My Final Entry

It was June 26, 2012. I had spent more than the last eight years attentively taking several different medications to keep my blood pressure low and the blood flowing through coronary arteries. I had successfully avoided a quintuple coronary-artery-bypass-graft (CABG) since 2004. My angina incidents were usually one or two every month or so.

But on the afternoon of June 26, 2012 I experienced something far more life threatening than an angina attack. I had a full blown heart attack. I knew it was serious because my father, who passed away when I was 16, was sitting right next to me.
 or two
"Don't panic, Jeff. You are having a heart attack but you aren't dying," he said calmly.

"Tell Lori to stay calm and call 9-1-1," he then said.

The Chesterfield Fire Department ambulance transported me to Community Hospital where my ardiologist was also heading towards. I had always told Dr. Lee that I would not have a bypass. She told the emergency room to give me a loading dose of Plavix and aspirin. By the time she arrived, I had been dosed with these anticoagulants.

Dr. Lee asked what I wanted to do. She always allowed me to be in charge of my treatment plan.

"My father said take the surgery," I told her as she looked at me quizzially.

Three days later, when my coagulation time was long enough, I had a four vessel CABG. That was one year and a little over one month ago. My recovery was without any incidents and by October, Lori and I were living in New Mexico.

I still have the rare bout of angina, but it lasts less than a minute or two. I am as active as I want to be.

I am extremely happy with  the way things have turned out and would not change any of the decisions that got me where I am today.

Still Ticking

I know its been two years since my last post. Time flies when you are having fun. I've been taking my medication since 2004 and rarely experience angina. In the past year, my current cardiologist has tried to convince me to get the quintuple coronary artery bypass graft that I was originally told I needed back in 2004 when I took the advice of my second opinion cardiologist and began a medication protocol to control hypertension and assist my body in developing a better microcirculation and more efficient collateral vessels. It's been working.

Every time I see my cardiologist, my ECG and echocardiogram have shown my heart is normal. It would not be if the collateral vessels and microcirculation were not supplying the heart with adequate oxygen. In December I relented to my cardiologist's insistence that I have an angiogram which showed the blockages to my coronary arteries were essentially the same as they were in 2004. She still wanted me to have a five vessel CABG despite having a normal heart.

I told her that if a second opinion from a noninterventional cardiologist decided I needed a CABG, I would get one. Two months ago, I went to Indiana Heart Hospital for that second opinion. The cardiologist had all of my records and gave me a pretty thorough exam. He told me if I could do seven minutes of a cardiac stress test, he would agree with me that my medication regimen is providing adequate treatment of my coronary artery disease.

My current cardiologist gave me a stress test two years ago and I only lasted a little over five minutes at that time. Now my second opinion cardiologist wanted me to do two whole minutes more. Was I up for the challenge?

Tuesday was the big day. To make a long story short, I lasted seven minutes and 31 seconds and only experienced a slight amount of chest tightness at the end of the test that was gone within two minutes of the end of the test. The results were normal. My stress ECG showed no changes from my baseline ECG. The post stress left ventricle was normal in size. There was a normal pattern of perfusion in all myocardial regions. Resting images showed a normal perfusion pattern. Analysis of post exercise quantitative gated SPECT images showed a normal pattern of systolic thickening and normal wall motion in all regions. The post stress ejection fraction was measured at 63%, which is NORMAL.

Finally, my cardiologist's impression of the cardiac stress test: No scar. No ischemia. Normal LV systolic function. The post stress ejection fraction is 63%. NORMAL MYOCARDIAL PERFUSION STUDY.

I was told in 2004 that I would probably have a massive stroke or deadly heart attack within three months if I didn't have a quintuple coronary artery bypass graft. I opted to be treated with medication and now eight years later, I am still ticking.

Dr. Howard H. Wayne, a noninterventional cardiologist, said 95% of all CABGs are unnecessary. I hope that if you or a loved one have been told you need this very traumatic surgery, you will get a second opinion from a noninterventional cardiologist. It could save your life, or at the very least give you years of a higher quality of life than you would have if you had the surgery.

If you would like to discuss my blog or anything about the choices I have made regarding CABG surgery, email me at wordworks2001@yahoo.com.

Energy

Energy. It changes form but never dies or disappears. All things, organic and inorganic share one thing in common. They are made up of energy, energy that is always present in the universe.

Of late, I have begun experiencing the energy within me. I can actually tune into the electrical changes that occur in my body and through meditation and study have learned this energy has always existed and will always exist in one or more of the many dimensions or planes in which it comes to be.

Do you realize the significance of this fact? We never die. More to be revealed later.

Update

In September I began having palpitations, usually in the evening. I was fitted with a halter monitor which I wore for 48 hours. No abnormalities were observed. I began course of 35 session of ECP and have 10 more to go. The palpitations continue and are accompanied frequently by PVCs. Two nights ago, I had a bout of midsternal chest pain, probably angina. My BP was about 140-150/80-90 at the time. There was some mild sweating. This lasted about half an hour. Th next night, while taking my BP with a digital cuff that beeps when the heart beats, I had a 5 second runof pretty fast taachycardia. The pulse had been reading in the mid 70s before this event and was reorded at 111 after the tachycardia. There were abolutely no symptoms at this time.

I havean appointment with my cardiologist on October 14. I will keep those interested posted.

Belated Update

It's been several months since I last posted here. I guess that's a sign that all is going well. It was, at least with my coronary artery disease and angina.

However, about two weeks ago I began having some strange sensations in my chest during the evening while I am simply relaxing or reading a book. These feelings are not pain, they aren't even discomfort. It's like the feeling a teenage boy gets when he falls in love for the first time and I haven't even dated lately.

I noticed my BP, which usually is around 90/50 during this hour was in the 140's over 80's and my pulse thast is usually in the high 50's or low 60's was in the 70's to low 80s. For some, my BP medications have stopped working as well as they had before.

So, I am going to see a cardiologist later this morning. I will let you know how it turns out.

A Letter to the Editor

Six years ago, I urged Bill Clinton to get a second opinion instead of blindly opting for a quadruple coronary artery bypass. A few months before his surgery, I had been told by an Indianapolis cardiologist that if I did not undergo a quintuple bypass, I would probably have a massive heart attack or stroke within a few months. I opted for treatment from Howard Wayne, MD, FACC, FACP, of San Diego. Now, six years later, I am doing great and Bill Clinton has had to have two stents placed in a coronary artery.

Most patients who undergo coronary artery bypass surgery undergo the placement of stents or even another bypass five or six years later. In April, it will be six years that I began treatment with medication for my coronary artery disease and angina.

Dr. Wayne is gone now, but his web site is still up and as valid as ever. Check it out: http://www.heartprotect.com/

Routine exams result in under diagnosis and under treatment. The stethescope and EKG will detect heart disease in 10-20 percent of future victims. The stress EKG will detect 10-15 percent more. Not until the heart disease is far advanced and often too late to treat will these tests become abnormal.

Invasive tests (angiograms) result in over diagnosis and unnecessary surgeries. Angiograms cannot image the small arteries that make up the heart's microcirculation. A coronary artery may appear to be obstructed, but the muscle it goes to often functions normally and is in no danger because the blood supply comes from microcirculation.

Noninvasive tests involve placing radioactive detectors, sonar devices, electronic sensors, pulse transducers and microphones on the chest. No catheters, tubes or needles enter or "invade" the body.

These noninvasive tests image and permanently record:
localized abnormalities of motion and heart muscle due to obstructive coronary artery disease.
flow of blood in heart muscle.
thickness of heart's muscular walls.
dimensions of the heart's chambers.
structure and motion of its valves.
obstruction or leakage of valves.
heart murmurs: their origin and the vloume, velocity and pattern of blood flow through each valve.
duration of each phase of the cardiac cycle.
normal and abnormal heart sounds.
systolic and diastolic heart function.
fraction of blood ejected each beat.
Noninvasive tess are extremely sensitive in the early detection of heart disease. Heart disease, if present, will be found with resting tests in 85-90 percent of patients, even in those without symptoms. Exercise tests with noninvasive studies will identify almost all of the remainder.



Once heart disease is found, surgery is usually not needed, despite what an invasive cardiologist might say. Predisposing conditions, once identified, can be treated and eliminated, without surgery.



Drugs which reduce the workload of the heart, protect it, and improve its blood supply and function then can be given. The same noninvasive tests used for early diagnosis may be used to monitor the patient's progress. These can be compared with previous tests in order to optimize treatment and to detect and treat adverse changes even before symptoms appear.



If you find this too hard to believe, check out my blog. I started it in 2004, when I began Dr. Wayne's treatment. I am living proof that even when your cardiologist tells you you need immediate quintuple coronary artery bypass surgery, it ain't necessarily so.



My blog is at http://wordworks2001.blogspot.com

I told him so!

Six years ago, I urged Bill Clinton to get a second opinion instead of blindly opting for a quadruple coronary artery bypass. A few months earlier, I had been told by an Indianapolis cardiologist that if I did not undergo a quintuple bypass, I would probably have a massive heart attack or stroke within a few months. I opted for treatment from Howard Wayne, MD, FACC, FACP, of San Diego. Now, six years later, I am doing great and Bill Clinton has had to have two stents placed in his coronary arteries.

Dr. Wayne is gone now, but his web site is still up and as valid as ever. Check it out: http://www.heartprotect.com/

Gays in the Military

A letter I emailed to Senator Bayh and Senator Lugar

Let me preface this letter by stating I am a retired US Army master sergeant who served from 1968 to 1988. Also, I am a confident heterosexual who does not feel threatened by the presence of gay soldiers in the army.

I have known and worked with gay and lesbian soldiers from basic training and throughout my entire career. This was before the ridiculous Don't Ask Don't Tell policy went into effect.

From 1977 through 1980, I had an extremely flamboyant medic who worked for me. He was one of the best soldier-medics I ever led and I never heard one complaint about him from the soldiers he treated for injuries, and many of those soldiers were Green Berets.

Some of the gay and lesbian soldiers I served with were in the closet. Some were openly gay. At no time did I ever believe their sexual preference jeapordized the mission.

I AM BECAUSE WE ARE

This documentary film gave me new respect for Madonna. You can view it at http://www.iambecauseweare.com/ .

I hope after you watch it you might contribute to Madonna's charity, Raising Malawi. I have designated this organization as my official Facebook birthday gift. http://apps.facebook.com/causes/birthdays/254606 .

Justice at Fort Hood

Does anyone else find it ironic that the man accused of murdering 13 soldiers and civilians on Fort Hood a week ago, MAJ Nadil Hasan, will be judged in by a military courts martial rather than the State of Texas? No courts martial in the last half century has resulted in an execution. Texas is, without question, the most prolific enforcer of the death penalty.

Now I am not a great proponent of the death penalty. In fact, with very few exceptions, I believe that executions should be banned. What exceptions? Mass murder, serial murder, serial rapists, killers of law enforcement officers and other public officials in which there is absolutely no doubt of the guilt of the defendants.

While I am a retired Army master sergeant and believer of military justice, I wonder if anything short of the death sentence for the person who perpetrated the mass murder at Fort Hood is real justice. I would have preferred to see the State of Texas adjudicate this case.

Perhaps it is not too late. Let the Army have its courts martial on the murders of the military members who were killed and let the state try MAJ Hasan for the civilian murders. Doesn't that sound fair?

Health Care Reform

When it comes to worldwide life expectancy and infant mortality, the United States isn't even in the top 10. In fact, it is not in the top 30!.

Would you be surprised to learn that babies born in the Czek Republic, South Korea, and Hong Kong, have a better chance of living than those born in America? The good old USA is 33rd in world infant mortality. Cyprus, New Caledonia and Spain, also have lower infant mortality rates.

Would you believe there are 37 countries in the world that have longer life expectancies than the USA? Japan has the highest, followed by Iceland, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Australia. You will have to read the names of 32 other countries with higher life expectancies than America before you learn an American male can expect to live to 75.6 years, more than 10 years less than a man in Japan.

What do these countries with better statistics have that Americans do not have? The one common factor most have is Universal Health Care for their citizens.

Don't Americans deserve to be as healthy and live as long as Czeks?

www.americanhealthcarereform.org

FUEL GIRLS

I like the Fuel Girls

Does that make me a bad prson?

An email I received from my friend Goody

PO2 (EOD2) (Explosive Ordnance Disposal)
Mike Monsoor, a Navy EOD Technician, was
awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
posthumously for jumping on a grenade in Iraq,
giving his life to save his fellow Seals.
(Notice: Mike was not a Navy SEAL, he was EOD.
He gave his life to save a group of Navy SEALS.)

During Mike Monsoor's funeral in San Diego ,
as his coffin was being moved from the hearse
to the grave site at Ft. Rosecrans National
Cemetery , SEAL's were lined up on both sides
of the pallbearers route forming a column of two's,
with the coffin moving up the center. As Mike's
coffin passed, each SEAL, having removed his
gold Trident from his uniform, slapped it down on the coffin.

The slaps were audible from across the cemetery; by the time the coffin
arrived grave side,
it looked as though it had a gold inlay from all the Tridents pinned to
it.

This was a fitting send-off for a warrior hero..

This should be front-page news instead of the crap we see every day..

Peace on Earth, etc.

November 29, 2008 -- RE The front page of today's Herald Bulletin -- Which is the more shocking news story? One hundred fifty (200 at last count) being killed in more than three days of terrorist attacks in Mumbia, or one WalMart greeter being killed by 2000 rampaging shoppers in New York?

We have become accustomed to reading about Black Friday atrocities throughout the years, but I believe this is the first time a store employee has been reported killed in a shopping stampede. Terrorist attacks, especially overseas, have not been all that common, but who really cares, despite the fact that several of the victims were American?

Lest we blame the East Coast crowd of rabid day-after-Thanksgiving shoppers for all the mayhem at the malls this year, Inside the newspaper was the story of two men gunned down in a Palm Desert, California toy store on Black Friday. They shot each other to death, apparently arguing over a purchase.

Black Friday is supposed to represent to retailers, a day when their ledger books show an income, as opposed to Red Friday, which would indicate a monetary loss. I propose we change the name to Bloody Friday in commemoration of the WalMart greeter who died in New York and the two nuts in Palm Desert.

A Piece of My Mind

Politics I

I doubt there is anyone happier than I am that the presidential elections are over and that our media will be free of new campaigns for at least a few months. No sooner were the votes counted though, than the conservatives began predicting doom and gloom for the republic because the electorate saw fit to put a raving liberal into office.

I am a baby boomer born into a family of Yankee democrats. In the mid 1960’s, although I wasn’t yet old enough to vote, I spent many a political campaign in Connecticut volunteering to stuff envelopes and making campaign signs for the local Democrat Party. This was more of a social activity for me than a political one. It wasn’t until I was a freshman in college that my commitment to politics became guided by idealism.

Academically deficient in high school, I was accepted to only one of the half dozen institutions of higher education I applied to. That was Barrington College, a now defunct conservative evangelical Christian college in a suburb of Providence, Rhode Island.

Barrington didn’t allow drinking, dancing, gambling, smoking, cursing or going to the movies unless the film was being shown on campus. Chapel attendance was mandatory and 30 hours of religious courses were required for graduation.

The war in Vietnam didn’t affect me much in the beginning of that freshman year, 1966. After all, as long as I was attending college, my chances of getting sent off to war were minimal.

Then, in the summer of 1967, something happened to change all of that. My boyhood friend, Donny Walsh, who had enlisted in the Navy after high school graduation, was killed in Vietnam.

Donny was a corpsman assigned to a Marine unit. He was killed while treating a fallen comrade on the battlefield.

The war suddenly became very pertinent and personal. I could not understand why Donny had to go and die in a country I barely knew anything about.

When I returned to college in the fall, I was a budding antiwar activist. I began attending demonstrations in Providence. Soon I was spending more time marching against the war than I did attend classes at Barrington.

When Dr. King was assassinated, I spent four days and three nights sitting in at the Rhode Island State House demonstrating for passage of the Fair Housing Act. The more time I spent out of class the less important my education seemed.

I started volunteering at the Eugene McCarthy for President headquarters in Providence. Finally, I moved out of my dormitory into a room in the back of the campaign office. Later I moved into an apartment that some students from the Rhode Island School of Design rented nearby.

After several weeks, I learned of a paying position in New Jersey and I flew to Newark and became the McCarthy campaign’s field coordinator for the 5th Congressional District. I was given room and board with a democrat family in Manville and the use of a Lincoln Continental and American Express card that belonged to an attorney in Sommerville.

June 5th 1968 at 2 AM, my secretary, a sexy 20-year- old Italian girl named Ellen, and I were driving from an after primary party in Newark back to Sommerville. As we sped down Route 22, we were listening to the news.

Bobby Kennedy, who had won the New Jersey primary as well as the one in California, was scheduled to give a victory speech in a Los Angeles hotel. We heard his assassination on live radio.

I pulled the white Continental off to the shoulder of the highway and with tears in my eyes began pounding the steering wheel with my fists in anger and frustration.

“Why work to get a man elected president when some maniac can shatter a dream with a gun?” I screamed. Ellen was as stricken with hate and horror as I was.

My short foray into the world of professional politics ended as abruptly as Bobby’s life. I dropped Ellen off at her house, forgetting her earlier promise of a night of romance. I then drove to Manville and sat in the car listening to the news until long after the sun came up.

At about 8 AM, I called my mother, who had sent a scathing letter to Senator McCarthy a few months earlier, accusing him of bewitching her son and making him quit college to chase a quixotic dream of ending the war. I told her I was going back to college.

“I don’t think so Jeff,” she replied caustically. “A letter from the Selective Service came for you a few days ago. I think you are being drafted.”

I pondered my choices. Remaining vehemently antiwar, I could refuse to be drafted and go to prison. I could go to Canada. I could go home, open the letter and report to the Selective Service.

I opted for a fourth choice. I decided to go to the nearest recruiting office and enlist.

Since I had taken my Selective Service physical and a battery of other exams two years earlier and had been told I qualified for virtually every school in the Army, I decided to enlist for a military occupational specialty in the medical field.

There were five recruiting stations in a mall in Sommerville. The first one I visited was the Coast Guard. They had a six month waiting list. The waiting list at the Air Force recruiter was almost as long. Since the local Selective Service in Connecticut had already sent me a letter, these services were out of the question.

I bypassed the Navy recruiter as well as the Marines. I knew the Marines used Navy corpsmen and I didn’t want to end up like Donnie.

When I went into the Army recruiter’s office, I announced I wanted to become a medic and asked how soon I could sign up. After ascertaining that my physical and pre-enlistment tests had all been completed, I was told they could put me on a bus to basic training that evening.

It took me one day to go from being a professional politician in the McCarthy campaign to buck private in the United States Army.

Why I Voted for Obama

Okay, I'll admit it. My vote in the 2008 presidential race was more of a vote against Bush and the war in Iraq than it was one for Obama. I would have cast my ballot for a guy named Beelzabub if it meant keeping a Republican out of the White House. Better to be led by the devil you know than by a proven liar and wolf in sheep's clothing.

I don't hate McCain as much as I distrust him to be different from the present president. I do despise what Bush has done to the Army I served in for 20 years and the country and world I have lived in for more than six decades.

A democratic republic gets the government it deserves. I did not vote for Bush either time he ran, but apparently he earned enough votes to get elected in 2000 and again in 2004. If those elections were not bought by voter fraud, we have no one to blame but the voters for the eight years of darkness we elected Obama to lead us out of.

Come January this country begins a new era, an era in which the names of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice hopefully will inhabit black chapters in America's history books. Although I sincerely believe these people deserve to be tried for war crimes, I hope they at least fade away quietly into the purgatory of political and social oblivion.

The Presidential Debate

So John McCain thinks it is more vital for him to attend the congressional bank bail out debate than to attend the first presidential debate. Is this the same McCain who, up until earlier this month, thought the American economy was in great shape?

Relying on McCain to fix the economy is like hiring my auto mechanic to give the space shuttle a tune-up.

Could it be that McCain is afraid to debate Obama, although the topic of the debate is something McCain is arguably more qualified to discuss -- the war in Iraq?

Many media types expect the first presidential debate to have a larger viewing audience than any other individual television program in history. Isn't McCain's appearance at the debate more important than any contribution he could make to our bank crisis?

I'd rather McCain sign up for a college course in economics than miss this debate with Obama. The country would be a lot better off if he did.

An Open Letter to Republican Apologists

Face facts Republican apologists, Sarah Palin is a liar. She took a walk across the Bridge to Nowhere before it was built. Unfortunately, for her, she couldn't walk on water.

What are Governor Palin's lies? Her first was saying she opposed that pork barrel project when she actually supported it from the beginning. Her second lie was claiming she saved the American taxpayers money by nixing the bridge.

The truth is Palin not only supported building this bridge, she had nothing to do with its cancelation. And as to saving American taxpayers money, Alaska didn't get the White Elephant Bridge but still received $223 million from the taxpayers.

This isn't Al Gore claiming, in a slip of the tongue, to having invented the Internet.

This isn't Joe Biden plagerizing during his collegiate years.

Sarah Palin is a full grown woman, a purported Christian, a public official, who has told lies to make herself look fiscally tough.

A Republican president has fed this country eight years of lies and has nearly destroyed it in the process. We need to elect a vice president who doesn't base her qualifications on a lie.

Beware of Medical Terrorists

More Harm Than Good: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Common Treatments and Procedures by Alan, M.d. Zelicoff

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Four years ago, I began writing a blog (http://wordworks2001.blogspot.... to warn people about the dangers of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. When I read this book, I didn't have to go any further than page two for validation of my blog's premise. Here is an excerpt:



"...Before the 1960s, there was little a doctor could do about coronary artery disease. Patients with angina -- chest pain from coronary blockages -- were simply put to bedrest for several weeks and given aspirin.



"It must have seemed like medicine had taken a quantum leap ahead when the cardiac bypass technique was perfected in the later part of the decade...



"...The initial successes were splashed across newspaper headlines...



"...The truth was that bypass surgery wasn't the cure-all that the medical establishment made it out to be. Simply put the procedure didn't always work well, and it sometimes resulted in a more rapid demise than if nothing had been done at all!



"...Billions of dollars were spent for a procedure that benefited only a fraction of patients who received it, while arguably harming a great number of others.



"...It would take years for the data to show that people ended up with unchanged or shorter life spans from bypass surgery."



The subtitle of this valuable book is What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Common Treatments and Procedures. That is why I began advoctating that patients take control of their health care and insist that they coordinate and compose their medical treatment plan with their physician. In other words - Take Charge of Your Own Body!



Over the years I have begged and pleaded with people to always ALWAYS get a second opinion from a noninvasive cardiologist before being coerced into allowing a cardio-thoracic surgeon crack your chest open and perform a CABG.



The cardiologist who saved me from the surgeon's knife in 2004 started me on a medication regimen that continues to be effective and serves me well today. His name was Howard Wayne and he called cardiologists who were quick to cut "medical terrorists."



Personally, I call doctors who coerce patients and their family members into a traumatic and unneeded surgical procedure CRIMINALS, and I believe they are guilty of assault with a deadly weapon.


View all my reviews.