Pico de Orizaba

Pico de Orizaba
Taken from Huatusco, Veracruz, the closest town to Margarita's family's ranch.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

navegating a possibly imaginary mine field...

It has been assumed that the heart attack was a frightening experience or that I find myself in a scary situation... Or, better yet, I'm scared.  Truthfully, I don't feel that way... Worried is a better descriptor of my experience.  Worried about what?

Ok.  Let's look at this closely.  What does the heart attack mean for me?  What does it mean for Margarita.  Before the heart attack, what was occuring in our lives...?

Truthfully, you've gotta look closely at the heart attack... primarily away from the science or medicine of a heart attack.  The actual experience... the significance.  For some reason, with the heart attack everything changes.  If it occurred once, now it can occur again.  And what does that signify if it occurs again?  What we don't understand is that from the very first day of our lives, the heart attack could occur for the first time.  Looking at today's statistics, we should understand that it was imminent and about to occur at any given time, especially after the age of 30.  Why didn't we live our lives preventing the heart attack then?  And, now that we had it, it could re-occur at any given moment?

Do you know how the heart attack will be caused?  By having sex with my wife... Too much excitement...?  By suddenly becoming angry? By having decided to eat eggs this morning?  I just saw a video promoting a plant-based diet that Bill Clinton is following that claims in the beginning that it has nothing to do with whether or not you are healthy or whether or not you have high levels of cholesterol in your blood.  You may have perfect blood tests and look perfect.  But, today you ate a hamburger and something tilted a scale suddenly and the saturated fat from that hamburger combined with your egg breakfast a few hours earlier created a massive clot unexistent a day earlier and BAM! you are dead on the sidewalk between the lunch counter and your office...  

Are you scared now?  Maybe if you saw the video and how they display the data... And, yes, they have very famous Ansel Keys era scientists explaining their theories...  

But, do you believe that becoming vegan will remove the possibilities from my mind?  Afterall, your liver produces most of the cholesterol that enters your blood stream.  You could have been born into a vegan lifestyle and still experience hypercholesterolemia...  and die of a heart attack at the age of 44...  
No, I'm not scared.  I'm worried.  I'm worried about all of those hidden land mines (that were always there) I must avoid, although they are invisible... Many may be imaginary... Many may be real...  Imagine that; an imaginary hidden landmine...  And what if you step on one of those?  Just a philosophical joke...

When I had my heart attack, I had just returned to Guadalajara from the Pacific coast... from the wonderful tourist/beach town of Sayulita, state of Nayarit an hour north of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco...  We had been eating purely fish for 2 weeks now... Encountered wonderful hiking trails for 3 hour hikes in the jungle in the hills along the coast and discovered hidden beaches.  It was marvelous...  Since Mexico was hit by a very rare March cold front, the weather was incredibly comfortable.  The bungalow we rented was very cozy.  I don't remember sleeping so well for 6 nights.  As you know, floating in the ocean greatly relaxes the body.  So, why would I have had a heart attack the day after returning to Guadalajara?

All of my blood tests have me extremely healthy at the blood-lipid level.  Even the cardiologist said that my numbers were perfect and that he doesn't know anyone who dropped so much triglycerides, cholesterol and pounds in a one year period... and probably the same diet that removed me from classification of hypertensive is what enabled me to survive my first heart attack...  

But, that's just it:  "First Heart Attack"...  Am I scared of the second?

When I had that first one, I did 72 push-ups, 20 llantitas and then ran 3 miles smack in the middle of the unknown crises... I did have suspicions... But, I didn't have that type of pain or heart palpitations that I recall...  I thought it was an alergic reaction...   and then became impatient; why I decided to do the push-ups and wheel abdominals...  

I want to do those push-ups today... But, I've gotta watch my step...  At any given moment, especially in the morning, I could have another heart attack.  And I will have that on my mind until the end of my life.  Is that scary?  No.  It is worrisome...  

What was the cause of the first heart attack?  Truthfully no one truly knows...  So, how can we prevent the second one?  

And, yes, we could say that it was caused by and abstruction... But, do we know if it was caused by arteriosclerosis plaques or by the sudden inflamation of the tissue around that small coronary artery?

Yes, my bp was higher than I would have liked it that morning.  But, not THAT high... it wasn't in the red.  It was around 140/100...  I've had it much higher than that and for a prolonged period of time.  After doing the push-ups and wheel abdominals it dropped ten points.  Before removing the refined carbohydrates, wheat and industrial vegetable oils, January 2014, my bp rose above 160 or 170 and caused edema of the lower extremities... or more...  For a year now, I haven't experienced edema.  In fact, I've probably removed most my silent inflamation...  Why did I have a heart attack now and not then?  

Could it have been caused by an infection that possibly originates from the suddenly reappeared gingivitis, that had disappeared in late 2013 when I started drinking chlorophyl and reappeared a few weeks ago?  The immunology #s appear in my blood tests for 15 months now... generally hinting towards leukemia or bone marrow cancer.  I've experienced much fatigue over the past 2.5 years.  But, I don't see the signs of cancer...  Just the confounding immunology numbers (Low or high Leukocytes, Neutrophyls, Monocytes low Immunoglobulin M, basophilia)...  

No, this is not paranoia.  I have all of the blood tests to back my concern.  It is frustration and worry.  And if I don't take this medication or suppliment?  And what if it had and has nothing to do with one or the other?

If you injure your leg horribly and it cannot be returned to health... no problem.  You live with that.  But you don't die from that.  If you injure your heart...

If you injure your heart...  

It seems that now anything can become a hidden landmine.  And I don't believe it matters if it is imaginary or not.  

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