Hi Everybody:
This time, I put your email address in AFTER I creating the message. Here's my second attempt...
It's been three weeks since my last update, and I'll be 8 weeks post-op on Thursday. I've been asked a few questions several times, so I thought I'd answer them for you here:
Q: Did you have a single, double, triple, or quad bypass?
A: Stop asking. I had a double. One was called a LIMA (Left Interior Mammary Artery), and the other a traditional saphenous vein from my leg. I would have got a quadruple, but we have socialized medicine here in Canada so they used the extra veins in my leg for another guy.
Q: How's the scar(s)?
A: The chest scar is actually not too scary. The Dermatix (silicone) I've been using on it has really made a difference. I have two scars on my left leg, though, that are still pretty ugly. Haven't been using Dermatix on these (it's $50 for a 15g tube), but if things don't improve over the next month or two 'll go to Home Depot and buy some bathroom caulking.
Q: So - you did all this lifestyle stuff (vegetarian, runner, wonderful personality, deeply religious) but still got nailed with this. Why not just kick back and eat deep fried Snickers bars?
A: I'm obviously predisposed to building plaque in my arteries. If I didn't do the lifestyle stuff, I might be dead. I'm walking 10-15km at a shot and the only pain I have is when I get hit by a jogger or a baby carriage; I'd hate to think what the recovery would be like if I looked like _____________ and was in the same shape as ____________.
Q: What about pain?
A: OK - so there still is some pain. All in my chest, and mostly when I get up in the morning. When I talked to my doctor about the discomfort he said "get used to it". I tried to go for a run last Friday and it was like I'd never done it before in my life. I could go about 200m before I had to stop - too hard to breathe and too much chest pain (not heart attack pain - broken rib pain). I guess I'll have to wait some more.
Q: What are your cholesterol numbers? What should I be asking my doctor about?
A: I've been monitoring these numbers since 1997 (my dad had bypass surgery in 1996 when he was 60 - so I changed my lifestyle in a big way at that time). I've got all the numbers in a google spreadsheet here. The comments below won't make much sense without seeing the numbers:
The May'06 numbers where pulled when I went into the hospital. The Aug'06 numbers are after 2.5 months on some heavy-duty cholesterol drugs. The Sept-97 numbers were when I was a ridiculously strict vegan, and ran about 40km/week (hard to keep up with the sales manager job I got in 1999). The Apr'04 numbers were when I tried to "experiment" with some cholesterol drugs; I should have kept it up - but I thought I could manage it with lifestyle. Wrong.
Note that my "unique" problem is very low HDL. My liver just doesn't manufacture the stuff. HDL is the "good" cholesterol, and removes the "bad" cholesterol (LDL) from the artery walls. Most people won't have numbers as low as mine (BIG HDL numbers are good, BIG LDL numbers are bad).
As for asking your doctor. Read up on this stuff. Ask your doctor to be aggressive. A small-dose statin and some easy lifestyle modifications (like deep fried Snickers bars only twice/week) could prevent what happened to me.
Q: How do you remain so good looking?
A: Apricot facial scrubs. Twice a day.
Q: When do you and Laura re-start your "adventure"
A: Hopefully, in mid-October. I still have a few more medical hurdles to jump through (stress test, visit with the surgeon), but am hopeful that there are no more surprises ... we've had plenty so far this year, thanks.
Q: What about the food. What about the booze?
A: Everything tastes normal now. One of the great side-effects is that $4 wine now tastes like $95 wine. We're saving thousands. I might take up smoking.
Q: Where are you living?
A: After pissing off every close friend we've got, we moved into the trailer on August 16th. We're at an RV park in Vancouver (it's full of Germans - but nobody wants to talk about the war???), with close access to the SkyTrain. We'll stay in the Vancouver area until we leave in October (with a couple of side-trips to Victoria, Nanaimo, Port Townsend).
Q: When will you stop sending out these updates?
A: Never. I'm a narcisist.
I hope this message finds you well, and that you're having a great summer. Thanks again for all your messages - please keep sending them (especially the chain letters!).
Platonically,
Doug
PS:
Q: What does a dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac do?
A: Lies awake at night wondering if there really is a Dog.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Thursday, August 10, 2006
5 week update
Hi Everybody:
Getting tired of this yet? Don't really care about me anymore? Would prefer to hear more about Kim Jong-Il? Tough.
Laura and I have moved again - spending the week at John & Maureen's place while they're on vacation; looking after their lawn/garden as well as Bo-the-Pee-Dog. We now have our stuff scattered in 5 different places (3 homes, 1 trailer, and 1 storage locker), but we're hoping to resolve some of that in the next few days.
Here's the update:
Pain: Visited my GP today, and talked a bit about the ongoing chest pain. He's not surprised, and suggested I get used to it for a few more months. Gulp. Haven't resorted to Tylenol for several days now, so I guess it can't be that bad. Either that, or I'm exceptionally tough...
Concentration: I think it's back to "normal". Laura claims I still suffer from "man-hearing" and "man-vision" (also, "man-empathy"). I find I can concentrate on traffic really well when Laura's driving; providing many valuable tips and keeping an eye open for danger. Laura would prefer I stay at home and watch TV.
Food: The red wine taste is about 75% back. This is a very good thing. Most other foods are now near normal, although anything sweet still tastes off; not quite "diesel-platypus", more like "teriyaki-aardvark".
Strength: I'm walking around 10km a day now, and think that's where I'll leave it for a while. There are lots of hills around Port Coquitlam, so my challenge will be to get better at climbing them. Right now, I'm just fine on the flats but get a bit winded on the hills. I won't be able to run until my chest heals some more (somewhere around 8 weeks). I will be unable to make the Vancouver Canucks training camp this year ;-(
Bloodwork: Been reading a lot about heart disease, blood profiles, reversal of plaque build-up, etc. I'm getting a complete cholesterol/liver work up tomorrow which should tell me where I am, and where I need to get to. I'm serious about trying to manage my problem (low HDL, bad HDL/Cholesterol ratio) with diet and exercise, and try to reduce the meds as much as possible. My GP seems game to follow along on this experiment, so I'm pleased about that. If there's one thing each of you can/should do (if you haven't already), it's go and get your cholesterol levels checked out. Be aggressive with this stuff - I guess I'm especially "tuned" to this right now, but I'm hearing stories every day about people (mostly men) in their late 40's and early 50's dropping dead from massive heart attacks. Could have happened to me, but I got lucky and had some warning... Wow. This entire section was serious.
Living: We've spent the last 2.5 months living with other people (THANK YOU!), but we're both getting tired of not having a place of our own. We're looking for somewhere to park the trailer (with full hookups) starting next week, and sleeping in our own bed, cooking in our own kitchen, and leaving underwear on our own floor.
Travel: Laura and I travelled to a family reunion in Ponoka, Alberta last weekend. It was wonderful to spend a few days around close friends and relatives, and I think it was good for them to see for themselves how stunningly attractive I remain ... other than the Frankenstein Scar(s).
That's all I can think of for now. Thanks everybody for your cards, letters, email and for forwarding me all those chain letters! I just know that 25,000 people will be sending me $1 each anytime soon!
Platonically,
Doug
Getting tired of this yet? Don't really care about me anymore? Would prefer to hear more about Kim Jong-Il? Tough.
Laura and I have moved again - spending the week at John & Maureen's place while they're on vacation; looking after their lawn/garden as well as Bo-the-Pee-Dog. We now have our stuff scattered in 5 different places (3 homes, 1 trailer, and 1 storage locker), but we're hoping to resolve some of that in the next few days.
Here's the update:
Pain: Visited my GP today, and talked a bit about the ongoing chest pain. He's not surprised, and suggested I get used to it for a few more months. Gulp. Haven't resorted to Tylenol for several days now, so I guess it can't be that bad. Either that, or I'm exceptionally tough...
Concentration: I think it's back to "normal". Laura claims I still suffer from "man-hearing" and "man-vision" (also, "man-empathy"). I find I can concentrate on traffic really well when Laura's driving; providing many valuable tips and keeping an eye open for danger. Laura would prefer I stay at home and watch TV.
Food: The red wine taste is about 75% back. This is a very good thing. Most other foods are now near normal, although anything sweet still tastes off; not quite "diesel-platypus", more like "teriyaki-aardvark".
Strength: I'm walking around 10km a day now, and think that's where I'll leave it for a while. There are lots of hills around Port Coquitlam, so my challenge will be to get better at climbing them. Right now, I'm just fine on the flats but get a bit winded on the hills. I won't be able to run until my chest heals some more (somewhere around 8 weeks). I will be unable to make the Vancouver Canucks training camp this year ;-(
Bloodwork: Been reading a lot about heart disease, blood profiles, reversal of plaque build-up, etc. I'm getting a complete cholesterol/liver work up tomorrow which should tell me where I am, and where I need to get to. I'm serious about trying to manage my problem (low HDL, bad HDL/Cholesterol ratio) with diet and exercise, and try to reduce the meds as much as possible. My GP seems game to follow along on this experiment, so I'm pleased about that. If there's one thing each of you can/should do (if you haven't already), it's go and get your cholesterol levels checked out. Be aggressive with this stuff - I guess I'm especially "tuned" to this right now, but I'm hearing stories every day about people (mostly men) in their late 40's and early 50's dropping dead from massive heart attacks. Could have happened to me, but I got lucky and had some warning... Wow. This entire section was serious.
Living: We've spent the last 2.5 months living with other people (THANK YOU!), but we're both getting tired of not having a place of our own. We're looking for somewhere to park the trailer (with full hookups) starting next week, and sleeping in our own bed, cooking in our own kitchen, and leaving underwear on our own floor.
Travel: Laura and I travelled to a family reunion in Ponoka, Alberta last weekend. It was wonderful to spend a few days around close friends and relatives, and I think it was good for them to see for themselves how stunningly attractive I remain ... other than the Frankenstein Scar(s).
That's all I can think of for now. Thanks everybody for your cards, letters, email and for forwarding me all those chain letters! I just know that 25,000 people will be sending me $1 each anytime soon!
Platonically,
Doug
Thursday, August 3, 2006
28 day update
Hi Everybody:
I received a few emails last time with the same theme:
"Doug, please tell me who can help set up a spam filter" or
"Doug, I receive messages from somebody I don't like - can you help?" or
"How can I move messages directly from my Inbox to my Trash automatically?"
or
The short answer to all these questions is .... you can't. You must read all
your email. Especially email from me. Anyone who says otherwise just wants
to access your bank accounts, and is likely a convicted felon.
This sounds trite, but I can't believe it's been four weeks. Four weeks of
living in somebody else's house, eating somebody else's food, and enjoying
somebody else's air conditioning. Again, BIG thanks to Mike and Brenda for
letting us stay with them, and to John and Mo for letting "Bo the Pee Dog"
live with them. Another big thanks to everyone else who's been so kind, so
generous, and so damned polite to me. I wonder when I stop getting treated
special? I'm holding out for March 2010.
OK - enough of the grovelling. Here's the update:
Food - getting better week-by-week. Red wine still tastes off ... not awful,
but $40 wine tastes like $4 wine. I hope this is a sign that things are
improving. I'm not a big fan of $4 wine. Strangely, coffee has always tasted
like it's supposed to....
Exercise - I'm up to about 10km (6 miles) a day. Tried to do a steep hill
yesterday, and found that it was really hard - had a tough time catching my
breath. I'm hopeful that when my chest fully heals I'll be able to run and
bike again. This should be after 8 weeks (another month). A whole "herd" of
friends have decided that doing the Vancouver Half-Marathon in May'07 is a
great idea, so I guess I'm in. I wonder who will carry me?
Frankenstein Scars - The chest scar is healing nicely, with some help from
the Dermatix that Kelly recommended. I (foolishly) went for a long walk with
Dave K on Tuesday wearing jeans, and it irritated one of my leg scars - I'm
hoping that it isn't infected. Photos of the scars are available for $14.95
each - no refunds.
Sleep - I've been sleeping on a futon at the Diack's - it's soft and I've
been sleeping well. Tried to sleep back on a regular bed the other night and
it was a disaster - too painful to move/roll/sleep. Back to the futon!
Pain - I take a couple of Tylenol at bedtime if I've had a really active
day, and feeling quite sore. The chest is still really "tight", but it is
getting better with the exercise. Brenda offered me the use of their rowing
machine. I declined. Wouldn't want to break their equipment.
Concentration - I read "East of Eden" (600 pages) in 5 days. I think my
comprehension is really improving. "East of Eden" is the story of young Luke
Skywalker and his friend Obe-Wan Kenobi, who live in New York City and write
a newspaper column about Sex.
Driving - I can drive today!! Laura couldn't be more pleased......
Plans - We'll continue to hang around Vancouver until October .... likely
with short visits to Vancouver Island and the Okanagan Valley. We hope to
start the trip south after Canadian Thanksgiving. We're going to try and get
the Airstream parked someplace where we can live in it and start making
preparations for the big trip. If anybody has a large backyard with 30 Amp
service, water and sewer, let me know. Mike and Brenda said they'd pay
"anything" to have us live in the trailer.
That's all I can think of for now. Hope you're all having a great summer.
Stay cool!!!
Platonically,
Doug
I received a few emails last time with the same theme:
"Doug, please tell me who can help set up a spam filter" or
"Doug, I receive messages from somebody I don't like - can you help?" or
"How can I move messages directly from my Inbox to my Trash automatically?"
or
The short answer to all these questions is .... you can't. You must read all
your email. Especially email from me. Anyone who says otherwise just wants
to access your bank accounts, and is likely a convicted felon.
This sounds trite, but I can't believe it's been four weeks. Four weeks of
living in somebody else's house, eating somebody else's food, and enjoying
somebody else's air conditioning. Again, BIG thanks to Mike and Brenda for
letting us stay with them, and to John and Mo for letting "Bo the Pee Dog"
live with them. Another big thanks to everyone else who's been so kind, so
generous, and so damned polite to me. I wonder when I stop getting treated
special? I'm holding out for March 2010.
OK - enough of the grovelling. Here's the update:
Food - getting better week-by-week. Red wine still tastes off ... not awful,
but $40 wine tastes like $4 wine. I hope this is a sign that things are
improving. I'm not a big fan of $4 wine. Strangely, coffee has always tasted
like it's supposed to....
Exercise - I'm up to about 10km (6 miles) a day. Tried to do a steep hill
yesterday, and found that it was really hard - had a tough time catching my
breath. I'm hopeful that when my chest fully heals I'll be able to run and
bike again. This should be after 8 weeks (another month). A whole "herd" of
friends have decided that doing the Vancouver Half-Marathon in May'07 is a
great idea, so I guess I'm in. I wonder who will carry me?
Frankenstein Scars - The chest scar is healing nicely, with some help from
the Dermatix that Kelly recommended. I (foolishly) went for a long walk with
Dave K on Tuesday wearing jeans, and it irritated one of my leg scars - I'm
hoping that it isn't infected. Photos of the scars are available for $14.95
each - no refunds.
Sleep - I've been sleeping on a futon at the Diack's - it's soft and I've
been sleeping well. Tried to sleep back on a regular bed the other night and
it was a disaster - too painful to move/roll/sleep. Back to the futon!
Pain - I take a couple of Tylenol at bedtime if I've had a really active
day, and feeling quite sore. The chest is still really "tight", but it is
getting better with the exercise. Brenda offered me the use of their rowing
machine. I declined. Wouldn't want to break their equipment.
Concentration - I read "East of Eden" (600 pages) in 5 days. I think my
comprehension is really improving. "East of Eden" is the story of young Luke
Skywalker and his friend Obe-Wan Kenobi, who live in New York City and write
a newspaper column about Sex.
Driving - I can drive today!! Laura couldn't be more pleased......
Plans - We'll continue to hang around Vancouver until October .... likely
with short visits to Vancouver Island and the Okanagan Valley. We hope to
start the trip south after Canadian Thanksgiving. We're going to try and get
the Airstream parked someplace where we can live in it and start making
preparations for the big trip. If anybody has a large backyard with 30 Amp
service, water and sewer, let me know. Mike and Brenda said they'd pay
"anything" to have us live in the trailer.
That's all I can think of for now. Hope you're all having a great summer.
Stay cool!!!
Platonically,
Doug
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