Health

Generally my own health has been good all my life except for the episode with appendicitis. During the earlier years of my married life and with the responsibilities of caring for the family I did have fairly frequent physical checkups, etc. The Shell first aid department at Emeryville provided gratis physical checkups which would catch the more obvious evidences of trouble. Through the first aid department I also established a relation to Dr. Patch in Berkeley who periodically would give me a more detailed physical examination. He was an individual about my age and was I think the one doctor whom I have most liked and trusted.

Sometime during the early years of our marriage I had a kidney stone attack. The stone passed without surgery or specific treatment but it was rather painful. To ease the discomfort Jean at one juncture gave me a hot water bottle which was too hot and I had a burn somewhere on my back — there was a scar for a while but I think as of now it has disappeared. The same can be said for the evidences of my bout with the shingles several years ago.

At one time I re-read what I had written to this point and came to this point where I comment on my general good health throughout my life except for my appendicitis. This comment did not anticipate the heart attack I had in the early 1990s and the subsequent bypass surgery. This occurrence has been a definite watershed in my life. Up until that time my eventual demise was somewhat of an abstraction, not it is something that can happen at any time. As to my heart the cardiac surgeon indicated that the bypass surgery could reasonably be effective for ten years, perhaps more since in my case the graft material was from an artery instead of a vein.

But now in 2004 I am well past the ten years so my heart could give out at any time. I have also in the meantime in the last two years or so have had two minor strokes. They affected primarily my right arm and leg and while I have regained most of the use of my arm and leg my left hand is still rather impaired. I surmise it will be that way the rest of my life. I am fortunate though that I have recovered as much facility as I have. I take my Previx [Plavix?] pill once a day and it is over a year since my second stroke and there has been no recurrence.

As a result of my heart attack I did two things. First I decided to write an account of my life experiences so that my children would know about it, not like in the case of my father of whose early life I actually know relatively little. The other action was to prepare for an eventual move from our house here in Ashland to a “retirement” facility. First we considered moving to the Rogue Valley Manor but that did not work out and we have ended up at Mountain View Retirement Residence in Ashland.