I have made a terrible mistake. I started re-reading the old blogs again. Probably take me months to finish them. Most of them make me cry or happy or laugh or something. Remembering all the good times and some of the sad. Guess I will continue.
I did fail to update you all on my current situation. I think I mentioned I had a heart attack but I never went back and gave any details. Seems kind of cruel on my part. I'll try to make up for it now.
Last year, around May to July, I was working a job replacing computers for the main power company in Queensland. I was doing a lot of traveling, going to different power plants each week. The job was basically replacing old and outdated equipment at the sites. About 800 computers all together. Not very complicated work, other than the sites are not very organized and they never knew where any of the computers were. We ended up having to go to each building and check all the computers to see if they needed replacing. The main reason for doing this was the upgrade to Windows 10 as Microsoft was not supporting older versions of the software and since the power plants are critical infrastructure, they had to be replaced before the end of the year. Me and one other guy were tasked with doing this and we gone for about 12 straight weeks. This was in the middle of the COVID crisis so travel was severely restricted. We had to get government approval to do it and had to carry around a letter authorizing us to be there and travel from site to site. But all that is just the background of the story I am telling, just to give you and idea of where the trouble started.
Part of the job was to carry the new computers from one building or floor to another and then bring the old equipment back. We had carts and trolleys to do this but power plant sites are fairly large and not always cart friendly so some physical labor was involved. After a while, I started to notice I was beginning to have the old familiar chest pains. It happened mostly when I was walking up and down stairs but eventually started happening whenever I walked anywhere.
Me being me, I thought I would ignore it until I could finish the contract. It wasn't great money but it was steady money and if I started going to the doctor, they would make me stop. So I continued without reporting it. Near the end, with only one site left and it was local, I decided I had to go see the doctor about it. I made an appointment for some other reason and, as I had not told anyone including Juanita, that I was having the pains, I said I was going in for my back.
Juanita decided she was going with me. Now, at this point, the pain was fairly constant in some form or another. Even standing up and sitting down would cause some pain. When I went into the doctor, Juanita started in on telling him about my back and how I needed pain killers to fix it. Long story, but Juanita's sister Karen has back problems and she takes very strong medication for it every day. I am not a big believer in taking pain medication. Lots of reasons but the main one being I think it masks the pain and lets you do things that you shouldn't, therefor causing you more problems than you had before. Eventually, you become dependent on the pain killers, like Karen is, and you cannot function without them. I don't want to go down that trail as it leads to stronger and stronger medication and eventually, they stop working for you altogether. But that is a tail for another day and is the bane of my existence at the moment. But we are talking about the heart attack.
I had to stop Juanita from telling the tale of my back and discuss with the doctor the real reason for my visit. My angina pains. You can probably know where this leads as Juanita was unaware of the problem and made a fairly big deal of the fact that I had not told her. But I won't go into that either. The doctor said they would run some blood tests and see if they showed anything and to come back when the tests were done. This took about three days.
All of this was taking place in July or early August. I went back in three days and told the doctor that the pain was fairly constant at that time. Not a bad pain but it was there. He hooked me up to a EKG or ECG or whatever it is that has all the electrodes and monitors. He says he saw a problem. Now it was sometime later that they determined maybe there wasn't a problem there but the doctor at the time immediately sent me to the hospital. I was at the doctor by myself at the time, Maeghan was with me but she had gone off shopping. I had to call her and tell her to come back and to call Juanita to come pick her up as I was going to the hospital in an ambulance. Frightening indeed. Juanita ended up walking to the doctors office, we didn't live far at the time, and she got there before the ambulance so I was able to tell her it was just a precaution and they just wanted to run some more tests.
I vaguely remember writing this before but I am not sure. Lost my mind. But I was going to tell of the recent events anyway so I will skip over the next few parts and just go to the present. Suffice it say, the hospital found nothing and I was sent to a cardiologist who I am currently seeing. He tried to do a CT scan but that failed so I was scheduled for a stress test a few weeks ago.
They decided I could not do the real stress test of walking on the treadmill because of my back. They were going to use some kind of drug that made the heart think it was under stress and make it beat faster and faster. It was during this, or immediately after, that I am told I was having a heart attack and to lie down to make it feel better. This was after the actual test while I was sitting up and recovering. I started to feel really strange and dizzy and nauseous. They said I was about to faint so I should lie down. They hooked me back up and did some things but eventually, I started to feel better and was perfectly fine in about 20 minutes. It was then the doctors came in and told me I would be staying for a few days to do an angiogram. They said the test was positive, positive for what I have no idea, but I had some blockage and they had to find where.
It wasn't until the next day that they came in and told me the blood tests indicated that I had had at least one heart attack during the procedure and probably more than one. Of course, I was in the hospital so it was the best place to have one, or so I was told over and over again.
Since I have gone on and on about this, I will just give the results as once again, I am tired of typing. They found a blockage in one of the bypasses I had 15 years ago. I had three, although I am sure they told me four at the time, and while two of them were fine, one of them was blocked. Since it is already a bypass, they cannot bypass it again. I have no idea why but that is what I am told. So my treatment is medication. 14 different medicines I now take everyday. Including the pain tablet I am required to take for my back. I am supposed to take the pain tablet twice a day but we know my feelings on that.
Of course, I have to lose weight. Always the case no matter what is wrong with you. I go for walks but with my back, that is problematic. I am told to try swimming and I have a pass to the local swimming pool so I will be doing that also. Less impact on my back. It's been a couple of weeks. Been back to the doctor but not the cardiologist yet. I have an appointment tomorrow but I was told in the hospital they were cancelling that one and making a new one in three weeks. I will have to check if I am supposed to go tomorrow or not.
I'm doing ok. I have considered retiring but I can't really afford it and the doctor said I was only 60 so I can't retire. We will see how things go. I am planning on seeing if I can get my social security from America but I have looked into it in the past and it does not seem like an easy process. I have told my work I am part time now. Not that I was ever full time but maybe they can find me something a couple of days a week to keep me busy. Otherwise, I am set to retire in six years. I get my full benefits then and won't have any worries. My only hope is to try to make it that long. On the good side. I am fully funded and if something does happen to me, my family is rich as they get almost double my pension. It's a lot of money.
Now that I have typed forever and said nothing, it is time to go back to bed. Although it is now time to get up to take William to school so I won't be in bed for long. I'd like some breakfast but I am not allowed to eat. I think I will have oatmeal today. I like oatmeal but what I want is an omelet. Don't have time to make one, especially if I put bacon and cheese in it. Then I can sit and have another heart attack in the comfort of my own living room. I got some raison toast yesterday, for Juanita, and that sounds really good if I make french toast out of it. It is the thick sliced kind just made for soaking in egg and then frying. Sounds really good. I will think about it while I am eating my oatmeal.
Until next time
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