Yvonne and Doug, you've got lots of people on Paddlewise thinking of you, even the lurkers like me (lurking since WaveLength days). I guess this coming surgery is a kind of "Go Big" and we're all waiting for you to be comfortable back at home. Diane in Victoria *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
From: "DMcNally" <dmcnally_at_pacificcoast.net> >Yvonne and Doug, you've got lots of people on Paddlewise thinking of you, >even the lurkers like me (lurking since WaveLength days). I guess this >coming surgery is a kind of "Go Big" and we're all waiting for you to be >comfortable back at home. Diane in Victoria< Hi Diane (and paddlewisers), Yeah, its me, still in Victoria too and alive (as opposed to having floated away to some distant shore - follow the strobe-light Doug, just follow the strobe-light...). Sorry Yvonne didn't get back to the list - she was a little preoccupied with both running the house and being anxious about my well-being (okay, so that is the normal state of affairs around our household when I go out paddling). I was too ill for visitors too. Go Big or Go Home? Yeah, it was business as usual in those regards for me at the hospital - and before: All my wife's friends got some famous, documented faith healer - spent a whole afternoon at my house with me in a" healing service" a couple of weeks ago. Well, go big or go home, right? I just wanted a surgery date, really. A little divine help would be nice. I already had figured out God must love me (for some strange reason) after surviving flesh easting disease and the BC Medical System. Well, no immediate healing. No surgery date either - doctors said stay in bed until March sometime. Not working gets expensive. Was fainting in bed however, day after day - not a pleasant sensation. Hit the ER department a few more times - no scheduled dates given. Go Home. Real desperate on the Saturday - figured I was down to the wire - not an unusual experience for a storm paddler. So, spent 20 desperate minutes outside, taking off my new roof racks, went to the walk-in clinic with my wife - the clinician took one look, said I could die any moment; told me to go to the hospital and don't leave. He didn't want to touch me. Went to hospital - Go big. Always. Van fit under the parkade. Love it when the timing/planning is good like that - paddling or otherwise; stayed in ER "fainting" room all night. ER doctor finally attended and told me it was all in my head; that I was suffusing myself with carbon dioxide during panic attacks and that my angiogram was fine. Yeah right? So, it was time to go big. Real BIG. Told the guy I was no idiot - stoic, stubborn, durable, something, but not an idiot. He finally found the missing cardiologist file stuck under the flawed radiology report. I'm a medical adjudicator - I told him, "Hey guy, never believe the radiologist report if more definitive info is available." "Okay, so you are "probably sick" and you do have a 95% artery blockage including severe aortic stenosis he come back. He calls the cardiologist on call - they know about me, but no surgery date apparently, yet. Said he did remember me finally - Doug the Medical Plan Adjudicator. He'd seen me many times over the last few years. So he admitted me, saying he'd put me in the "cardiologist's faces. Good move buddy - go big. Right on. And thank you God. Next few days in-patient were even more taxing than some of my storm trips/paddles. Lots of interstitial IV's as nurses tried to poke my leathery arms (from years of paddling). And the doctors kept giving me drugs for Meniere's syndrome. I'm not making this up! I kept reminding them I didn't have vertigo; I'm a paddler and adjudicator and I know what the symptoms are for that. No, I was having light-headedness with micro-burst of angina, and that I've been like this for two years, and that yes, I've been working 60 to 70 hours a week right up to the end, but I was unable to maintain even 10 minutes of conversation now." I finally looked at the hospital physician square on and said, "I just want definitive care given in a timely fashion - please!!!!. Can someone give me that?" Everywhere, old men kept coming into the ward; it had been backing up for open heart surgery for weeks. One guy had been waiting 5 weeks. Real nice waiting around like that when the hospital is full of resistant superbugs. Gotta love the BC Healthcare System, eh?. Finally, my old electrocardiologist came by on the Tuesday, said they were bumping other people, and some newer guy who he trusted exclusively would do surgery on me on the Thursday. Finally. Go big and do it right. Surgeon phoned my wife late Thursday, a little tired. He spent a few more hours than planned. He told my wife my ability to survive to Thursday was testimony to my tenacity and I was somewhat of a miracle. My other regular Cardiologist just calls me "a stout young lad. My wife? She calls me stubborn. Anyway, he reported to her that he took two extra hours just to clean away the calcium around my worn out bicuspid aortic valve - said it was as thick as his finger an didn't know how any blood was getting through. He did bypass surgery too, reshaped the aortic root and ascending aorta, and did a Cox-Maze procedure to hopefully prevent any future atrial fibrillation episodes which can put a cramp in a guy's paddling style. I went with the tissue valve for better paddling performance and no need for Coumadin and INR testing - also something that cramps one's paddling style. I'll be back for another valve one day and more aortic surgery and bypass surgery. This is all on my horizon anyway, so the mechanical valve didn't add up. We will see how my scheming goes. The surgeon told my wife it would take a year for my heart to get back to normal size - given it has been working so hard the last two years. Go Big, he, he. :-) Oh, there was a big storm the day of the surgery. I liked that. Give me a few months, I'll be out in one paddling. Go big, or go home. Though I'm going to go to bed now - took me all afternoon just to write these few words to you. Not feeling so stoic right now. Hope this isn't too offtopic or egocentric for the list. Go big or go home - and it is nice to be home again. Doug Lloyd (In Victoria awaiting more stubborn storm paddling) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. 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Doug... thank god you're ok. What a nightmare. Hang in there. Craig Jungers Royal City, WA On 2/20/07, Doug Lloyd <douglloyd_at_shaw.ca> wrote: > > > Go big or go home - and it is nice to be home again. > > Doug Lloyd (In Victoria awaiting more stubborn storm paddling) > * *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Doug Lloyd wrote: > Go big or go home - and it is nice to be home again. > > Doug Lloyd (In Victoria awaiting more stubborn storm paddling) You go, Doug! But stay around here for a while, hey? Glad you finally got some medical attention. The Bar awaits ... -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Doug: You never do anything in routine fashion. Everyone is pulling for you. You are a true American hero, even if you are Canadian. Rest now and get well. Bradford R. Crain *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> Yeah, its me, still in Victoria too and alive (as opposed to having > floated away to some distant shore - follow the strobe-light Doug, just > follow the strobe-light...). Well Doug, I guess all your stubornesss in storms ( do let the wind defeat you) paid off as you hounded the doctors to do the surgery. So glad you made it through and hopefully you will be back in a kayak soon and some day you and I can paddle together in amid Alaskan whales.. We will keep you in our prayers Bob *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Congratulations, Doug! Your story reminds me of others I have heard where athletes don't test as bad as they feel, because they are extra healthy with lots of redundant capacity and because they are determined and have high pain or even discomfort thresholds. Then the doctors finally take them seriously and act, and then wonder how their hip, shoulder, heart, etc kept going so long. I think CT and MRI technology has helped this a lot by giving better images of what is inside. An athlete's "Yeah, 'it' smarts a little when I run more than 15k," can mean that 'it' is about to fall off in itty bitty pieces. GaryJ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Doug, Your hospital exploits make your paddling exploits look tame and the BC healthcare system makes my insurance plan look good. Glad to hear that you are doing ok now. Steve Holtzman Southern California Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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