Well, I've been neglecting this blog, but for good reason. As you all know from my last post, my RL mother had a kidney removed, due to finding cancer in it. She is doing well, but has been staying at my sister's house, which is all on one floor. Mom's house has 13 steps just leading up to the front door, due to a raised basement in the front, so it's just not been feasible for her to be home. I've only been able to see her once in the last month, when she had to come to our hometown to see a couple of her local doctors, and my sister brought her by my work to see me for a few minutes. My work schedule doesn't allow me to go out of town to see her, as it's almost a two hour drive each way.
As some of you know, from my very brief forays into SL over the last two months, I've not been feeling well. It started as a what seemed to be a congestive lung issue, but gradually spread to dull pains in my chest, my arms, and my lower jaw. I was pulling 55+ hour work weeks (salaried management position... woot... heh.) in order to accommodate letting my assistant managers have needed days off around college schedules, personal issues, etc.. However, this all culminated in me having a really bad spell last Tuesday. I left work, having fortunately scheduled myself a short day that day, and went straight to the ER. I'd been putting off doing that, since I haven't had insurance in a long, long time, and am just now starting to get back on my feet financially from losing the last good paying job I had almost three years ago.
Anyway, the hospital here determined that my troponin levels were slightly elevated. Troponin is a regulatory protein that the heart "leaks" if there is damage due to some trauma to the heart... i.e. a mild heart attack. They performed a heart catheterization on me, and determined that I had blockages in the arteries in my heart, but they don't have the facilities to perform either angioplasty or stents here, so I was taken by ambulance to a hospital in the city the next morning, where they performed a second heart catheter, but were unable to get to the blockage. A third, successful attempt was made Wednesday night last week, and I now have a stent in the right coronary artery, which was 99.9% blocked, and in the left main coronary artery, which was 85% blocked. Had the third catheterization not been successful, they had a team standing by to do a coronary bypass surgery. BOY, am I glad it didn't come down to that!
The doctors at the hospital said the damage was minimal to my heart from the actual heart attack, though, which is a good thing. I feel better than I've felt in a long time, due to the stents, and with exercise and proper eating, should actually be healthier than I've been in years, over time. I won't return to work, officially, until next Wednesday, but I went over today for a meeting with the corporate franchise representative. My doctors and nurses told me that since I know my own body best, just to do what I can, and rest when I need to..... advice I've been following.
I've mentioned before that my bosses were great guys. I just want to reaffirm that. Both called me numerous times at the hospital, and neither mentioned work, other than that they missed me in my capacity there. They were/are genuinely concerned about my health, and about me as a person. That's a nice departure from the last "real" job I had, where I was merely a cog in their personal financial gain machine.
Anyway, apparently, if I take a little responsibility for my own health now, I'll live. I'm in such good spirits that I told Derren we could already start decorating for Christmas in SL. Heh. Must be the drugs. *winks*
*Peace and love to everyone, and I miss everyone very much*
Tel
P.S. Hopefully, I'll get to catch up with several of you that I don't talk to on Facebook daily on my RL account in the near future inworld, as I have a whole week to kill before being released to go back to work!
YAY!
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