Hello Nancy.

07 Jan 16 15:49, you wrote to me:

 NB> -=> Quoting Jeff Smith to Nancy Backus on 01-Jan-2016 14:10 <=-

 JS>> 03 Sep 15 18:20, you wrote to me:
 NB>> -=> Quoting Jeff Smith to Nancy Backus on 31-Aug-2015 23:33 <=-

 NB> It's been a while...!      Good to see you appear again... 

 JS>>> I'm that way too. Never cared for doctors much. While it's hard
 JS>>> for me to ask I do enjoy and feel better about going if someone
 JS>>> decides to go with. I guess it's nice to feel your not alone
 JS>>> sometimes.
 NB>>> It certainly helps to have two people to listen to the doctor
 NB>>> and to ask questions... and to remember what was said...   I
 NB>>> started going with my friend/neighbor when she'd been
 NB>>> complaining to me on the phone after every visit to a certain
 NB>>> doctor how bad he was and how he wasn't dealing with what she
 NB>>> thought needed attention...  Turned out that he really was that
 NB>>> bad, so I helped her find a better doctor...  But then I went
 NB>>> with her to all her doctor visits thereafter, even with a new
 NB>>> better doctor... it made helping her remember what was going on
 NB>>> easier for me...   And she appreciated having the company...

 JS>> I go to the doctors as little as possible. Recently though I
 JS>> decided to "Bite The Bullet" and drive myself to the hospital. I
 JS>> wasn't in pain really. Just didn't feel right. Turns out (They
 JS>> told me) that I had a total blockage of blood feeding the heart
 JS>> muscles. And that I made it to the hospital with minutes to
 JS>> spare. That was reaffirmed by how fast they were rushing me down
 JS>> the halls on the gurney. They used their little "Roto Rooter"
 JS>> machine to clean my pipes. <g>

 NB> Sounds like that got caught just in time....!  Pain isn't the only
 NB> symptom that one should be paying attention, just the most likely to
 NB> be an attention-grabber... unless one has been dealing with chronic
 NB> pain all along... ;0

To be honest I was at first tempted not to go to the hospital. I pretty
much have some degree of pain all the time. For me it's a combination of
migraines, damaged knees, arthritis in most joints, bad back, among other
things. But, I have never been one to let my physical situation(s) to limit
what I want to accomplish. The reality though is that it is getting harder
to keep that attitude. It's pretty much a matter of having a 30's mind
stuck in a 60's body. <g>

I think myself self aware enough that I sensed that it wasn't just a matter
of being in pain. Which I wasn't really. My chest didn't hurt much at all.
It was more a combination of new sensations that suggested something else
might be amiss.


 NB>>> I've long felt that it's important to have a doctor that listens
 NB>>> to you, and that accepts you as an equal partner in your care...
 NB>>> I've been fortunate over the last couple of decades to have all
 NB>>> my doctors be that way... it makes the thought of going to see
 NB>>> them a lot less onerous.. 

 JS>> The doctor that I had seemed to be nice. He seemd to be someone
 JS>> that a patient could actually hold a conversation with.

 NB> Did you get to follow up with that doctor, or was he just a
 NB> hospitalist...?

A follow up? Yes, but not with the same doctor. The other doctor was a
tad less comunicative but was ok

 JS>> Did I mention that I really HATE hospital beds. That was the most
 JS>> uncomfortable thing to even try to sleep on. Which isn't helped
 JS>> by the folks that stop by every couple hours to see if your still
 JS>> alive. <g>

 NB> Some are worse or better than others... the "hospital" beds that one
 NB> can buy/rent for home use are generally worse than the ones in
 NB> the hospitals....  And quite true about the parade of
 NB> nurses/techs/docs and then the therapists...  And then there's the
 NB> noise level... things beeping, conversations in the hall, the
 NB> geriatric down the hall....

Well, I couldn't get any sleep the first 36 hours laying in the bed. Trying
to leave the bed was an major issue with the collection of wires and tubes
involved. The bed actually had an air matress that everytime I would slightly
change positions. The compressor would start up to change the pressure. With
a resultant werrr... WERRR... werr... I finally told the nurse to turn the
thing off. The bed was more firm but at least tollerable.


 JS>> Im doing ok but can't handle stairs or hills very well. Guess my
 JS>> plans to be a mountain climber are shelved.

 NB> Glad you've come through it ok...  maybe with some good cardiac rehab
 NB> you'll be able to at least manage hills... or even a small mountain or
 NB> two...    I'm not good on stairs either, though... but my problem is
 NB> mostly my ankles and knees... broke the one ankle (back in 2005), had
 NB> to stay off it for 10 weeks so damaged the other knee... and then the
 NB> opposite ones tried to compensate, to their detriment as well... 

Same thing here with knees. Some years ago I unwisely tried to make my knee
bend sideways. I ended up tearing the menicus which doesn't heal once dammaged.
As a result of babbying the knee for a time the other knee suffered.

 JS>> The sad thing to me was being a dad and having none of my kids
 JS>> showing up or at least calling. I did get a glad your ok msg
 JS>> after I got back home from one though.

 NB> At least one of them cared enough to let you know...

I have been far from a pefect father. And I know and acknowledge and take
responsibility for the mistakes that I have made. But I love all my kids
very much. I have come to accept that for some "Family" means something
differant. It hurts to hear from one of your children that you love that
"I don't need you". That doesn't change or diminish my love. It just makes
me sad.

 NB> ttyl      neb

 NB> ... Experience is yesterday's answer to today's problems.

 NB> --- EzyBlueWave V3.00 01FB001F
 NB>  * Origin: Tiny's BBS - Oshawa, ON, CA http://tinysbbs.com (1:229/452)

Jeff

--- GoldED+/W32-MINGW 1.1.5-b20070503
 * Origin:  Region 14 IP Server - ftn.region14.org (1:14/5)