Standing in the Checkout Line

Yep just when you kinda, sorta got it fingered out you back into first place. I was a smoker. Close to 50 years I enjoyed those little devils, yessir anybody can quit it takes a man to keep smokin till you die. Well somehow I quit, not really sure how but one day I just didn't smoke anymore and I didn't miss it.... then. OK some friends said they heard me wheezing and I couldn't really walk past the end of the driveway without stopping and admiring the roses or someother trick. I actually was getting quite creative about finding ways to stop or slowdown and catching my breath. Most people were just too polite to say anything. Sooo anyway I've quit and gosh my breathing wasn't getting all that much better. Now I realized it would take a while for the snap crackle and pop to stop and for the hacking and spewing to clean up the airbags but the breathing was not getting better. Matter of fact it was worse! Treadmilling and pushing myself outside didn't seem to provide real improvements. Even sleeping was getting harder and I was waking up and having to walk around or sit up for several hours before I could go back to sleep. Then one day I just couldn't breath good and I goodn't even lay down. Long story short. The Doc says "Well Greg it isn't your lungs, it is your heart! It says here 9 years ago that you have Congestive Heart Failure. Your lungs are full of water!"
Now I am not the sharpest knife or the brightest bulb but I am pretty sure I would remember being told I had congestive heart failure or cardiomyopathy. Sure enough there it was on the page underlined and everything dated 9 years ago. Within 24 hours I was sucking at air so hard I was bluish-grey. Off I go to ICU. A gallon and a half of pee later (Imperial gallons not those puny yankee gallons) and I was starting to return to my lily white , pinkish old self. That is 15 pounds of water, yeesh what a diet. Even the old nurse was just a beamin "Doctor he voided over one and a half gallons in under 24 hours".
Perhaps you can understand my reluctance to endorse multi-doctor clinics where one doctor orders a test and another doctor says this has nothing to do with me so the patient never gets the results. I hate negative positives. "If you don't hear from us everything is OK". The real world doesn't work that way.
After a bit in the big red building in the middle of townI get out and go to a little meeting in the doc's office. "Well my boy we should do the operation now but the anaesthesiologist doesn't think you'll make it." Hold it, what operation? (This doc doesn't believe in letting you know what is going on, what is causing my cardiomiopathy? Don't you worry about it it could be caused by anything, a virus, heart attacks, etc. etc. not to worry.) Why the operation to replace your bad aortic valve silly boy. Whoa, whoa where did this come from? Then a phone call several days later saying my kidneys are not the best we should have a consult on those! Yipes is it any wonder I just want to sit in a chair and watch the world go by? I have always said I can handle the truth. Knowing where you stand is a good thing as far as I know. I can deal with the truth. So that's where we are right now. I am rebounding and rejoining the world a little bit at a time however you may understand that I am a little gun shy of twinges and pains in my chest area. I am not a fan of being a (greater) burden on my girlfriend so I will suck it up and carry on. (You know how great men are at being sick hehehehehe). I am kinda thinkin that I won't commit to any 10 year magazine subscriptions for the next little bit.

New words for today: Beta Blocker, ACE inhibitors, diuretic, nitro patch, echocardiogram. Oops gotta go it is time for more pills