Greetings dear readers,
I have decided to start a new blog and delete the old.
Why I hear you ask, well in a way by doing so, it sort of mirrors my life.
One chapter has closed and a new one is beginning.......
Last year, at the ripe old age of 46, I was merrily going about my business and had a few things mapped out.
I was intending to take a completely new career path, I was also intending to do a 100 miles charity cycle, why heck at times I even found myself occasionally thinking ahead 15-20 odd years to my daughter's wedding with the fullest intention of walking her down the aisle.
However on Monday the 3rd of September 2012 these things not only seemed like a dream, there was a very real chance I might not be around long enough to see them come to fruition.
Of course with the uncertainty of life there is still a chance of that, but at least I now have a fighting chance.
There is not a day goes by when I don't thank God and cycling for saving my bacon...let me try to explain without sounding too melodramatic.
In December 2011, I began experiencing a small ache in the first mile or so of my bike rides, I could pinpoint the same point on the road where the ache would come on, it wasn't the classic pain where I clutched my chest and arm, no it was more like sticking my knuckle into my chest at the same small point just right of central. No shortness of breath, no sweating etc, in fact the pain wore off after a few miles and on I went for approx 25-40 miles with neither an ache, pain or symptom of any description the rest of the day.
This pattern continued right up until, and even for a few months after I went for tests in the summer of 2012.
The general consensus among many, in fact most hospital professionals I have encountered is that I could, and really should, have hit the deck, particularly on the bike, with one doctor remarking that 'how you weren't found on the road with the bike on top of you is a total mystery.'
Seemingly my old ticker was so fit and strong from over 30 years of cycling that it managed, in the words of my cardiologist to 'really push blood through the narrowed arteries.'
See, what I had brewing among my 3 shot arteries was the infamous 'widow maker' which is explained better here than I possibly can http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow_maker
This bad boy was silently plotting my demise and if I hadn't been cycling I would never have known anything about the evil plan being hatched in my chest.
I've been told that I was 'caught in time' and also that I did actually have a heart attack.
Sounds like a contradiction in terms I know, but what it means is that I did have a mild heart attack at some point (although I'm not aware of it) but I was caught in time before I really experienced a major cardiac event, the type of which is seriously capable of ruining one's day.
The question has been put to me many, many times.... if I am anxious in
any way by having a 'ticker attack? my reply has always been...... 'not
in the
least, so long as I don't have another one!!' ;-)
I still hope to make that career change, still hope to do a charity cycle, and if my daughter meets the man of her dreams one day and decides to make a dishonest man of him, then I hope to walk her down the aisle.
I have deliberately replaced the word intending in my original plans with that great word hope.
One thing this whole experience has taught me is never, ever, take life for granted and don't put off until tomorrow that which can be done today.
If it's God's will that I live long enough to fulfill my plans then that's good enough for me, if it's not God's will....... then that is, and has to be, also good enough.
I have already had 5-6 months more on this mortal coil than, quite frankly I should have had, and never have I appreciated the sight of my daughter opening her Christmas presents more than I did last December.
A term I heard regularly on and off the hospital wards was 'someone was watching over you'.......the folks who said this will never utter a truer word...........
Thank-you for listening.
'Stefano'
