racprops retirement!!!

[racprops]

Not much of a update.

Sleep still a major problem, tired all the time..keeps me from getting too much cabin fever…

But at the same time keeps me from doing anything.

MORE:

Chest still hurts all the time. Coughing is still a Alien experiences...a real chest buster painful thing..

So I take a STRONG Pain pill and a Strong hay fever pill and I am in a fog all the time.

I can walk about the block and watch Movies and TV...that is just about it for now...


I hope to get some test done soon and find out where I am on the road to recovery.

Rich
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[joberg]

Hopefully you'll get answers to those and most importantly: solutions!
Keep us posted Rich.

[racprops]

Here is the situation: And big reveal:

I HAD Quadruple Heart Bypass Surgery on Monday Jan 21 2013 in the afternoon.

During my recovery and stay in the Hospitable I was informed I also have sleep apnea , and to make matters worse after two tests I have learned I have complex apnea and will need a ASV PAP Machine.

IT TOOK over 6 weeks after my surgery to stop my chest busting coughing and to recover enough to start looking into my sleep apnea.

Calling around and getting prices of $800.00 plus as a uninsured and self-pay patient I was somewhat unset about what projected would be costs of a system and its up keep.

I learned about Dentist and mouth appliance’s and even with free consolation and a free home test was still facing $2500.00 to $4000.00 estimates…

So I did a home study and the results were so bad the Dentist sent me to a sleep Doctor:

Who said as I had surgery a dental device would not help me. That I will need a CPAP system.

I had a sleep study done and It looks like I will need a second one to figure out wither I can use a Bi-level PAP of will have to get the top of the line ASV-PAP Machine as this study showed I have what they called PAP induced complex apnea (or center apnea)and THAT study is now two weeks out with a week after the test to learn the results and THEN I can order and start using a machine to help me with my sleep apnea. So I am currently about 4 weeks before I can begin treating what seems to be the root cause of my health problems.

Meanwhile:
I visited cardo rehab yesterday (3-19-2013)and learned how weak and how much ground I have lost, every workout left me slightly light headed. We started small: I have a long way to go to recover.

Other than all the above I am in fairly good recovery…

Rich

PS IT is a little hard to share such personal info...but people need to know about these things...

Warn the world, keep watching the sky's...
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[racprops]

More:

I firmly believe I had chronic fatigue for a large part of the last 25 years, IE It was seasonal, I got it each fall and spring and had good summers and winters, and I traded in my hay fever for it.

BUT I fear I got sleep apnea and then heart decease during the past 5 to 10 years and especially during the past couple of years as I seemed to be having chronic fatigue almost year around.

Sleep apnea is a hidden killer and seems to be much more wide spread and many more people have it than know of it.
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[joberg]

Thanks for the update Rich; lots of things happening to you but you'll have to tackle one thing at the time in trying not to solve everything at once.

As you've seen, the process can be frustrating at best, that's why you'll have to check those small steps forward in your victory box.
True that sleep apnea is a health problem and not all doctors will ask you questions about it.
Now that you know, something will be done...again not soon enough, but done it will.

Re-building muscles is also a process, but you'll see much improvements in a couple of months if you keep up the same regiment of course.

Hang thight, keep well in spirit and keep us in the loop

[Daddy Solo]

I just happen to treat patients who have sleep apnea and are NOT C-PAP tolerant. PM me if you have any questions. Good luck on your recovery!
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[ridleyville]

Hi Rich
Just got out of hospital myself after cancer surgery and i would like to wish you all the best for your speedy recovery.
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More human than human

[racprops]

And I hope for the same for you.

Rich
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[racprops]

I was just talking with a fellow I have know for 9 years, whom had his heart surgery over two years ago.

He was telling me to be careful as even after two years he just ripped something in his chest and he cannot lift over 3 pounds and if he does it hurts like hell. He will be see his Doctor ASAP.

He said you’re never quite the same after this surgery.

Something to watch out for. No heavy lifting or pulling.

Rich
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[joberg]

Yes, you'll have to be carefull afterwards not to exert yourself too much.
Depending on your age, level of fitness and also the kind of surgery.
As soon as you modify the original design (the body) you've created something different: the best analogy I can offer is that of a single thread that broke; the knot you'll do to rejoin the two ends will show forever...and will render the overall design weak.

That's why you'll have to train, not only your body but also your mind to get into the habit of not doing the things you used to do.
The routine has changed now, and it's time for your body and your mind (cannot stress the importance of the mind here) to re-think a new way to live.

To deny these important and live changing changes is too slow the recovery time. Accept that it was a radical operation, that, like the thread your body will not be the same and by the same token, you'll have to adapt by helping it heal with positive thinking

[TM]

Joberg,

That was a great way to describe the situation!

Tony
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If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes. . .

[racprops]

I agree.

I am not complaining, just informing you what it is like and for you to consider it a warning.

On Paper I looked fine, I had no high cholesterol, (I just saw my hospitable report and even when I was going in for surgery I have fair cholesterol levels) only higher blood pressure which was not considered really high as I ran 140/76 most of the time...

So it is either the sleep apnea OR something in the food...

Rich
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[joberg]

Thanks Tony Rich it could also be genetical...furthermore, most of the time, it's not a single event that can trigger, over the years, such a situation.

We tend to forget that the body, while being a very complex machine, is very resilient. It always find other paths to adapt to new situations (nature is very good at that) and is capable of finding new ways to function. We cannot remove the "spirit" equation from that recovery, that's why you have to look for those small, tiny baby steps that lead you toward a day when the worst will be behind you...and you'll be aware at that moment that your hard work (and that of others) has helped you to reach that point in your recovery.

In every trauma, there's a peak period (where everything seems to go badly one news/event after another) and then, little by little you'll come back up, you'll have rest period (plateau) when you'll notice that no or little progress has been made and another when something significant was done...

So here it is, keep up the good work Rich and keep us posted.

[TM]

As I posted before, I too have high blood pressure. Never recognized it as such - just thought that I was getting old and decrepit. The med's have brought it down a lot, but there is more to go.

I was very much impressed by the latest medical study about the "Mediterranean Diet":

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/health/mediterranean-diet-can-cut-heart-disease-study-finds.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

So I'm working that way and am loosing weight and reducing my blood pressure. And it's been easy! Haven't missed hamburgers or pizza's or french fries. Taking it very slow too.

I was also heavily influenced by a recent New York Times Magazine article about processed foods. Can't find the link right now. But this article completely turned me off of fast food and processed food. And it was an easy adjustment! Haven't been to a fast food place in weeks.

My point here is that if you get out of breath, or feel weak, and just think that's just getting old, it may be not what you think. Get your blood pressure checked and do something about it.

Rich's experience is really scary. I don't know how I would survive in his situation.

Sorry you are going through this Rich. Try to keep looking towards the future.

Tony
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If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes. . .

[racprops]

While we lived in LA (in the 80s)we too turned away from such food, and started eating better food, real butter, real maple slurp, clean beef, range free chicken and eggs etc. As much as possible anyway. Health food or healthy food anyway.

Did not save me.

Every test I took said I would live to 100…

Even in the hospitable they had a hard time finding out what was wrong, EVERY test failed to show it, until they injected the die and saw the bad arteries…

Then it was three really bad ones and a borderline fourth…

My problem seemed to have showed up within about 4 days and when over the top!

The week before I was fine and running 140 over 70s and then wham, 225 over 110 and into the hospital I went.

So I agree it is scary.

I kind of feel unless your get the die injection you cannot be sure, as they cannot tell: I passed all the tests they gave me but for a short walk around the ward and again 200 over 100….the high blood pressure was the ONLY real warning I got, and the walk the only "test" I failed, that along with a little chest and left arm pit pain..

I almost passed every test they ran...

Rich
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[joberg]

Tom, Rich, you're right about process food: the majority of those are ladden with sugar, salt and fat.
Salt is the biggest culprit for high blood pressure. Don't get me wrong, the body needs salt (1200/1500mg max/day) but we go over that treshold really fast with so much salt in every part of our diet. Soft drinks, or juice, from cheese to yogourt, salad dressing, cookies, milk, cereal...the list goes on and on!

Salad bars are the worst: ladden with salt! The best way to control all of that is to prepare your own food everyday. A survey showed that the average time spent in the kitchen in 1958 to prepare a meal for a family of 4 was around 1 1/2 hour. In 2012, it was about 20 minutes.

We have busy lifes, and in that quest for convenience we have process food/fast food that we can pop in the oven/microwave and have an instant meal.

Good things cannot happen without work and effort. The "instant gratification" amounts to nothing in the end.
Same thing with props: blood sweat and tears and nothing less than the beautiful will come from that hard work...maybe it's a comment on life and society in general

[racprops]

I fear we have mutated our food and it maybe the root cause.

I read a book called “The Wheat Belly” by Dr. William Davis which said that the classic shot of amber waves of grain is no more, model wheat is so mutated that it is as like wheat of 50 years ago as a monkey is to a human.

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+wheat+belly+book&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Modern wheat stands only 3 feet high and is very ridge, and very resistant to plant disease and thus easy to harvest.

Dr. Davis said because of all these changes we are now eating a deadly plant. It is the cause of our growing so fat.

Problem is I cannot find any of the classic 50 year old wheat.

And try to eat without any bread…

And even our meat is raised on it…

What else have we done??

Rich
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[joberg]

The problem lies with us for sure but, as humans, we've always played with nature; case in point: if you're a farmer and if one year half your wheat field contains smaller plants and the other half taller plants what kind of seed are you going to use next season?

The seed coming from the taller plant of course! And in the course of many years, this occurance will come back again. So now we have taller wheat, is it because of Nature, or because of us?

Since we're on a "closed circuit" type of planet: i.e. nothing can get out, we're exposed to a soup of chemicals constantly since our conception.
Some chemicals are good for us, even essential (we're already full of chemicals ourselves) and then there's man-made chemicals that are harmful to us.

It's just that we don't know what kind of mix creates a problem (cancer for example). Can we get rid of those harmfull chemicals? No, impossible to achieve!

Lots more to tell, but I think that'll be for a more extensive discussion

[racprops]

OK Just got home from my second sleep study, the one to figure out rather Bi-Level or ASV…

ASV won, I was switched over after the first hour.

Ran into a problem: Seems I stop breathing just as I start dreaming, or skip a breath of two..with the ASV it powers up and pushes max pressure into my face mask and keep waking me up.

And it also had a habit of taking control and making me breath at its rate…

This seemed to get better as we when along.

I think I read somewhere that the Resmed machines do this.

I hope the newer Resonanoic machines are a little more forgivable. OR that I can get it to start as a bi-level and switch to ASV once I am sleeping and it begins tracking my breathing cycles.

Now I have to wait until Next Monday (a week from the upcoming Monday..to get the results and prescription.

OK Just got home from my second sleep study, the one to figure out rather Bi-Level or ASV…

ASV won, I was switched over after the first hour.

Ran into a problem: Seems I stop breathing just as I start dreaming, or skip a breath of two..with the ASV it powers up and pushes max pressure into my face mask and keep waking me up.

And it also had a habit of taking control and making me breath at its rate…

This seemed to get better as we when along.

I think I read somewhere that the Resmed machines do this.

I hope the newer Resonanoic machines are a little more forgivable. OR that I can get it to start as a bi-level and switch to ASV once I am sleeping and it begins tracking my breathing cycles.

Now I have to wait until Next Monday (a week from the upcoming Monday)..to get the results and prescription.

Last night's sleep study did not cause a sudden improvement in my energy or awareness.

I am still tired and fell asleep in the afternoon…

Last night study showed what an uphill fight I face with the machines and adapting to them.

So with what I have read on apnea boards which tell of the breaking in and getting used to these treatments I can only hope things will settle in and I begin to see improvements around 4 to 6 weeks.

As I had originally feared, the cure is almost as bad as the illness….

Rich
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[Daddy Solo]

good luck! I'm still trying to ask around for any info for ya.
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