Wake Up Calls

mamav

mamav

Joined
Apr 23, 2003
Messages
1,413
Friends, this week I recieved 2 wake up calls of the sort I really didn't like. One friend, age 53, had his heart go into arhythmia (or how ever you spell that).He was hospitalized and did get it back to normal, but is now on more meds. And this morning my pager went off at 0430 hrs and I was off to the emergency room for a 57 y/o man who went into total cardiac arrest. His wife is my age, and was lucky she heard him coughing. By the time she got to his side, he was "gone". He went 6-8+ minutes with no oxygen to his brain and even though they got his heart started and did the cath and cleared his veins, he is still unconscious and even if he comes to, may have sustained significant brain damage. Our bodies are fragile and we must take care of them. Please consider what you are doing to yourself. We all have family and friends who enjoy our company and will miss us when we are gone. Why leave too early. Of course, I know that we all have a date, but there is no need to rush it along.

A week before Christmas, Karen and I joined the gym and hired a personal trainer for an entire year. I don't have heart problems but I also don't want to get them. I have no desire to live so sick that you can't enjoy anything, so I am serious about staying on top of this. And even though the kid is young there is no better time than the present to start her on a life long journey of health.

Please consider your choices. They do matter to someone. And if you think no one cares, well we all do!!
 
Thanks for the reminder Gin. When you get that wake-up call, it's really a jolt. None of us will live forever, but I've lived my life like I had unlimited time.

We don't.

So live healthy, and don't put off anything! Tomorrow might not come.

Smoke and prayers for your friends.

Steve
 
A coworker for the last 19 years was diagnosed with lung cancer last summer. Chemo, radiation, everything they've tried hasn't been effective. It's now spread to his spine and the prognosis is about three months at best. Right up until his first diagnosis he was a three pack a day smoker. Even during his treatments, he'd still sneak the occasional smoke.
My girlfriend smokes and nothing seems to scare her enough to want to quit.

By the way, Good job. Taking care of yourself goes a long way to remain in the company of friends and family.
 
mamav said:
I was off to the emergency room for a 57 y/o man who went into total cardiac arrest. His wife is my age, and was lucky she heard him coughing. By the time she got to his side, he was "gone".
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Possibility of advanced sleep apnea. I was fortunate in getting mine diagnosed and now sleep with a CPAP machine that helps me breathe. My doctor told me that many hearts attacks during the night can be traced to sleep apnea. If you snore heavily, get it checked out. It can kill you.

Two years ago my wife Anne had fibroids in her abdomen. We scheduled surgery to remove these which are usually benign. The doctors needed to do a hysterectomey. They checked her ovaries, removed, and found malignant cancer in one of them. Fortunately it was contained in that ovary and they got it.

She is fine now, but would probably have been dead otherwise.

December 24th my head of maintenance's wife was murdered by a homeless man. No one knows why, she had an argument with him and he shot her. She was 54.

My point is to take care of yourself. Get your checkups. You will not live forever.

AND TELL THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE THAT YOU LOVE THEM NOW!
 
After my bipass, I would shuffle around the neighborhood in my slippers and bathrobe, telling anyone who failed to avoid me: "Remember what's important in life."


Oh, the late Jerry Mings. He sure had a nice sword and khukuri collection when he went.
Nobody could stand to be around him though.
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I got my wake up call after being rear ended by a U-Hual truck while sitting at a red light. Life is too short, my only thoughts were I'm glad I was the only one in the car since my daughter carseat is behind mine and it was crushed. That was six months ago and I still can't get it out of my head although my back is constantly reminding me.
 
I need more exercise. I'm so out of shape now that starting the chain saw exhausts me, (you try pulling it 20 times) and by the time I get a couple days wood cut I'm through.

A couple years ago I wasn't in bad shape, but today everything just feels cloggy, if you know what I mean.

Lots of people used to die in their fifties, and still do.

I'll never forget being outhiked by a 70 year old on San Gorgonio one year.


munk
 
I'm getting back into shape, slowly. My two grandfathers each died from heart disease at 55 ... so I've got 11 more years on the clock.

Though on the whole, I'd prefer a nice sharp heart attack to the other family tradition ... a lingering death by alzheimer's or parkinson's. Even if those deaths came 20 years later. When I'm done, I just want to get outta here.

If I'm still around at 70, I'm gonna take up smoking a pipe, and eat as much red meat as I can. Sooner if I get an early Alzheimer's diagnosis ...
 
Not to mention, simple age is killing us all one day at a time. A cheerful thought which ocurred to me when I noticed arthritis in a shoulder today while picking up a 30-pound pack.

"He who has health is wealthy, though he knows it not." - Polonius.

If you have your health and are halfway intelligent, you are doubly blessed.

A wake-up call can get you back on the road to where your odds are best of becoming an older person someday. You do want that, believe it or not. Quitting smoking, eating right and a plethora of other things you know you should do increase your odds of living longer: the only goal worth working towards.


Mike (eats right, doesn't smoke or drink, and will die anyways- some $#@*&! day) :foot:
 
i almost died in 96 because of a bad pancrease-landlord saved me,said he walked by my window while washing his car,said i looked like guys he saw in korea,they all died-he threw me in his acr and took me to the hospital-massive dehydration from 2 weeks being sick-was a odd color because my kidney and liver shut down-guess i was hours away from ---------------

i thought i had the flu-WRONG

said i had to stop drinking-i did
 
mamav said:
Friends, this week I recieved 2 wake up calls of the sort I really didn't like...
Click to expand...

ferguson said:
Thanks for the reminder Gin. When you get that wake-up call, it's really a jolt. None of us will live forever, but I've lived my life like I had unlimited time.

We don't...
Click to expand...

aliloff said:
I got my wake up call after being rear ended by a U-Hual truck while sitting at a red light. Life is too short...
Click to expand...

jmings said:
After my bipass, I would shuffle around the neighborhood in my slippers and bathrobe, telling anyone who failed to avoid me: "Remember what's important in life."
Click to expand...

Bill Marsh said:
December 24th my head of maintenance's wife was murdered by a homeless man. No one knows why, she had an argument with him and he shot her. She was 54.

My point is to take care of yourself. Get your checkups. You will not live forever.

AND TELL THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE THAT YOU LOVE THEM NOW!
Click to expand...

Sutcliffe said:
A coworker for the last 19 years was diagnosed with lung cancer last summer...
Click to expand...

munk said:
I'll never forget being outhiked by a 70 year old on San Gorgonio one year.
Click to expand...

TomFetter said:
I'm getting back into shape, slowly. My two grandfathers each died from heart disease at 55 ... so I've got 11 more years on the clock.

Though on the whole, I'd prefer a nice sharp heart attack to the other family tradition ... a lingering death by alzheimer's or parkinson's. Even if those deaths came 20 years later. When I'm done, I just want to get outta here.

If I'm still around at 70, I'm gonna take up smoking a pipe, and eat as much red meat as I can. Sooner if I get an early Alzheimer's diagnosis ...
Click to expand...

Ad Astra said:
Not to mention, simple age is killing us all one day at a time. A cheerful thought which ocurred to me when I noticed arthritis in a shoulder today while picking up a 30-pound pack.

"He who has health is wealthy, though he knows it not." - Polonius.

If you have your health and are halfway intelligent, you are doubly blessed.

A wake-up call can get you back on the road to where your odds are best of becoming an older person someday. You do want that, believe it or not. Quitting smoking, eating right and a plethora of other things you know you should do increase your odds of living longer: the only goal worth working towards.

:foot:
Mike (eats right, doesn't smoke or drink, and will die anyways- some $#@*&! day)
Click to expand...

rosconey2 said:
i almost died in 96 because of a bad pancrease..
Click to expand...


Death may be our best friend and advisor. Perhaps these human lives we have are precious just because they are short. It may be if we were immortal we would all be giant calcified couch potatoes.

Death prepares us for life.

Marcus Aurelius says in his Meditations:

Penguin Books said:
Were you to live three thousand years, or even thirty thousand, remember that the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment; and furthermore, that he can have no other life except the one he loses. This means that the longest life and the shortest life amount to the same thing. For the passing minute is every man’s equal possession, but what has once gone by is not ours. Our loss, therefore, is limited to that one fleeting instant, since no one can lose what is already past, nor yet what is still to come – for how can he be deprived of what he does not yet possess?
Click to expand...


Death is our great advisor on the quality of the present moment.
 
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