Sad news

[Coyote Chris]

Last week hasnt been a good one for me.
On last Wed. I found out I have severe coronary heart disease. My doc asked me to take a calcium deposit CAT scan at ,my own expense as my insurance wont cover it. Cash discount if you pay at time of service.
The insurance company just wants everyone on statins. I picked the wrong parents, I guess.

On Monday , I was feeding my new DR chipper...the one with the 1.5 ft chute instead of the 3 ft Chute of my old troy built. A branch snagged my tight fitting glove and pulled my hand into the blade. I lost about 3/4 in of my trigger finger. I have the top gun hand surgeon for Spokane and he said the ER boys did such a good job following the phone instructions of a hand surgeon after he saw the pics and xrays that he wont operate. The stitches come out in a week. I can still ride all my bikes, make love, and work on the yard, drink margarittas, I would be really depressed if I lost my middle finger.... but typing is a challange. So is a mouse and working on machines. The nail and bone are gone so they just folded the fingerprint over the top of the bone and sewed it on. unclear about how much feeling I will have in my new fingertip. Pain is now minimul. It looks like i have a mushroom growing out of my finger but my doc said it will be completely gone with time. I have great neighbors and one is an excellent welder. He made me a new chute extension which I spray painted.
I feel very Lucky it wasnt worse. Lets be careful out there.

New chute which I painted with tractor paint. Frosty suggestged car door U channel rubber molding on the edge which I did. Metal cost $80

 

[Manfred]

Sorry to hear this. Glad you are still with us. Statins are from the devil and do no good to your body.

 

[junglejim]

For sure could have been much worse. Easily could have been your whole hand. And you could have bled out. That would have solved your cardiac issue.

Seriously, as we age we keep doing things that we shouldn't do. I know that from my own personal experience. So we must use much more caution. My buddy tells me that "you can get away with a lot of stupid stuff if you think it through first". Slow down and think it through. Never mind that I just bought a faster motorcycle at 83 years old. Maybe I didn't think that one through far enough. So far I've had 2 "hard brake" events in 9+K miles. One driver tried pulling out in front of me and one suicidal deer. I missed both with room to spare, but that's only because I wasn't going real fast.

I'm also familiar with cardiac issues. I had a MI 26 years ago and statins were recommended. But as it turned out I'm allergic to statins. So diet and exercise have worked well since then. My last cardiac exam revealed some issues but to a mild extent. The Dr didn't say how much cardiac capacity I should still have at 83. It sort of depends on your genes, but the trend is that it keeps decreasing until death.

Hang in there Chris. As Red Green says "We're all in this together".

 

[Coyote Chris]

Sorry to hear this. Glad you are still with us. Statins are from the devil and do no good to your body.

Thank you. My smart wife who has a PHD hates statins and is very in tune with her own health as an athlete, as so do I hate statins and dont trust some of what the AMA is preaching.. My doc and I will have a serious talk. My blood pressure went through the roof and we now have that controled with lisinipril. I will have to keep an open mind and do my research.

 

[Manfred]

Thank you. My smart wife who has a PHD hates statins and is very in tune with her own health as an athlete, as so do I hate statins and dont trust some of what the AMA is preaching.. My doc and I will have a serious talk. My blood pressure went through the roof and we now have that controled with lisinipril. I will have to keep an open mind and do my research.

Blood pressure is a real problem. Cholesterol is not, unless it's too low. Your body creates about 80% of the cholesterol it needs. Statins trick the body into shutting down that function and statins ruin organs.

 

[Coyote Chris]

For sure could have been much worse. Easily could have been your whole hand. And you could have bled out. That would have solved your cardiac issue.

Seriously, as we age we keep doing things that we shouldn't do. I know that from my own personal experience. So we must use much more caution. My buddy tells me that "you can get away with a lot of stupid stuff if you think it through first". Slow down and think it through. Never mind that I just bought a faster motorcycle at 83 years old. Maybe I didn't think that one through far enough. So far I've had 2 "hard brake" events in 9+K miles. One driver tried pulling out in front of me and one suicidal deer. I missed both with room to spare, but that's only because I wasn't going real fast.

I'm also familiar with cardiac issues. I had a MI 26 years ago and statins were recommended. But as it turned out I'm allergic to statins. So diet and exercise have worked well since then. My last cardiac exam revealed some issues but to a mild extent. The Dr didn't say how much cardiac capacity I should still have at 83. It sort of depends on your genes, but the trend is that it keeps decreasing until death.

Hang in there Chris. As Red Green says "We're all in this together".

So true. And I have now slowed down. I have no idea how I survived all those close calls over 60 years on a bike. Sometimes I think I have a gardian buddha on my shoulder. But yes, the bike falling on me in the garage, this incident and others now make me a believer in the slow down lifestyle. Outside, I now work at about half speed with the injury, and expect to move up to 2/3 speed when healed, despite all the testosterone I am on. If I could live to 83, I would be happy. Thankfully, I have enough seasoned wood to where I dont need the log splitter for months and even then I can just split light pieces. Oh, and I wear an old motorcycke helmet when working on trees...the one with a flip up face shield.
The funny thing about the heart is I walk up to 8 miles a day, many pushing or dragging something, but maybe the doc gives me another stress test on a tread mill.

 

[RedBird]

I glad it wasn't worse Chris. We all have challenges. I'm having a total left shoulder replacement done on the 23rd of this month. It's just worn out. Jim is right, we just keep doing things we should not do. Hang in there!

 

[ARKNT]

Ouch!! Glad it wasn't any worse with that finger. I'm a bit younger than some of you (almost 70) but things are not the same as when I was younger. So far, I haven't had much major stuff to complain about. I still whine a little just for fun. So being careful is good. Still have some fun and do what you need to do.
Keep an eye on the heart issues, keep track and have a good chat with the doc from time to time.

Arknt