A STRESS TEST THAT WORKED. AND HOW. WOW!
There's a little lapse here between my previous post and today's. I offer my apologies. There are two reasons for it.

A) We went to Los Angeles, Milli and me, this past Friday for a birthday celebration. The 25th of August is my daughter's 50th birthday, but since she was scheduled to leave on her vacation on the 24th, we decided to have a dinner-party on the 23rd. Well, actually we were celebrating two birthdays, because her brother was born on the same day (only nine years later), and is now 41. We had a family gathering at a great Thai restaurant in Pasadena, and it was an enjoyable get-together for us all.

Now, one thing I will tell you is that both the doctor and my wife figured the youngest son would be born on August 10th, but when they informed me of it I immediately disagreed and told them that he would be born on the 25th of August. They refigured the dates and came up with August 10th again, but again I assured them it would be the 25th. He was born on the 25th, his sister's ninth birthday, just as I had predicted more than eight months earlier!

B) Last week I finally got in for an appointment with a cardiologist. My HMO had lost their previous heart specialist because he was not satisfied with what they paid him, and therefore I could not get my pacemaker checked out. This new one, Dr. Vogle, is a long distance runner, among other accomplishments.

Due to the way my legs work now (a very unsightly scissors walk because I have a mild form of cerebral palsy), he thought I might not be able to get on the treadmill, but I managed. I noticed that he kept checking the computer, then double checking it, and then told me that I had to have my pacemaker (which they call a generator now) replaced. He scheduled it for Tuesday, the 26th. I went in and had it done yesterday, then returned for a check-up this morning, when he removed the large bandage on my chest, taking with it half the hairs on my chest.

It was then that he informed me that my old one had quit working while I was on the treadmill last week! My heart normally beats slow, about 50 to 52 a minute, when it should be at least 60 times a minute. It has given me trouble for 25 years and they always failed to find the cause of my problems. In 1995 it was finally diagnosed correctly.

Today the cardiologist said that now the heart rate is in the 40s, so this monitoring device is very important to my well-being. The old one had been installed in 1996, so that little device has been in for 7 years and that's not too bad, when you consider it. But, the amazing thing is that it actually died right there while he was giving me the Stress Test. That was really a coincidence, wasn't it? It had been in 7 years and gave up the ghost in the cardiologist's office!

C) I also visited my Urologist last week for a check-up on the prostate cancer. That was diasnosed in 1995, but I cancelled the operation to remove the tumor two days before surgery. I refused radiation as well.

Eight years later, which was in May of this year, I went in and asked for the radiation. My PSA had puzzled them anyway, because it would go up slowly, then go down a bit, then up, then down. That is what the doctor called an anomaly, and he was always puzzled that I went about my business and ignored the malignant cancer. In early 1996 he had even sent me a Registered Letter telling me how important he felt it was for me to seek help immediately, either an operation or radiation.

The radiation treatments went on for eight and a half weeks, and the progress was good. I did not lose any hair, not that I have that much to lose.

Last week, checking out the prostate with his finger, he said he could not find any trace of the tumor. We dicussed things in his office, and he said again, that I was an anomaly. He wanted to know why I had waited 8 years for treatment, and what impelled me to finally accept it. I couldn't answer him, except to tell him that it just seemed the way to do it all along, and when the time came to proceed, I would know and I did.

I'm lucky. My Urologist believes in such things as miracle cures, and he has written a book on it. He's working on a second book and said that my case will be in it. I'm not claiming mine is a miracle cure, because I did have radiation. It is only that something seemed to be telling me when and how to handle it.

Well, it is almost two-thiry a.m. again and I have to get some sleep. I keep saying that I'll start going to bed earlier, but never seem to find the time to do it. Nite all.

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