Closing Out 2011

This is my 53rd column for the year 2011 and how, you may ask, can that be since I only publish on Saturdays and there are only 52 weeks in the year? Well, this year has been special in that it both started and ended on a Saturday. Therefore, there actually were 53 Saturdays in 2011.

Okay, go ahead and find you r calendar and count the weeks to be sure – I’ll wait.

Because this is a bonus Saturday, I’m going to use it to do something I’ve never done before. I’m going to write the closest thing to a newsletter that I can come up with. So, if you don’t care to read peoples annual newsletters, you have my permission to skip this column. (But I hope you won’t)

The year has been momentous for me. I continued to work on my “bucket list” with a couple of road trips, managed to keep my finances in order and healthy, spent almost the entire month of July shuttling between home and the hospital, and gained back some of the pounds I lost over the past two years of dieting.

First, let’s tackle that added weight! You would think that a cardiac event and a steady diet of Healthy Choice, Smart Ones and Lean Cuisine would at least keep a person at the current weight. But no, all the extras that came to the table on Sundays (dinner with the extended family) and on road trips (not all motels and hotels come with microwave ovens in the rooms) added on the pounds a little at a time. At year’s end I have put back on 12 of the 30 pounds I lost last year. It looks like there’s gonna be some fast days in 2012.

In May, Judy and I drove to New England. In the process I added four more states to my list of places I’ve visited: Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine. The only states I haven’t ever been through are North Dakota and Alaska. Well, maybe I haven’t been to eleven of them. According to President Obama, he visited 57 states during his 2008 campaign, but he never got to Hawaii or Alaska. Somehow, I doubt that I’ll ever get to all 59 states, but there’s still time. I still have to learn the names and locations of nine of them.

My implanted pacemaker was due for a checkup in early July, and when the technician hooked up the monitor she discovered that I was in atrial flutter again. That’s when the upper heart chamber (atrium) beats faster than the lower one (ventricle). The doctor scheduled me for a procedure called ablation. They insert a catheter with a laser on the end through the groin and up into the heart. Then the laser burns a little tissue in the atrium. That interrupts the heart’s natural pacemaker and brings the heart back to sinus rhythm. It sounds painful and complicated, but I was in la-la land during the whole thing, so all I cared about was that it worked. Ta-da!

Complications set in and I was back in the hospital two more times in the next two weeks for repairs. Then, after that finally worked, my ticker decided to act up and I got a ride back to the hospital in an ambulance for a three-day stay and yet another catheterization.
All this medical care cost Medicare beaucoup bucks, and I didn’t even enjoy it.

With all that surgery, you’d think that I’d be good as new, but that isn’t the case. My Cardiologist says that there are no further grafts or PTCA procedures—called Balloon angioplasties—available to me to salvage whatever is left of my heart, so medicine is my only remedy. The next time I have a cardiac event will probably be my last time. That’s life and I accept it!

In October we drove up to Chapel Hill, NC for my sister-in-law’s reception. She remarried two years after my brother, Don, passed away, and I’m very happy for her and her new husband, Allan. Then we continued to Indiana to visit Judy’s aunt and uncle, and on to Kansas City to visit old friends there. We returned via Alabama with the intention of doing some sightseeing in the northern part of the state, but the weather foiled us, and we didn’t see half of what we had planned. Oh well, another time we’ll get there, since it is an easy drive over and back.

October also saw my grandson, Chase, go to Army boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood. He just came home on leave last week, and he seems to be 30 pounds lighter and about 4 inches taller. We’re very proud of him.

You may have noticed that I started something new back in November. I have a new daily message that I send out to those in my address book called, “Your Daily Dose of Humor.” I send a joke, a cartoon or a video each day. I get these from you, and I dole them out one at a time instead of immediately forwarding them. I have a continuous feed and always have a dozen or more ready to send.

By the way, if you ever prefer that I stop sending you my column alerts or daily humor updates, just send me a short message and I’ll remove you from the list. You always have that option.

I hope that the year 2012 will be at least as good as this past one has been, and I also hope that I haven’t bored you with my summary of 2011. I know that I’m living on borrowed time from now on, so I guess I have to hope that I’ll get in another 52 columns next year. I look forward to it with optimism, enthusiasm and anticipation.

Happy New Year!