Rich Z (WebSlave)

You yourself have said the instructions seemed contradictory. You might call your health team if you have questions, and call your insurance company to see whether they will pay for home assistance if your health team tells you to be careful of certain activities. If they give you the green light to do anything, fine. If they don't, listen to them.

Originally Posted by Lucille

You yourself have said the instructions seemed contradictory. You might call your health team if you have questions, and call your insurance company to see whether they will pay for home assistance if your health team tells you to be careful of certain activities. If they give you the green light to do anything, fine. If they don't, listen to them.

I would bet that everyone I talked to would give a different answer. We have gone through that many times when Connie has called to ask about clarification of something concerning her situation.

My interpretation of the facts I have seen is everyone is just guessing.

So my stance is to do as much as I would normally, just favor my right arm as best I can. At least as much as I can without getting into an argument with Connie over it, anyway. She is way over protective of me.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

So my stance is to do as much as I would normally, just favor my right arm as best I can.

When I had my spinal fusions (I know, not the same thing, but still surgery), they were very specific with weight limits: 5 pounds. So, no gallon of milk, bags of rodent feed,
reticulated pythons, etc.

I guess it also depends on how you feel. Are you in pain, dizzy, lightheaded, or bleeding? Pain is the body's way of stopping people from doing stupid things. As we discussed before, the stents are allowing much better blood flow, and should make you feel a lot better. You still have to allow time to heal though.

My blood oxygen content actually is higher than before. Blood pressure and pulse rate are green across the board.

I feel fine.

Except, of course, when I think of what Connie is going through, or see her obviously not feeling too well. That is definitely a flaming blade right through my heart. Not at "valium level" lately, but mostly because I am trying harder not to allow my mind to wander into darker areas of the possible future.

I had to go over to the garage for a few things, and while I was there I happened to glance at the little hand held metal detector I had sitting on a shelf. Hmmm.... So I put a battery in it, tested it to make sure it was still working, and put it up to my heart area. Nothing. For some reason I was vaguely disappointed. I have the larger one with the disk end on it in the garage too, but I would have to load up the battery pack for it and figure out how to use it again before I could test with that.

Maybe they just put some cheap Chinese plastic stents into my heart. Probably comes with a lifetime warranty, though.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

I had to go over to the garage for a few things, and while I was there I happened to glance at the little hand held metal detector I had sitting on a shelf. Hmmm....



...Maybe they just put some cheap Chinese plastic stents into my heart. Probably comes with a lifetime warranty, though.

I remember the look on my son's face when he passed a metal detector over my abdomen and it beeped. That was fun.

I've also set off TSA metal detectors on occasion. That can be less fun. Once I had to strip down completely, which was annoying andworrisome and cold. Not only did I make the detector beep, I was wearing an abdominal/ back support band. I hadn't thought about that item looking like a wearable bomb, but TSA did. They took it away and tested it for explosives residue. Nada, naturally. Almost missed my flight because I'm one suspicious-looking grandma type. Lol

My point is, be glad your stent didn't register. And the "lifetime warranty" cracked me up! Glass you are mostly feeling like yourself!

Sent from my SM-A716U1 using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Would you allow your spouse, who has cancer, to pick up all the slack?

you can hire help for things around the house and the yard work

:P


Just try to take it easy a bit, all the strain physically and emotionally can be a lot even if you feel 'fine'. just trying to look out for ya is all

Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

you can hire help for things around the house and the yard work

:P

I know that sounds like an easy solution. I don't know what it is like in your area but around here it is extremely rare to hire someone to do something who doesn't wind up damaging something else in the process. It must be a local law. When I am working clearing brush and weeds, I am constantly working around plants (palms, hollies, or anything unusual), so someone else certainly wouldn't do that. We have a friend with a tractor who has offered to come over and work maintaining the property for us, but EVERYTHING would go that way, and we just don't want it done that way. So it just has to wait until I am able.

Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

Just try to take it easy a bit, all the strain physically and emotionally can be a lot even if you feel 'fine'. just trying to look out for ya is all

Actually I am taking it easy. I really need to try to stay on top of the woods moving back in, but it is just going to have to wait. I gave the first stent procedure about a month before I was out using the extended hedge trimmer to cut some weeds in the front yard, so I will likely do the same with this last stent. I think that should be enough of a healing process. Personally, I think just laying around without getting any substantial exercise will be bad for me in the long run anyway. I think at my age being inactive for too long could possibly put me in a decline of strength and stamina that would be difficult to recover from.

Of course, Connie isn't going to let me do too much anyway. That heart attack episode I had really unnerved her, so if I am out of sight for too long she gets REALLY worried that maybe I had another one and am lying somewhere unconscious. Or dead. I was out in my shooting blind yesterday morning for 2 hours trying to pop a squirrel that the cameras spotted in one of the Asian pear trees and I thought SHE was going to have a heart attack worrying about me. It is not hard work just sitting there, but she couldn't keep an eye on me. And she yelled at me when I happened to pick up the rifle with my right arm.

So, not a chance I am going to overdo things for a while unless I feel like getting into a fight with my wife over it.

But thanks for the concern. I realize I now have two pieces of metal bracing in my heart's arteries, and that is enough for me to understand I am no longer as invulnerable as I thought I was. Or at least wanted to be.

Well, a perfect example presented itself today to underscore what I have been saying.

Our submersible well pump died. I did all the diagnostics to rule out everything else, but no go for an easy fix. Bad pump by ruling out everything else. The tank and the well casing going into the ground are quite distant from the house, because it was pre-existing when we bought the property. Which was 30 some years ago. So now it is pretty much in the woods. Fortunately I did clear some brush away from some areas close by, over the last couple of years, but still a lot to do when I got a round tuit. Got a guy coming out tomorrow to replace the pump, but he says he needs to be able to get his crane within 5 to 8 ft. of the well. Otherwise he just can't do the job. That is going to be a big problem with how it is right now, unless his crane is on a tank or a monster 4 wheeler. There is NO path accessible via truck to that water pump right now.

I asked a friend to bring a tractor over tomorrow early AM, to bushhog a path from our driveway back to the pump. I also have to be manning the pole saw because a lot of yaupon saplings along with grape vines are overhanging the pump and there is no way the guy would be able to get to the crane to drop straight down to pull out that pump straight up out of the ground. So I have to be manning the pole saw and the chainsaw to cut all that overhanging mess away. Not sure what my cardiologist would say about me doing this sort of activity less than a week from the surgery, but I really don't have any choice. Hopefully I won't end up in the ER tomorrow with another heart incident but these are the cards I was dealt today. Connie sure as hell can't be doing it, so I'm the guy holding the short straw. And she is pretty much having a kitten about me going out there doing that kind of work right now. But what are my choices? We have no running water right now.

Weather forecast is saying rain after 2pm, so hopefully they aren't wrong and I wind up doing that work in the rain too. They say that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I am flipping a coin on this one. Could go either way. Or could be it will be both if I die and am pretty strong smelling because I didn't get that shower I was planning on tonight. Probably not the optimum thing to be doing for my recovery period. Are know you are all telling me I need to relax, but how can I when stuff like this pops up? It's not like I have a lot of choices in the matter. Connie sure as heck can't be out there helping me, because I sure don't want her being bitten by mosquitoes, and chances are she would get cut from the saplings and branches and as a result subject to possible infections. So yeah, I am IT.

My friend with the tractor showed up a little after 6:00am. He had been planning on showing up around 8:30, but he knew I would be out there working to clear that path before he got there so he wouldn't be yelling at ME to take it easy after the heart stuff I've been through, and he wanted to try to head ME off. I had been planning on getting out there around 7:00am. So yeah, he knew what I was thinking. I didn't sleep much anyway, and was actually awake when the driveway alarm went off.

Honestly, no way I could have gotten that done without his help. At least not in less than a week. I was cutting vines, but honestly, holding that extended hedge trimmer over my head was pretty taxing work. I had to take frequent breaks. My stamina just isn't what is used to be.

The well repair guys got there around 11:00 or so, and their name "Lightning Quick" really seems to suit them. They didn't waste any time. Come to find out that the pump was actually OK. What had happened was that the pipe from the well head down to the pump was made of PVC and apparently over the past 10 years since that pump was put in, had been flexing enough from the torque from the pump motor to actually break a wire going to the pump. They testing the pump itself and the windings were about dead center in the specs, so they recommended just to keep on using that pump, since it is an excellent brand known to continue working 20 years or more. They replaced the PVC piping with metal pipe and new did new wiring. Working like a champ right now. I drained both legs of the water lines for an hour each to clear out all the gunk from the water being disturbed. It was quite muddy when the guy started the pump and just had the water shooting out onto the ground.

Oh yeah, good thing they were "Lightning Quick" because they got done right before the skies opened up and it poured like hell. I got soaked getting the check for them, and then helping my friend (Rickey) back out of the driveway with that trailer with his tractor on it. Actually, had I had a bar of soap with me then, I wouldn't be needing a shower tonight.

Anyway, I had "resumed normal activity" for me, and so far I haven't dropped over dead. Of course, tomorrow morning might be another story. But I'll be going with Connie to her chemo treatment, so if my heart acts up, she can just drop me off at the ER on the way.

So as I have mentioned before, sure, I would like to be able to take it easy for a month of so after the heart surgery, but sometimes it just is not possible to do. Sometimes things just HAVE to be done, with no other options available. I am just lucky that Rickey is retired too, and was able to come right over to help with his tractor. Otherwise I would have had to be working a lot harder for a lot longer to do what needed to be done.

Aren't these "Golden Years" I have reached just the best ever?