Thanks, Karl, and you, too, Five-Flags, whose real name I don't know.
There's some things I didn't post earlier.
What I thought was angina, isn't. I think I've mentioned my other birth defect before (in fact I know I did.. I just remembered "Ed Sullivan"), and the principal area in which my spine is deformed, and shortened, is that area directly behind my chest, with my vertabrae being about 1/5 "normal" size. It turns out what we thought was angina is my heart has actually run out of room to enlarge. The pain is the heart actually rubbing against "other stuff" in there as it beats. Actually, I'm kind of glad about that... won't bother with the nitro anymore. Nitro headaches suck.
My cardiologist walked me out to the waiting room and stood there when I got on Gilligan. Then I found out what is, potentially, the worst news I got today... I need to find out what frequencies of EMF the lithiums put out, as certain frequencies will interfere with the pacemaker (read: Cause the pacemaker to stop, cold). I called Seg of Scottsdale. Brian's going to find out.
I'll be honest, and I've talked with Bill about this, if it comes down to a choice between Gilligan and the pacemaker, and the pacemaker, as I've already been told, is not going to extend my life expectancy...
I'll live with the pain. Bill agrees with me, just because he gets to see, every day, the change Gilligan has brought about in me. So, the dealer's researching... and if it's a conflicting frequency, I won't be getting the pacemaker, after all.
I don't let any of this get to me. There are people in far, far worse shape than I'm in. Plus, I've had, literally, my entire life to think about this. I've had 43 years of "extra," so - ultimately - it's all no big deal. Not when compared to people like Pam's father, or end-stage renal failure patients, or end-stage AIDS... or cancer... or just about any long-term debilitating illness. At least my condition isn't going to rob me of every last shred of dignity, as some terminal conditions do.
|