By Caron Schwartz
Take care: a heartfelt reminder
Recently, I was at a party where one guest was showing everyone the long scars on his arms, telling the story of how they came to be. He and his wife had been biking the Pinellas Trail when, cresting the 34th Street overpass, he stepped off his bike and passed out. By the time paramedics arrived, he was awake and feeling fine. The EMTs couldn’t find anything wrong. Still, he accepted a ride to the hospital while his worried wife biked home alone.
A few days later, this 70-something athletic man, who had recently hiked Watkins Glen in flip-flops, had a quadruple bypass. The scars were where surgeons harvested veins to reroute clogged arteries. His story prompted others at the party to share their own medical tales, what we in the senior community call an “organ recital.”
Because of a family history of high blood pressure and cholesterol, my partner Lenny has been under the care of a cardiologist since long before we met. When his doctor recommended an angiogram, Lenny scheduled the outpatient procedure and asked me to accompany him, since he’d need a ride home after anesthesia.
The cardio waiting room was filled with women. No men. We were an anxious sisterhood, each of us worried about the man we loved.
A kind tech brought pillows so my Kindle and I could get comfortable, though reading proved difficult. I couldn’t help overhearing another woman telling her story. She had been at the hospital for four days since her husband’s heart attack. Today, he was getting a quadruple bypass. They had been married for 10 years, and only recently had she learned about his first heart attack 15 years earlier. He was a big guy who smoked, drank, and never saw a doctor. He was 57. She was worried, and she admitted, kinda pissed.
Some of this may sound like TMI, but it matters. The lesson isn’t just about resolutions made and forgotten. It’s about paying attention. As Freakonomics podcaster Steven Dubner says, “Take care of yourself. And if you can, someone else.”
FYI, Lenny is fine. A few days later, he was playing the trombone with the Gulfport Gecko Marching Band in Safety Harbor.