"Hey you... yeah you, Lard Ass!"

[bikerphil]

Hey Prom, thanks for sharing that with us. Makes one start thinkin' a bit.

[madmax-im]

Prom you are very fortunate despite your ill health.My younger brother had a heart attack at age 42...over 11 yrs ago.He was/is in fairly good physical condition but smokes alot of cigarettes. For a while afterwards he did manage to quit smoking but eventually he went back to it. In my family I have seen first hand what poor health habits combined with smoking and alcoholism can do to kill you.My father dies at age 62 from a bad heart(years of angina) and my oldest brother dies at age 59 from cancer. Thing is if you sit aroud and dont make the effort or you ignore what your body is telling you,sooner or later its gonna catch up to you...guess you already know that. Hindsight is always 20/20...so to say. Not to sound like the pitying type but I hope you're on the road to recovery and that this motivates you to get out and take better care of yourself...God knows I hate hospitals thats the last place I'd want to be...Glad to see you are still amongst us mortals...

[prometheus578]

Final thoughts

Not that I feel the need to continue the "Pity Party".. but I left out some important details that I wanted to include in this Public Service Message.
Ya see... heart attacks rarely strike without warning.
But, what commonly happens is... people go into denial about the symptoms... blaming it on something else.
I'll post some quick links to heart attack symptoms when I finish this... but look at how I ignored, or justified, general soreness, being tired, lack of energy, being unable to catch my breath, a tight chest and ... don't forget the heartburn/indigestion!

Here's some quick snippets of PM's that I sent out the day before my heart attack... The last one just a few hours before it struck!


"someone snuck up behind me and beat me up!"

"Oh geez, am I sore!
Like someone pushed me down the stairs or something.
Man...
Just woke and took some more motrin.
I mean.. who'd figger?
But then.. after months of not moving from my chair, I suppose anything would make me sore."


(And then I detailed my activities of the day...how I cleaned up after the dogs... and then pushed some bikes into the shed)

"Ack... my back!"
Not just my back.. it seems that bending over to work a shovel also works those cables in the back of your legs, too.
"Ack... my cables!"

Ok.. pushed the XS850 into the shed.
walked back huffin' and puffin'...
Pushed the XS1100 into the shed...

I took a nap around 8:00PM.
woke...
"Ack.. my body!"
Back to sleep around 9:00pm and now alive and painfully not well at 4:00am.
But.. I did get a few things done.
I won't be able to move for two days... but...

"Initially, both shoulder joints were just slightly sore, but now, my good shoulder is a little sore, my bad shoulder doesn't hurt at all.
Sure, I must shoulder the blame for this.
Well, actually, bad shoulder feels a little warm.
Not painful.. but that feeling you get when you use something.

"Ack!..
again..
Ack....
Anyway.. was sitting back relaxed.. then sat up forward to type and ...
"Ack.. my back!" (actually, it was my whole chest!)
Oh geez, am I sore.
Hehhehehe
Man, getting old.
HEY!!!!!
HEY!!!!
I could delve into my supply of muscle relaxants and narco pain pills.....
Yeah, but... would get nothing done all day.
But then again.. judging by how I feel, I'll get nothing done today, anyway."

"Here it is... 11:00 at night....
Oh, and of course.. I've been giving the girls (My dogs) treats all day... and they're both in here gassing me out.
There's just no way to describe it... makes your chest hurt to breathe. A dry acid-y chemical smell... like burnt hair. Just searing the linings of my lungs. And it lingers!
I lied.. I still had some kimchee left.. so I finished the bottle. Now.. I can't recall ever having heartburn before, so I don't really know what it's like... but I can suppose it's like how I feel right now (aside from the help that the dogs are giving to the cause.
Woe is me."

Five hours later... all hell broke loose!


So... classic symptoms of angina... classic symptoms of an impending heart attack... all easily explained away. Me ignoring the fact that I knew that something wasn't right.

Heart attack at 4:00am... and quickly rushed into surgery at 5:00am... which is why I didn't sustain too much dead heart muscle.


For those of you who aren't mechanically inclined... a heart attack is when the blood flow to the heart muscle is blocked. They then tap into the femoral artery in your leg and snake a speedometer cable through it up to your heart. Once at the blockage(as shown in the first pic)

they inflate a little balloon thingie that expands and opens the artery again. In my case, they also put in an expanding steel mesh tube which stays there, holding it open. (stent). You can see the immediate resulting blood flow in the next pic.

(And yes.. you get to watch the whole thing on the big X-ray TV)

Brings instant pain relief!

Doc: "How'd that feel?"
Me: What do you want, a medal? Finish up.. I wanna go home."
(See.. I'm snippy with everyone!)

(Like when the fire dept. barged into my house...
"Hey, don't you people knock?"
Followed by the paramedics five minutes later...
"Hey... wipe your feet... I just had the carpet cleaned!"
(My son just stood there looking at me.. shakin' his head...)

That poor guy in the ambulance with me...
"Can you tell me your name, Sir?"
"Yeah, I know my name... And I see that your name is Limp-Dick."
"Sir, the patch on my shirt says "Olympic Ambulance". "O"-"Lim"-"Pic"... not Limp-Dick."
"Well.. I don't have my reading glasses on."

Anyway... like I said...
What I hope everyone gleans out of all this is to recognize the warning signs of a heart attack and to seek help... before the attack actually happens.


Angina: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/...dSymptoms.html

Heart Attack: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/...ck_WhatIs.html


And yes... I do have perfectly formed nipples, thank you... but those round things in the pics are electrocardiogram sensor thingies.

[Rasputin]

Prom's Right

Ya know something Prom. Yer absolutely right in this post. I know I am one of the ones who need to hear just such words. I am 51 now and aint as spry as I used to be and every once in a while a guy needs a gentle reminder. Sorry about your predicament being "THE" gentle reminder for me though. Hurry up and get yer azz back in shape as we all kinda miss ya.

[ccogswel]

Well Prom you asked not too but I have to say I hope you get better.

As for anyone here trying to replace Proms witt and charm??? Come on please. It would take all of us just to complete maybe 10% of him. I myself thought I was out there until I found channel 11 and read what all prom has said. I (we) have nothing on Prom. But for me anyway there is still hope.

And as for the hospital issue. I bet right before Prom was put under he said "to boldly go where no man has gone before" LOL

Get well soon Prom.

[Cobia]

Triple Clean in Order

Hey you,
Get your butt out of that bed and perform the required third cleaning of your carbs...... or better yet, have your cardiologist perform it on your deep passages there.
Hey, I don't look forward to that scare.....
I just turned 57 and smoked until the day of my b-day, now the drinking is another story.
Get well fast, you don't look very thrilled in there, but then again based on your scribbles you never are anyway.......!!!!
We miss your sourpuss input so snap out of it, lardass.

[dpotter58]

Best wishes from Rebecca and i prom. Do whattheytell ya and get back to it

[DJinNH]

What's my point? I don't know. All these pills have me a bit light-headed... let me think for a minute.

(Like at a dining table and asking, "Are you gonna eat that?) Let me know if you don't want your Dilaudid (morphine) shots, that is if you are getting any. I'll gladly use them for my legs.

Hope you're improving, healthwise at least.

Don

[webbcraft2150]

I pity the hospital staff. I can only imagine the grief they must endure as our dear Prom is hooked up to more tubes than a carb sycronizer on a CBX Honda. I wish a speedy recovery you geriatric pterodactyl. Soon as I finish this pack of smokes, my breakfast of bacon, greasy hashbrowns and 4 eggs should be ready.

[latexeses]

Wel prom.. I set it up for you.. Swing away.

Discharged

[DGXSER]

Hmmmmm Latexeses

Did you mean "discarded" or "Discharged"? Only one letter difference in each, and both seem just as likely!!

Prom must be worn out or we could never get away with all this unretaliated.

Hey Prom, see how many try to emulate your style to make up for your absence, they say imitation is the best form of flattery...

[latexeses]

Here is the Question.....

Which will happen first??

Prom is discarged from the hospital???

Prom is thrown out of the hospital???

Does it sound like a poll question?

[Meri]

Oy Vey!

It takes a lot to get me out of lurker mode into poster mode, but I guess this item qualifies. Good Grief! I couldn't believe it when I read it. This news is almost more than any red-blooded American Woman should be expected to bear. How could it possibly be? Prom? That perpetual dispenser of wit and wisdom and occasional vileness the genius of which bears no equal? He, whom many aspire to be like when I they grow up?

Prom?

You're three years younger than I am???

Tell me it isn't so...

<sigh>

[thewiz]

I'm glad you're not gonna ...

kick right now!! I've got a few more stupid questions yet to ask you so get better soon.

While you're layin' out, have the bookmobile (or someone) bring ya' a copy of "The Abs Diet" by Zinzenko. It the most practical, sensible treatise on excercise and diet I've read to date.

[Ivan]

Look at it this way, you can lose weight and get your meds....yeah we can fix that.

He can get a nose job, cheek implants, chin worked over, eyes lifted or whatever the heck they do to them....yeah we can fix that to.

However, if you don't listen up and do something about those medical issues....well.....as Ron White put it "you can't fix stupid". (Said with the best intentions and concern for your well being).

The truth is that my cholesterol is actually low, and my triglycerides are just fine. My blood pressure rarely breaks 110/70 and I eat healthily. No fast foods for me, although sometimes I slip up. Lots of diet food and protien bars.

I weigh right at 325, which is small for my family, on either side. My last living grandmother is heavier than I. I have an uncle that makes me look like a midget in a pro football line. One of my aunts out weighs me, and is healthy as an ox. Now here is the interesting part: the only person in my family that I know of to die of heart troubles was my maternal grandfather. He weighed about 175, and at 60 years of age could bench press over 250. He was fit and died of congestive heart failure.