Category Archives: Health

Cooking and eating

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For the first time in many weeks I cooked something: iced tea. Don't laugh at me. I consider this cooking because it involved a kettle, a teapot, a pitcher and finally, a glass with ice–and no use of the microwave. Maybe, after I get my hair cut this afternoon, I'll make gazpacho. I've been buying it, already prepared, from Whole Foods. I found it perfectly adequate until I read the label yesterday. Salt is the third item in a long list of ingredients. I was going to compare the relative costs of buying or making, but now I guess I have to make, regardless of cost.

I find myself ruling out increasing numbers of food items. After I went to the conference on women's health and the environment I decided to stop eating meat or poultry. (BTW, all of the conference presentations are now on the website if you are interested.) I haven't been entirely successful about the meat but I keep trying.

I stopped drinking soda (usually Diet Coke) the last time I was in Japan. They have hot or cold green tea in vending machines and I find that more satisfying. Too bad we can't get it here in machines.

All told, my diet has become less interesting. To some extent I've lost my zeal for eating, making it much easier to diet, but I still love ice cream, frozen yogurt and dark chocolate. What would life be like without that stuff!

Cardio rehab

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Much to my amazement I'm really enjoying the rehab three days a week. I look forward to going, instead of having those interminable arguments with myself about getting over to Club One. Not that Club One is bad. The rehab is like have a personal trainer, but one that monitors your heart, not just the way  you do your exercises. I think I like all that attention. Also, I work harder. Nothing like being accountable to someone.

It's interesting to speculate about why some of those people are there, especially the thin ones. After a lifetime of being told that fat will kill you I see as many skinny people there as fat ones. Did they have heart attacks, or just stents. I'll probably never know, but I have to conclude that being thin is no guarantee of anything. And even though I never returned to the dietitian, I've lost about 5 pounds.

Saturday I went on an Osher trip to Meadowcroft Rockshelter. The rockshelter is a fascinating archaeological dig documenting the oldest inhabited site in the new world. We were fortunate to hear a lecture by Dr. James Adovasio, the original excavator of the site. You can read a little about the controversy he generated at the link above.

Here is a picture of me with Dr. Adovasio, taken by Pat, our Osher program assistant. I told her I thought he looked like he was in pain. She replied that he was probably wishing I was 50 years younger.


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Back home

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just in time to do laundry, get a blood test, visit the doctor and get ready for another trip: New York in about 2 weeks. But…let me finish the last trip. After the wedding we picked up Charna who was returning from Peru (I am amazed at how international my family has become), then Robin and Steve dropped me off at Betty's and took Charna and the car to the south side of the city: no more parking problems. Betty and I went to dinner with her son and daughter-in-law to celebrate her birthday. Here is a picture of Betty and me at dinner.


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On Sunday we went to the Art Institute to see another show about Louis Sullivan. This seems to be his year. This show had some of his wonderful drawing and mostly photographs of demolished buildings. Fortunately, several excellent architectural photographers concentrated on Sullivan's work before the buildings were destroyed.

Here is a last picture of the city; it was that silver tube that caught my eye.


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And a few pictures of the lake from Betty's window.


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Looking at Navy Pier and all the boats


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As the sun sets shadows of the buildings appear on the water.


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North Avenue beach and sunshine on the water.


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And the doctor doesn't need to see me until December, but the blood tests go on and on.

Cardio rehab

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My second session of cardio rehab ended abruptly when the monitor showed I was in afib. This is a nasty problem I've been trying to ignore; yesterday's event made that impossible; also impossible for me to do anything useful all day.

I've been taking a beta blocker to control the afib, but beta blockers are also used for high blood pressure, not one of my problems. My pressure got too low and last week the Dr. told me to cut the dose in half. That may have been what caused my bad day. I'm going back to the doc this morning to get a Holter monitor. The rehab center sent him a printout, but he likes his own tests. I'll talk to him about the meds.

I'm much better today, although not entirely symptom free. I wear the monitor until tomorrow morning, return it and try cardio rehab again.

Walking again

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This morning, Ivetta and I went walking in Frick Park. This is the first time I've been there since last fall; many things have changed. One section along the Homewood Trail was shockingly bare and disturbing looking. Frick Park is a steep valley with wooded hillsides with minimal management, primarily keeping trails cleared and walkable, so this huge dug up area was a terrible surprise. I later found out it was cleared of diseased oak trees in hopes of keeping the disease from spreading.

My usual walk in Frick Park covers about three miles. I made it a little shorter this time, about 2.5 miles, and was pleased to find I was able to climb the hill (downhill in, uphill out) with less trouble than before. However, I found the walk exhausting and took a long nap after I got home. 

Pictures tomorrow.


Back home and OK

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Yesterday was procedure day, or should I say one of the longer days of my life. My instructions were to arrive at 5:30 AM., meaning I had to get up at 4:30 AM. I've hardly had half a night's sleep at that point. Robin picked me up at 5:15. It was very quiet; a few misguided birds were singing; a few cars were on the road; someone was jogging and another person walking. Along with time I was given instructions about where to park, which elevator to take, then where to go. A nurse in the elevator didn't have to ask where we were going–knew everything. Who else gets there at that ungodly hour.

They took about 45 minutes to "prep" me, meaning asking lots of questions. Then I saw Robin, very briefly, as they rode me down a long corridor on a gurney. I felt very disoriented. They hadn't given me anything mind altering; it was just the size of the hospital and my inability to figure out where I was. That feeling remained with me until I left this morning when I was finally able to see what part of the hospital I was in.

The real prepping began after I got to the cath lab; also a bit disorienting. Dino, wearing what looked like hunting/camouflage clothing but was really lead padding to protect him from the x-rays they would take, talked to me, shaved my groin (good thing I no longer have any shame), told me when each part of the procedure would take place. They gave me some kind of sedative, although I was not asleep, nor was there any pain. I don't remember much; just lights going on and off. There were four monitors to the side of the table. Were they examining the x-rays? I don't know.

When I returned to the room I slept, most of the rest of the morning and afternoon. I knew they had found something and put in the stent. During the procedure they spoke about the balloon. That's used to put the stent in place. Sometime during the day I learned my left anterior descending branch (LAD) was 90% blocked. Whether that accounts for my tiredness remains to be seen.

I was awake most of the evening. About 8pm, I was blessed with a roommate who spent the entire night sleeping (as much as you can in a hospital) with the TV on and flickering. I slept in spite of it. I'm home now, feeling good. They don't want me to be alone tonight so Robin will pick me up and I'll stay there. Tomorrow I'm told I can do anything I want.

Women’s Health and the Environment

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Pittsburgh is fortunate to have retained the presence of many of the movers and shakers who, a century ago, made the city one of the wealthiest in the country. One of the most interesting, and influential, is Teresa Heinz (Kerry) who brought us the Women's Health and the Environment conference I was privileged to attend. Reports on National Public Radio talked about the presence of Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA, Regina Benjamin, the U. S. Surgeon General and, of course, Teresa Heinz's talk about her personal battle with breast cancer. All of the them were interesting: Jackson, because it is the first time I have heard anyone from the EPA sound like they wanted to protect us or the environment; Heinz and Benjamin because both spoke very personally about their own experiences. The website promises to show videos of the presentations; I hope they will include all of Teresa Heinz's talk.

But the conference was much more than these three women. We spent the day at the convention center. While I have trouble sitting for long stretches, I found all of the presentations touched me, personally. I had no wish to leave. I wish you could have been with me; I think  this was a very important event. When we arrived at the convention center, instead of the usual shopping bag and tables of literature, we were given flash drives filled with pdfs, to take home with us: information about the presenting organizations and speakers.

The focus of the conference was the number of manmade, probably toxic, chemicals we now have in our bodies. Even newborns have been found with 200 plus chemicals passed from the mother through the placenta. We don't know the effect of these chemicals but strongly suspect they are the cause of many cancers, asthma, autism, ADHD/ADD, obesity, diabetes, on and on. Many of the worst of these chemicals are found in the air and in ordinary things we have in our homes: children's toys like rubber ducks, canned food, packaged food, toothpaste, deodorants, receipts (those things you get when you use your charge card; chemicals enter the body through the skin), meat, chicken, cosmetics, personal care products like shampoo and body wash; the list goes on and on. Start here for more info; I'll put up a page of resources and links very soon.

Sooo tired

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Last night, about 8:30, I gave up and got ready for bed. I never do this. I slept until 7 this morning, more than 10 hours in bed. I had a busy day, yesterday, but it wasn't that bad. This is one reason I'm willing to have the cath, as they call it. I want my energy back. The doctor wouldn't promise me anything, he's very cautious about what he says, but I keep hoping.

I'm still having issues with my Adobe software, but nothing that keeps me from working. I sent them an email–hope to get an answer soon. I really don't want to call again. I probably spent 3 hours on the phone with them on two calls. I'm sure they have a support document that would help me. I found one, but it's not entirely clear. In the meantime I can live without Acrobat 8 Pro. I'm still working on the Japanese Garden book.

Cardiologist again

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For many years I largely ignored the state of my health. Yes, I went for checkups. No, there was never any concern. Them days are gone forever. I was supposed to go to the cardiologist at the beginning of May for another pacemaker check, a stress echo test and whatever. They were supposed to call me with an appointment for the test. This week, since I hadn't heard from them for a couple of months, I called and suddenly found myself with an appointment for all of it this morning.

My pacemaker is doing fine. My afib is much decreased (I knew that). The stress test was abnormal, for the second time with this doctor and another time with the previous doctor. So he recommended I go in for a catheterization and possibly the insertion of a stent. I'm not too unhappy about this, although I think I'm really allergic to doctors and hospitals. But I've been very unusually tired lately. I hope, if they find I need a stent, it will help. I'm scheduled for a week and a half from now. In the meantime, I have to take more blood tests, stop the coumadin, start taking Plavix and get mentally prepared. I'll keep you posted.

BTW, my Adobe fix didn't work. I called last night and spoke to someone in India who gave me a similar but slightly different fix. It didn't work either. I'll try again tonight. This is really annoying.