Last Friday when I left work, I had word that a colleague had been admitted to the hospital with heart problems and tests. Supposedly, no big deal. (He's a few years younger than I, and we even lived three houses away from each other in North Las Vegas as kids. We used to get in rock fights, ride bikes, chase little girls, play street ball, etc etc. We lived parallel lives. He joined the Army but went to Germany instead of Vietnam. His wife's name is also Carol. His first house was near Tropicana and Bldr Highway (as was ours) He completed a 25 yr career with NHP.) Scan forward now to Monday morning. He had open heart surgery Sunday, five-by-passes.... He'd been fortunate enough, to have had "symptoms" about two weeks ago and already had initial tests with a heart doctor. So, when he had another serious "symptom" on Friday, the blood work had already come back which enabled the doctors to make a more accurate diagnosis. Then more tests Saturday and the surgery Sunday. He's now in induced coma with anticipated recovery. He's said to have stepped back and taken a second look at why he's still working....As a commentary on this, I can't say I'm surprised. He didn't eat healthy, didn't exercise or do those other things we all know we should be doing. It's another one of those events, that happens to others, that we should learn from. (I just remembered me eating Marv's burger and fries Saturday and feeling guilty.....why should "comfort food" make me feel guilty?)
3 comments:
I'm glad he got to the hospital before he had the final big one! This doesn't make me feel any better about my upcoming test.
How scary! Keep us updated on how he is doing.
It often takes a tragedy for us to examine our own lives. Thanks to your blogging, maybe we can all reevaluate and do the important stuff before it's too late.
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