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I was talking to a slightly younger friend last week and he said he was hitting ‘Double Nickels’ this year. As you can see, my page has my updated age as of last Friday – I am now ‘Six Dimes’. And today my quit date has hit 64 months or 5 1/3 years. I wish there was a way to increase the quit time without increasing the age, but that is not to be. But for sure the longer you stay quit the longer you can celebrate birthdays.
On the upside I had to renew my driver’s license. And now for the first time in 20 something years I do not have to wear glasses or contacts to drive my car! On the other hand I can’t see the dashboard too well so I might run out of gas, but I don’t have that restriction.
I didn’t want any sort of big birthday party for my sixtieth– we don’t seem to have time for that these days. What I asked for and received were tickets to the Puccini opera La Boheme. The Houston Opera will be performing this in mid April. That gives me two months to try to learn something about it. I plan to get a CD of it and study it so I know the story in English and Italian by the time I go. Why? For centuries some people have been in love with opera. I never have been one of those people. So I must be missing something in my life. I just want to see if I can find the beauty in this that so many others have. This may be one of those ‘bucket list’ things but that's ok.
Most of you know that I had a number of procedures and very serious cardiovascular surgeries in 2003, my first quit year – and they are documented in this journal. Last year I tried to get a diagnosis on the lower back and hip pain I have had for several years. I got seriouos about it and went to surgeons, went through numerous diagnostic tests, and kept pushing to get some answers. At the end of last year I was told I was an enigma. The orthopedic surgeons, pain specialists and spinal surgeons agreed I had real pain but could not find anything they could fix with confidence through surgery to reduce the pain. Their conclusion was that I should look into vascular causes for these pains.
Last Monday I had my semi-annual cardiovascular checkup and brought these findings to my cardiologist’s attention. Fortunately my heart and all its bypasses and its mechanical valve are working well. But they did find decreased blood flow to one leg, which could cause back pain. So next Thu I will have an exploratory arteriogram of my legs and the arteries leading to them to check for blockages. That is a pretty simple procedure that I have had done before a couple of times. It is possible they will put in stents or balloons. I will go in early morning (5:30am) and depending what the outcome is leave the hospital late afternoon or the next day. I will be so happy if they are able to find the cause and fix it. I don’t like being an enigma.
I hope you never have a similar story. These circulation problems associated with blood flow to everything but your heart (head, arms and legs) are called peripheral vascular diseases. These diseases occur more frequently as we age, but much frequently and sooner if you are a smoker or former smoker.
So if you haven’t quit yet please do as soon as possible. Going through smoking related diseases puts a lot of questions in whatever future plans you may have…
--- Gandalf
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