When Friends Get Sick…
June 11th, 2009
Talk about a wake up call!
A good friend of mine just suffered a heart attack. He’s only 51 years old. He was lucky, there was no damage to his heart muscle. But he has one artery that’s 100% clogged, another that’s 50% and a third that is 80%.
I never considered this friend to be unhealthy. Yes, he smoked, but he recently got on a diet, lost a few pounds and joined a gym.
It’s funny how this has hit my close knit group of friends. Two of them are now working to kick the habit. Others are watching what we eat and working out more often.
We hear everyday what we need to do to prevent this, but we never seem to listen until it hits close to home.
3 years ago this month, my best friend from childhood (we met before kindergarten, then graduated high school together then even worked together after that) died suddenly of a heart attack. He had recently gotten remarried, had just become the head of hospice here in east texas, and he had spent the last several years getting his education, getting 2 degrees. Well it must have all been too much, because he was clearing some space in the backyard and he started to feel numb and nauseous…he got into the shower and collapsed there. The autopsy showed he had “atheroschlerosis”…clogging of the arteries….
This all devastated me even though I hadn’t seen him in several years, it was life changing for me. I realized that could have been me very easily. yes, its time to do a check on our health…I am always after my friends and family to watch their salt intake. They just laugh at me. Certainly is disconcerting. my brother said, “you eat out too much; I eat a can of ranch style beans for supper myself”…I said, “You know how much sodium is in ranch style beans?” (he takes the most expensive BP medication there is by the way…go figure…)
Anyway, if I do drop dead, its been nice seeing you on the morning show ED!! (still plan to introduce myself next time I see you)…
Ed
I buried my husband on April 8, 2008. It was the Red Sox opening day which he never missed. My two daughters and I were at the hospital by his bedside. He was on the morphine drip and never knew the game was on. He died at 8:45 that night.
My husband smoked since he was 16 years old. He never thought he would die from lung cancer because he never felt any effects from it. He lost his voice in July of 2007. I took him to a throat specialist where they discovered he had a large malignant tumor on his left lung. They did a PET scan and found he had cancer in his lungs, back spine and even his collar bone had cancer factures.
I spent from August of 2007 to April of 2008 taking him to radiology for radiation and chemo. He kept getting worse and worse. He could no longer think, eat, walk or enjoy his 1 year old granddaughter. He never got to hold her. The cancer went to his brain and killed him.
If you smoke and think you will catch the cancer in time, thing again. That is why it is called the silent killer.
Madeline