went. Between those two appointments, I’m hoping to meet someone for coffee. We’ll see if that happens.
Then, Wednesday afternoon, Lynda and I have dental appointments. I’ll barely have time to get home after seeing the cardiologist to leave for the dentist. But, unless we head to church that night, that will end appointments on Wednesday.
At noon on Thursday, Lynda will have her MRI to find out what, exactly, caused her sciatica attach in July. That has been twice delayed, not because of us, but because of insurance and provider problems. Then, that evening, is a semi-monthly meeting of the Scribblers & Scribes critique group. I’ll have some preparation time required for that.
In addition to this, I have my normal activities, which at the moment include:
- morning 2-mile walks
- digitizing a minimum of 10 printed letters a day
- inventorying a minimum of 30 issues of the Stars and Stripes
- whatever writing I can squeeze in, most likely on The Key To Time Travel, though I have other projects to work on as well, if I want to do so.
- A little bit of yard work, although the work I got done on Saturday puts me a little ahead of where I normally am.
- reading for research as well as for pleasure, including a couple of C.S. Lewis writings.
At some point, I need to begin the strength exercise program recommended in the cardio rehab program. I hope to begin that on Monday.
So yes, it will be a busy week. Hopefully I’ll be able to see progress on all my tasks.
Life Conspires Against Me
I had good intentions, I really did, of getting my blog post written today. But much of yesterday was taken up with critique group issues and with seeing a cousin in the hospital. His back surgery was scheduled for 3:00 pm, but kept getting pushed back, finally to 5 pm. But around 6 the surgeon came in and said the hospital wasn’t ready and they would do the surgery today.
So we went back today. The surgery happened today from 7:30 to 10:30, and we stayed with his wife. At one point, I stood up to check the progress board. Took about 10 steps then felt woozy and my steps became plodding and irregular. Before I knew it I was on the floor. I never passed out, but couldn’t stand.
I guess, if that’s going to happen to you, it’s good for it to be at a hospital. The attendant for the waiting room called for nurses from the surgery area and three of them were by my side in less than a minute. People helped me to a chair and I felt fine. I figured it was a low blood sugar episode, and they brought me some orange juice and crackers. Actually, as soon as I got to the chair it was as if nothing had happened.
Fast forward to this afternoon and my cardio rehab session. My blood pressure before exercising was 113/60. I’m normally around 105 or 110/65. I alerted the nurse assigned to me about my morning incident so that she might watch me a little closer than normal. I did my exercises fine and felt as normal at the end. A different nurse took my bp and it was 87/48—too low to let me go. She came back in a few minutes and it was 82/42. They gave me some water and it was 78/39. More water, elevated feet. It went up to 87/48ish. I walked around and felt fine. More water, more sitting. Up to 89/60. I think they poured two more cups of water into me and some more rest, and it finally got up to 92/52, ok for me to go.
They insisted on walking me to my car, except I wasn’t going to my car. I was going to the hospital next door to see my cousin. So my nurse walked me there. I felt fine, all the time after exercising, even while they were getting low readings, and while visiting my cousin and his wife. I drove the 20 miles home with no problem.
All of which leads me to believe that this morning it might have been a low blood pressure event, not low blood sugar. I messaged my doctors about stopping the (very) low dose blood pressure med I’m on. No answer yet.
Maybe my exercise and weight loss are paying off. I’ve lost 15 pounds since June 7, about 10 of that coming in the last three weeks. I’ve been walking in the early morning, usually from 6:45 to 7:30-ish, covering 1.5 to 1.75 miles. I’ve done that almost every weekday and one Saturday. Plus the exercise at cardio rehab, and I’ve been getting a lot of steps and burning the calories. Eating better, too.
We’ll see what the doc says. Maybe I’ll be off that bp med by early next week.
Meanwhile, sorry once again that I didn’t get my post written for today. Will try again on Monday.
Dog Watching, Heart Rehab, & Other Things
It’s now 7:13 a.m. on Monday, my posting day, and I’m just getting to this post. I had intended on doing a book review, but the time has gotten away from me. So, instead, you’ll have to settle for a mish-mash, oh I’m-so-busy post.
Since last Monday, we have been watching a friend’s dog, Rocky. He’s a good dog. Small, white, curly fur. Not terribly demanding. But oh how he interrupts life’s normal rhythms. When I get up in the morning, after weighing, checking my blood sugar, dressing, and taking my pills, instead of going to The Dungeon and having devotions and begin my work day, I walk Rocky. Just up to the stop sign and back, about .34 miles. Then there’s a walk at 9-ish, then noon, then 5, then 7, then 10 at night just before bed. Some of those walks are shorter. One, at 7 or 8 p.m., is about a mile or a little longer. I’m getting my steps in and losing a little weight.
Rocky goes home tomorrow. We will miss him, but it will be good to resume normal daily rhythms.
Which, unfortunately, are being interrupted by my heart rehab program. Based on the heart cath in April, which showed one artery 50% blocked and a tear in one artery, my cardiologist wants me to undergo heart rehab. I did the work-up last Tuesday, and I start today. One hour, three times a week, 20 miles away. Exercise and education to start, and I take it just exercise by the end. 36 sessions, though they say some people “graduate” out after about 12.
I won’t lie: I’m already resenting the time and gas money I’m going to have to spend on this. I know it’s for my good. But the angina has essentially gone away. All these walks with the dog and I don’t think I’ve experienced any angina. I’m wondering if that tear in my artery has already healed itself (as they say it does in 75 to 95% of the cases). I doubt that artery has opened up in such a short time, but who knows?
As to the other things, I have writing, stock trading (looks like a bad day today), household chores, outside work, and trying to keep up a good reading schedule. All in a day of retirement.
My Post-Procedure Report
My post on Monday concerned the heart catheterization that I was scheduled to undergo the next day. went off without a problem.
Since Lynda is still not driving much in fear of an a-fib attack (which are fewer, less intensive, and shorter than before her heart ablation last year), we arranged for rides from our church folks. A retired man who lives near us gave us the early morning, 6:15 a.m. ride to the hospital. A woman in our Life Group gave us a ride home in the afternoon.
I enjoyed meeting my cardiologist for the first time in the hospital room. I’d had a virtual appointment with him that turned into voice only when something went wrong with the video function of the Google app. Other appointments were with his nurse practitioner. He did a good job explaining everything beforehand. Other hospital staff did their jobs efficiently and were friendly.
The procedure happened on time. The results were somewhat unexpected. I expected them to find that one or more of my arteries were partly blocked and they would put a stent or two in, requiring me to stay overnight. Instead, they found one artery 50% blocked, but not restricting blood flow. They also found another artery that was torn in a couple of places. My cardiologist said both of these could be treated with medicine.
So they kept me there for a couple of hours of observation, so I could come out of some of the effects of anesthesia, and sent me off. Lynda contacted the lady who would give us a ride home, and she was there around 1:30 p.m. and we were home around 2. She also brought us supper, enough for two nights, and a very nice banana split pie for dessert. Guess it will take a while for my blood sugars to return to normal.
As soon as I could, I went to the sunroom to read, and promptly fell asleep. I must have been a couple hours in my chair, the window behind me opened a little and a delightful breeze soothing me. Then I got up, went into the living room to my reading chair with the book, and immediately fell asleep. I woke up around 6:15 p.m. Lynda had heated the food we were given. We had a nice supper and dessert.
We spent the evening watching The Curse of Oak Island on the History Channel, then read until it was bedtime. I realized my right shoulder was hurting and concluded I had pulled a muscle, probably getting in and out of the hospital bed while trying to keep the skimpy hospital gown covering me. I was afraid that it might keep me awake. It didn’t however. I slept well and long, not getting up until 7:45 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Mercy posted the results of the heart cath. I copied and sent them to my cardiologist friend from high school. He sent back a short note that he concurred with my cardiologist’s diagnosis. I think. He texted me in medical-speak, so it’s hard to known.
Wednesday (when I’m writing this) was somewhat of a normal day. I worked at the computer in the morning, adding the last 800 words to my work-in-progress and declaring the first draft DONE. Took the afternoon to read and nap. No physical exercise. No driving. No need to fix food. Truly normal routines won’t re-start until Saturday. Waiting on a call from the pharmacy to say my meds are available for pick-up.
So heart cath #2 is in the books. The last one was in 2001, when they found nothing abnormal. Maybe the next one won’t be for another 21 years. I’ll be 91 at that time.
Edited to add on Thursday: I’ve done a little more research, and have one more report from my cardiologist. The torn artery has a name: Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection, or SCAD. The causes are unknown, and the cure is unknown. It is NOT fixed by medicine as I understood it. The artery tends to heal itself. If it doesn’t, the cure is a stent or a bypass operation. Part of the reports were a number of links to Mayo Clinic info about SCAD.
Also, to better evaluate the condition of my abnormal aortic valve, the doc wants to do a trans-esophageal echocardiogram. Say that fast five times. That is not scheduled. I’m also to be referred to a cardio-rehab program. Waiting on those.
So, I’m not sure when I’ll be back to normal, if ever. Let’s hope that artery heals itself.