Exceeding The Expiration Date Or Now For The Good News

Thanks for suffering thru these posts. I realize they were long and prolly as riveting as a vacuum cleaner operating manual. However, I have been blogging for 2 years now and since most all you guys have opened up personally at one time or the other I thought I would let you know a little something about the guy you are dealing with here.

Now don’t get me wrong. I aint no where near falling over anytime soon. Since those days, thru the miracle of chemistry, my EF has improved to 30-35%. The doc is pleased with my progress and has relaxed my restrictions. Early on was a bit of a struggle finding my boundaries. The wife drives me nuts. You can’t do this, you can’t do that. She aint quite as bad as she was but she still gets on me. But then again I do tend to push it a bit. I’ve always done physical types of work and it’s hard to ask someone to lift something when you look perfectly healthy. I have gotten the “you lazy SOB” look a few times and I don’t like to use it as a crutch.

After the diagnosis the doc asked me if I had been tired a lot. I thought no, not really. He said he has known folks with a 40% EF that couldn’t function at all and I was functioning fine at the 10-15 %. He said my body must have compensated somehow for it. The wife said she had noticed me dragging a bit but I was working 2 jobs at the time. They can’t tell me how I got it. The main known causes at the time were heavy drinking, drug use or viral. I know it definitely wernt the first two. He said it really didn’t matter as the treatment is the same.

I have physical limits that really don’t impair me too much unless it comes to lifting things. My biggest issue tends to be the side effects caused by my meds. Standing quickly after stooping makes me dizzy. I’ve only passed out from it once and that was 2 months after the discovery and I had been crawling around under the house getting it ready to sell. The main thing is that I do not strain.

Working on the road is a big challenge as we tend to do 12-14 hour days. There is a lot of walking and climbing. At the end of the day I am a bit tired but the doc said tired is not a bad thing.

I was looking at my chart a couple years back and found a line on it that says, “Research Patient”. I asked the doc about it and he seemed a bit puzzled. He said he would ask about that but I’ve never gotten an answer. I aint really worried about it as whatever they’ve done seems to work well and I’ve not grown a second head yet.

I was truly blessed by having the accident. God is good. But I must admit, I have never called the girl and thanked her in person.

And thank you all for not saying, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. I absolutely abhor that phrase cause it didnt. I also don’t care for the song by Tim McGraw, “Live like you were dying”. I live each day like any other day. I don’t let this thing define me. Too much.

That’s all I got to say bout that.

Y’all take care now.