Thankful Reprieve on the health front

This was July 2001, about the time this health thing all began.

Since most of my readers are family and friends, I will fill in the blanks on my good news about living with recurrent issues related to diabetes and arteriosclerosis. I was diagosed and began to live with adult onset type II diabetes at age 50. At 51 I had a heart attack that I misdiagnosed and walked around with for 10 hours that did some permanent damage. Two years later chest pains that caused me to drive to the ER, both these attacks led to the insertion of stents. Two years later in the afternoon with family here I was transported to the ER with more chest pains.

This began the practice of having yearly stress tests at the end of August, and though I have never had chest pains, I often felt more winded or tired, and each year I would pass the resting test and the running test would indicate a blockage, not in all, but just in one place, unlike most folks who find blockages in two or three major arteries and end up with by passes.

This spotty blocking may be the result of good exercise and eating, but the small narrowings could each have resulted in eventuary heart attacks, so I went under voluntary heart caths for five years in a row, each time they successfully ballooned or stented the problems and life went on.

Since the last years in my ministry began to be a struggle to sustain growth and deal with tensions of my changing views in a traditional church, I knew I was feeling stressed out, and we all hoped that retirement would help.  So far it may have, at least for now. I take this as an invitation to continue the good habits, and develop better ones with the free time we now enjoy. I have to be careful not to let the issues of finances and finding continued meaning and usefulness in this stage of life not become new sources of stress.

So, that is my health update, and thanks for caring.