I see you have ice cream there…
Get a cat. Never eat alone. Her favorites – ice cream, cereal and potato chips. And don’t even think about denying her.
What’s going on today? Sports? Gardening (that was my morning) or just lazin’ around the house?
Open thread.
TaMara (HFG)
And in case I miss efgoldman: been thinking of you since I read that. Hoping it’s a quick healing.
Baud
@TaMara (HFG): What’s the news with him? I missed it.
ETA: Thanks for the working link. Chin up, champ. We’re all rooting for you.
Corner Stone
Just sportsball. I am enjoying bathing in my unmitigated disrespect for all the womens.
Major Major Major Major
Coloring in a comic strip, so I guess lazing around the house?
Schlemazel
@TaMara (HFG):
ef makes me understand I could have it so much worse.
Had a second heart attack Friday. This time though they used the MRI from the last one & decided to place a stent. Now I have added a blood thinner to the shit I have to take but they promised me it would only be a year. What makes this weird to me is there is not a history of heart disease in my family, I am mildly overweight but not yet in the ‘obese’ category by BMI (I am ~15 lb too big), never smoked, not a big salt user, get regular exercise, eat a lot of fruits & vegetables. On top of all the other shit it is yet another mystery where I just got lucky.
Lapassionara
@TaMara (HFG): hope ef checks in.
Baud
@Schlemazel: You are awfully nonchalant about your heart attacks, Take care.
raven
@Baud: I think that is an EF quote?
Brendancalling
Resting. I’m not sure if yesterday‘s comment on Open thread ever posted, but yesterday my girlfriend and I ran one of the most unpleasant half marathons we have ever run. The first 5 miles were great, but 5-11 Was almost entirely on unfinished roads the construction vehicles and farm equipment use. The road was furrowed with treadmarks, covered with gravel, and utterly unscenic. We raised money for a good cause, but I don’t know if I’m going to do that one again. My feet still hurt.
Ruckus
@TaMara (HFG):
No kidding. I missed that as well.
Take care of yourself old man. (Said second old man to first. Second old man who finally has a cardio appt. after 7 months of trying to get answers. It’s next month. And won’t hear any more about the cancer til Dec.)
Healthcare is fun, don’t let anyone tell you different.
No One You Know
@Schlemazel: That doesn’t sound fun at all. It’s amazing to me how the formula for “healthy ageing” doesn’t seem fairly applied.
I don’t know if food really is the pharmacy, but I have a book by Jean Harper that was useful when my family had a scare. Apparently onions are a blood thinner, and I upped my intake because they supported a prescription I was taking at the time.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@TaMara (HFG): Yeah, I saw in the overnight thread that he’d fallen and was having more problems. I’ve been watching for him today.
@Schlemazel: good lord. BJ is in bad shape when a second heart attack means things could have been worse. I hope the stent helps.
JeanneT
Just got back from a drive in the country in western lower Michigan, looking for autumn color. I took roads I’ve never been on before and found a lot of beautiful wooded areas to enjoy while the sun was shining in the early afternoon. A nice time!
jeffreyw
Ollie likes him some ice cream, too.
Ruckus
@Schlemazel:
Well shit.
You sound like you are describing me.
Kick ass, take names, get the most out of life that you can. And good luck.
Let’s face it, while most docs won’t say it, genetics play a big part in all of this when we get old. We can do our best to wring out as much as possible out of what we started with, but if the assembly line was having the Friday afternoons or the Monday mornings, we stand a better than even chance of needing a recall notice. Docs can do their best, and that’s pretty good these days, but the reality is that we are what we’ve always been.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
anyone know what video they’re talking about here?
HeleninEire
@TaMara (HFG): Oh gosh I missed that. I never read the food threads cuz I don’t cook AT ALL. Sometimes I look at the pictures but that’s it.
Good luck EFG. Please keep us informed.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
The 1st one, 6 weeks ago they said they could not explain. They thought it was probably stress plus an inflamed pericardium. They did an angiogram & I watched, nothing was even close to blocked, they said it would have to be at least 20% to do a balloon & 80% to stent. They did an sonogram the next day and it showed my heart working well. They did an MRI & found one small artery that was “mildly blocked” and sent me home with a statin and a beta blocker. I vowed to lose that 15 and increase my activity. I was walking a mile or 2 every day so I increased it to 3+. The week before this even I walked 23 miles, 5 of that in the hills of a state park, all without any indication of anything wrong, not even shortness of breath.
Because I was at home for this last one I went to a different hospital and different doctors. They saw the MRI & sonogram and felt that mild blockage was in the area of the attack & to insert a stent.
If I seem blaze’ about it part of that is I have so many so much worse things going on with my body currently & part of it is a fatalism borne from the mystery factor. My sons FIL is well over 400 Lbs, diabetic, never exercises, never eats anything that did not come out of a box or can. He does not have a heart attack but I do. I believe there is nothing I can do that matters.
Schlemazel
@No One You Know:
I love onions & always have eaten a lot of them. I make an eggplant tangine that is heavy in onion & when the sweet onions are in season peanut butter onion sandwiches.
I do think there is scientific evidence that sodium is a huge factor but fat much less than we have been led to believe. I think sugar is going to get increased investigation and is more involved in bad health than fat. A balanced diet is key with lots of fruit & vegetables but genes probably make a bigger difference
Ruckus
@Schlemazel:
I know a lady who is 75 and smokes, has for decades. I’ve know people who never smoked and have lung cancer. Wife of a fellow high schooler had lung cancer, never smoked. A week ago I listened to her tell the story of the removal of her right lung last year. The take away from the story is – she isn’t giving up, not even close. That’s how I feel. I signed up for the long haul and I’m not giving up after having come this far. I’ve been hit by a truck, me, not in a car, just me. I’m still here. I have cancer, I’m still here. The top of my head looks like a light tan bowling ball, I’m still here. I’ve had a HA, and….. My hands shake so bad that without modern medicine I’m not sure I could get dressed, I know I can’t brush my teeth and…..
IOW I like your attitude. Like EFG, Fuckem, come get me, I ain’t going easy.
Major Major Major Major
@HeleninEire: Shit, I missed that too. Best to efg, I know that the crotchety not-old-enough-to-be-a-coot will be just fine :)
Schlemazel
@Ruckus:
Its not really ‘fuck ’em’ it is my ‘why the fuck try?’ I’d be happy to go but there are people who need me here so I am stuck
Elizabelle
@Schlemazel:
@Ruckus:
Hugs to both of you. And to efgoldman, granddaughter spoiler. May you all recover/maintain your health and have a lot of good years left to kick asses, rhetorically and maybe even IRL.
Comes down sometimes to luck and genetics. Alas.
Mike R
To Ruckus, Shlemazel and efgoldman and to anybody else battling on and don’t give an inch. As the sign in my physical therapist’s office says “Old age isn’t for sissies”
efgoldman
@TaMara (HFG):
You’re on my list for spending a week in Boston and not arranging a meetup. At least the wiseass union busting lawyer from Atlanta pretends to be interested when he’s here.
Mnemosyne
@Schlemazel:
I just saw a post from a friend of a friend on Facebook with an equally long litany of weird, bad luck health problems and her question for the universe was, Who the hell did I piss off in my past life, anyway?
Schlemazel
@Mike R:
Thats the deal, I’m not old yet, it is going to get worse if I ever am
Baud
@efgoldman: You’re alive!
Another Scott
@Schlemazel: Don’t give up – especially if people need you. There’s still a lot of beauty in the world, and you contribute to it. We need to do what we can to make things better, and that means not letting the monsters win.
As Ruckus says, a lot of it is genetics and blind luck. My step-moms aunts almost exclusively live to be over 100, but she lost a sister before she reached 70. The men in her family don’t do so well either.
Do you drink? There are, of course, bad things about alcohol, but it can help one relax and (supposedly) may have some things that can help the heart. Moderation, of course.
Hang in there and let us know how you’re doing.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Ruckus: Some of us get dealt very bad cards in some parts of our lives – and you’ve certainly had your share. Thanks for sharing your battles and the lessons you’ve learned with us. It’s important.
Keep fighting, and best of luck going forward. Hang in there.
Best wishes,
Scott.
HeleninEire
@Ruckus: Lung cancer in women, not men, who have never smoked is, as lung cancer goes, pretty common.
Ruckus
@Schlemazel:
My rant is that none of us know, unless we take the easy way out. It could be anything. I could do noting as that truck was coming at me, it was after dark and I had no idea other than headlights coming at me as I was telling myself, “Fuck this is going to hurt.” Walked away.
It’s a crap shoot, you never know how or when it’s going to happen. My sister died of cancer, laying in a bed in hospice. She knew it was soon, but not when. As long as the dice aren’t loaded……
That’s why I give it whatever I’ve got to give. Yeah some days can be shit, those tremors are getting worse and I can’t increase my meds….. Some probably think that I overshare. And maybe I do. But like you said – “I have so many so much worse things going on with my body currently,” you aren’t alone. So do I.
efgoldman
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
I had a mild heart attack, and they put in two stents, while I was in the hospital for my stroke in 2011. Blood thinners off the menu after a year, no problems on that score.
The falls would appear to be a chronic problem, from the outside, but in fact each had a discrete cause. I know what I tripped over, and where I slipped, and why.
Bonnie
Just wanted to say: What a beautiful cat!
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
LOL
Wonder if that smart ass is listening.
HeleninEire
@Baud: YAY!
Mnemosyne
@HeleninEire:
I wonder how much of that is due to secondhand smoke exposure, though.
And then I try not to think about it because both of my parents smoked.
marcopolo
For folks following the AL Senate race here is a short clip of Doug Jones laying out his campaign slogan, “On the right side of history.”
https://twitter.com/GDouglasJones/status/915685301296812032
Hope everyone is having the Sunday they want to have: peaceful, productive, whatevs.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@efgoldman: Good to see you.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
Maternal grandfather died of congenital heart disease in his mid 40s. So did one of his daughters, with 4 kids. She had 5 but one went at 6 months, they called it crib death because they really had/have no idea. Mom outlived everyone in her family, longer than anyone in it’s history that she knew of, some by many decades, all of them by at least one
There is no rhyme or reason that we can ascertain or do anything about.
And I can’t drink red wine. It’s not the alcohol, it’s those things that might be helpful to some, in my case, they really, really aren’t.
@HeleninEire:
All of the people that I know that have lung cancer and didn’t smoke are men, other than the one.
Scamp Dog
Emergency notice about the Denver meetup tonight at 5:00–it turns out that Rosita’s closes at 3:00 on Sundays. I will scout out other restaurants nearby, get there early to make sure everyone knows there’s a plan, and then (a bit after 5:00, exact time TBD) put up a sign when we head out for any latecomers.
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne:
I often joke I am like Job except God lost his bet on me
Schlemazel
@Another Scott:
No, in addition to never smoking I have never been a big drinker. For the last 40 years I can coun’t the number of times I have had more than 2 beers or glasses of wine in a single day and there have been may hundreds of days without either.
I got good and drunk the night of my moms memorial service but that seemed the thing to do at the time. Once in 40 years
Elizabelle
@Scamp Dog: Good luck.
Maybe y’all can do a pubs crawl.
lurker dean
@Ruckus: well said, Ruckus, i hope i can have the fight you have. and quick healing to all the sick juicers out there.
Omnes Omnibus
Could everyone please stop getting ill?
debbie
@efgoldman:
Glad you seem to be surviving yourself. I’ve had a few falls and am now more careful as I make my way around. No shame in using a walker if it keeps you upright.
@Schlemazel:
Hope it’s a very, very long time until the third one. Glad you’re calm. I wouldn’t be.
rikyrah
@Schlemazel:
Thanks for the update. I had totally missed this.
Sending positive thoughts and prayers.
hedgehog mobile
@Schlemazel: Hug. Take care.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
This is definitely making my sprained knee feel like small potatoes.
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): Thanks for the link to that, TaMara, I had completely missed it. EF, hang tough. i hope things start to head in the right direction soon.
Ruckus
@lurker dean:
Sort of on a tear this last couple of days.
Guy I worked with for 3 yrs, is gone. A good guy, funny, fun seemed full of life. He was born disabled, couldn’t walk. Many, many, many operations as a child, he walks! But he was always in pain. He’s gone now, he made a choice. He was 27. I have an inkling of why but will never really know.
Life is short. Some days it doesn’t seem like it but really it is. When I was 27 I could not see myself at 68. You just can’t make that connection. What will happen for the next 40 yrs? What will happen tomorrow? No one has ever been able to see the future, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. The mystery of life isn’t god or no god, it isn’t who or what forms the millions/billions of planets/stars/suns, it’s what happens tomorrow. Tomorrow may or may not be yours, planets will be here for millions of years. There will be new ones formed, old ones will crash into their suns or into something else, eventually. One day, the sun won’t be there. But you might be here tomorrow, if you try, if you work at tomorrow. In the big picture you can’t change or control shit. You can’t even control tomorrow, but you can make it more likely that you will be here, to see tomorrow, and the tomorrow after that. That’s all we really have, everything else is bullshit.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus:
Those are the exact words I said out loud as I read efgoldman’s description of where things are at the moment.
efgoldman
@Mike R:
Attributed to Bette Davis, on the Carson show. .
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne:
Thats the thing isn’t it. I look at other people like ef & know I could be in so much worse shape than I am so why should I feel sorry for myself? But the deal is that your problems are your problems and, really, people better or worse off are not the issue at all. Its OK to feel bad when bad things happen just try not to let that run your life.
Miss Bianca
hey, all yez ailing jackals hang in there, please. this place wouldnt be the same without you.
Ruckus
@Schlemazel:
Truth.
There is never more than one oldest person but out of the 6+ billion people on this rock, how can there not always be people better or worse off than you? And you can help make their problems better or worse collectively, that’s what societies do, but they are the ones that have to live with, or not, their problems.
satby
Wishing good thoughts to all of you and hoping the various treatments help you.
So the lesson is to stay away from doctors cause what you don’t know can’t hurt you??
/ Hoping the snark is obvious.
Kathleen
@Schlemazel: Sending you prayers. I do hope you feel better soon.
Kathleen
@Ruckus: Hey, you take good care of yourself, Young Man! You’ve certainly had your share of medical crap. Prayers for you, too!
Kathleen
@efgoldman: Just saw your post from earlier. Hang in there, Dear EF, and know your IRL and BJ families are rooting for you.
Ruckus
@Kathleen:
Thanks
Medical crap becomes one of the only things you can claim as you age up. Or not. From the looks of it mom was in better shape at 83 than I am now. But I also watched her die in ICU once, standing there talking to her in the late 70s when she was 8 yrs younger than I am now. That will put a kink in your step. Especially as she ended up living another 34 yrs after they revived her. It was her time and then poof, it wasn’t.
MomSense
@TaMara (HFG):
Oh no! I missed that news. Ef to the G I will keep you and Mrs. in my thoughts. I hope your lesions heal and you can get back to PT and feeling better.
MomSense
@Schlemazel:
I’m really sorry. I hope the stent helps and you don’t have any more of these episodes.
@efgoldman:
Rooting for you, EfG.
MomSense
@Ruckus:
After almost 80 years of being really healthy and fit my dad’s heart blew up. Turns out he has Marfan Syndrome. So we live each day as best we can. Sending you big hugs.
CaseyL
Gawd, we’re a creaky old bunch, aren’t we? Like Mnemosyne, my slowly deteriorating joints (just did something weird to what had been my good ankle) seem like very small potatoes.
Get well, everyone! Stick around; you’re good company. Even the curmudgeons.