Noel’s Heart Page (… with some heart and health links)
La page cardiaque de Noël (… avec quelques liens «coeur et santé»)
Parfois la vie nous réserve une petite surprise…, sometimes life hands us a little surprise!
On the 12th of May 1988, Noel’s activities were suddenly curtailed by a heart attack, an unexpected event followed by an equally surprising diagnosis of coronary artery disease (= CAD). Dr. Eric Gangbar kept him under surveillance for a month. On Tuesday June 16th, Dr. Richard D. Weisel and his team at the Toronto Hospital performed quadruple bypass surgery on this otherwise healthy guy with a tough immune system.
Noel expects to resume a full range of activities, while reducing his stress level. He cannot lift large boulders right now, but is still able to push a mouse. The writer is persuaded that the exaggerated expectations and stress-levels promoted as “normal” under Neocapitalism pushes us to our limits… and well beyond. The signs can be seen everywhere: multi-tasking, sedentary lifestyle, coffee and donuts, lack of sleep, alcohol and drug use, impatient and distracted driving, road rage, snow rage, parking lot rage…, the list goes on! For those who believe that body and mind are interdependent, read Cynicism is linked to heart disease.
Below, you will find extracts from two e-mails addressed to my friends (after the heart attack, after the bypass) and a selection of links to heart and health sites. If you read French, find out just how quickly women are catching up with men: Le travail mine le coeur des femmes. For a note of humour, check out: Surgeons’ preferred patients.
To learn how to give yourself a really neat heart attack on a humid spring day, while wearing a respirator… and to see what 75 fantastically fun-filled days in the cardiac ward look like, check out these photos.
After the heart attack (May 20, 1998):
Please pardon the bulk-mailing in English, but it seemed like the low-stress way of clearing the electronic arteries on my return from hospital. Strange to say, I’m feeling super after a recent heart attack, better in fact than I have over the past several months, even the past few years. Une situation qui s’aggravait imperceptiblement, de petits symptômes qui n’avaient l’air de rien, pris isolément.
I won’t bore you with details, but if you should ever be 59 years old and get minor soreness in the left elbow, take it more seriously than I did.
Just ten days earlier, I played “moving-man with a van” (four hours straight) and climbed up the rocky face of the Gatineau Hills (one hour and 30 minutes in the fresh spring breeze). No problem!
I appreciated hearing from you by phone, e-mail and all manner of hi-and lo-tech channels. My family and I are enjoying the rustic basket of diverse green plants. It is my firm intention to outlive each and every one of them (the plants that is…, the family members will be a bit more challenging).
So I thank you from the bottom on my heart (which happens to be the part that attacked me) but which is now behaving itself. Also Betty, Marc and Kim join me in thanking you for your thoughtful expressions of support.
Let me add a personal yet public word of thanks to Savitsa Sévigny, for having delivered my text in honour of our “retiring” friend Jean Baron. Sorry I couldn’t join in the fun, but I sincerely hope that Jean, Hédi and Peter will enjoy many years of rediscovering their youth.
“Life is lived forward, but understood backward” (Sören Kierkegaard).
After the bypass surgery (August 28, 1998):
“A path without obstacles probably leads nowhere…”
Yet another bulk mailing in English, first of all to thank you for your expressions of concern and support, flowers and gifts, good wishes and prayers. Everything seemed to happen to me at the best possible moment, when I could use your phone calls, visits and support the most. The big white bear festooned with helium balloons arrived most impressively on a wheeled chariot, on a day when most of my family was present. It now sits in a place of honour on a refurbished Windsor rocker in our living room.
As for my medical status, I remain optimistic (is this classic denial?), but I won’t tell you I wasn’t scared, or that I didn’t learn to pray earnestly and often!
Don’t follow my bad example, failing to report to Emergency immediately, however minor your symptoms. Mine were a “pencil prick” between the left shoulder blades and slight pain in the upper left arm. They say that wait times are excessive, but if a heart or brain injury is suspected, you will go right to the head of the line.
I was hospitalized for 75 days, so I missed out on May, June and July, but was released on August 2, in time to enjoy the much improved end of summer weather. First event was a heart attack (May 12), followed by a diagnosis of coronary artery disease, followed by quadruple bypass surgery, performed on June 16th by a remarkable cardiovascular surgeon with an equally remarkable personality: Dr. Richard Weisel, of the Toronto Hospital. I understand that he leads a research in regenerative medicine.
The decision to go for surgery required no courage on my part, as the alternatives were a reduced quality of life, or another heart attack within six months. I consider the heart attack “fortunate,” because it revealed the underlying problem while there was still time to intervene…, and still time to alter my lifestyle.
Lots of people get dealt a worse hand than I did. My disease is due in part to family history, though I won’t deny personal responsibility (I was a smoker in my twenties, and heart disease is thought to begin early). People in their thirties and forties are increasingly affected by heart disease, even non-smokers, and I met some of them (more men than women, the latter being homonally protected to a later age). Some research implicates viruses or bacteria as causal factors, but no one knows exactly what combination of circumstances it takes.
My pre-heart attack symptoms have mostly disappeared (general lethargy, grouchiness and difficulty sleeping). “Revascularization” has given me back colour and more energy than I’ve known in years. Hopefully, I will overcome any remaining symptoms with a programme of cardiac rehabilitation.
So what did I learn from my summer course? That the symptoms of heart disease and heart attack can be subtle, even unrecognizable, especially if you’re far too busy doing “more important” things. To remember that the line between life and death is not as quite as sharp as I thought. To reconsider the three rules of “macho health”: 1) If it doesn’t hurt, there’s nothing wrong. 2) If it does hurt, wait till the pain goes away. 3) If it keeps on hurting, think about seeing a doctor.
By the way… the heart attack didn’t hurt, and neither did the surgery. What bothered me most was uncertainty about the future, and whether I would ever be fully functional again.
That’s all folks! My sense of humour remains intact, and it helped me through many worrisome moments. Indeed, each new medical complication seemed to bring on a fresh attack of smart-ass humour. So don’t forget:
“You’re only young once, but you can be immature forever.”
P.S. February 23, 1999
- Keeping my fingers crossed, eating sensibly and walking 2.5 brisk kilometres every day, with cardiac rehab sessions twice a week. Back to work part-time and so far so good. Heart medication is approaching near zero and my brain is clearer than before, very important for a professor.
- Dr. Weisel offered me a 10 year guarantee on the new tubes, so I’m hoping for at least that. Some people get more, some less. The upside is they can do the procedure again if your health is otherwise sound. My right “donor leg” is waiting in reserve, but hopes that its donation will not be needed.
- Much remains to be learned about cardiovascular disease, how and why it gains a foothold, and how it progresses, hence the need for continuing research in the related areas of heart, stroke and Alzheimer’s Disease.
P.S. April 2, 1999
- The experience prompted me to review my will, to which I had attached a copy of my epitaph, not because I sensed impending doom, but because I was looking ahead and covering my bases. Some doctors may suggest that denial is a bad thing, but the flip side of denial is hope and optimism. That’s what keeps me going, along with determination not to leave my family prematurely.
P.S. October 28, 2004
- I took early retirement on July 1, 2002 and haven’t looked back since. The past two years of my life have been the best so far, and I’m as busy and energetic as ever, if not more so, but at activities of my own choosing, and at my own pace. All things considered, my encounters with the Canadian Health Care System have been very positive.
P.S. June 9, 2007
- On this day, I had a sudden onset pain in my upper right arm while hand-mowing. This persisted for a few days. About 10 days later, I developed a bad headache on the left side of my head, took two aspirins and went to bed. As it turns out, this was not the right course of action. The next day my spelling and grammar was badly disorganized (written language only). I went to my GP and he prescribed Plavix immediately. Subsequent tests (Catscan, Angiogram and neurologist) revealed nothing, but the suspicion was that I had suffered a small stroke. To the present day, I still have problems with written language (substitutions of one word for another, spelling errors, words missing) and have learned to monitor myself and make use of my Spellchecker. No problems with speaking, however. Also, vigorous exercise will still bring on a dull pain in the upper left arm, especially in cold, windy weather…, a classic symptom of angina. However, my cardiologist declares all of my grafts clear and says that a bypass never gives you quite the same blood flow as your native arteries. Fortunately, my normal activities are not curtailed.
P.S. August 16, 2014
- Things are going well, with no apparent heart or stroke symptoms. If I’d known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.
- I continue to maintain a country property year round, have an active program of linguistic research from October to May and restore Canadiana Country Furniture in the summertime.
- Things can happen at any age. In early spring 2009, the staff at the Ottawa Hospital saved our daughter’s Kim’s life when she suffered a near fatal hemorrhage from a gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST – a type of sarcoma in the intestinal system). She was only 32 at the time. The 100 or so doctors, nurses and specialists – who worked to keep her around and supported her family during some tough moments – are an unparalleled group of people to whom she and her folks will be forever grateful. Two years later, the doctor’s delivered her pride and joy…, baby Noelle. Her oncologist recently discharged her from his care and, on September 6th, she “Rode the Rideau”, a 100 km. bike ride to raise funds in support of cancer research at the Ottawa Hospital Foundation. She attracted support of $4500., her team raised $490,000. and the 950 cyclists who participated produced approximately 2.3 million dollars. To learn more about it this annual event, go to http://www.ridetherideau.ca/give/
August 12, 2016
- 18 years on and still truckin’. Last night I attended a Memorial Service for Susan Nielsen, an Emergency Room nurse whose life was claimed by ALS. Turns out that one of her close friends was Nancy, who was Head Nurse in the Cardiac Ward when I was first hospitalized. I remembered her immediately as the person who had told me: “You are going on Monday”. To which I replied: “So where am I going?” The answer: “To the Toronto General for surgery”.
- The following is a short text composed in Susan Nielsen’s memory…
- I can’t say that I knew Susan well, since our paths crossed only twice.
– First time was in May 1998, at York Central Hospital, where she was my attending ER nurse. I was admitted with a heart attack, after having denied it for two days. Please don’t follow my example. With a serious problem, you go to the head of the line.
– Second time was a couple of years later at your family cottage, when she remembered me from the ER…, so it’s appropriate that I remember her now.
– She told me that on the first occasion, I looked quite grey, and I don’t think she was talking about my beard.
– The summer of 98 was hot, like this one, and I spent most of it looking out hospital windows, watching people go about their normal lives…, and wondering what the future would be like. As it turned out, I’m still here and still restoring Canadiana Country Furniture.
– Susan worked hard to keep the rest of us going. She helped to give me a new lease on life, as she did for many others. I remember her kindness and her commitment. Our health care professionals deserve as much respect and admiration as do Olympic athletes, and probably more.
Surgeons’ preferred patients
- Five surgeons are discussing who are the best patients to operate on. The first surgeon says, “I like to see accountants on my table, because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.”
- The second responds, “Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color coded.”
- The third surgeon says, “No, I really think librarians are the best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order.”
- The fourth surgeon chimes in: “You know, I like construction workers… those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when the job takes longer than you said it would.”
- But the fifth surgeon shuts them all up when he exclaims: “You’re all wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on. They have no guts, no heart, and no spine, and the head and butt are interchangeable.”
The Internet is well-developed in the areas of health, wellness and medecine. If you have other good addresses, send them to: ncorbett@yorku.ca and he’ll post them here.
Exercise
The average North American doesn’t exercise enough to have a healthy heart. Thirty to forty sustained minutes of daily walking, hiking or cycling will do the trick. Here are a few links.