Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Counting it down in Clute

August 7-18, 2018 will be eleven years since our last safari. We will return to the Eastern Cape providing...

...my heart catheterization/stent installation this Thursday goes as planned. (Looking forward to not feeling dizzy.)

Pamela wants a zebra and baboon. I have a bucket list (actually a very old laundry list item) with a hartebeest on it.

Barry

Good luck all the way around!

Good luck on the safari!

Barry Nagel FB post July 11 2018.

I am now a heart patient. Miscued data results from regular blood work done for b.p. meds, read to me over the phone, led to a company doctor wellness checkup, including new blood work. When we reviewed the results with my GP, the sample was basically the same -- no big deal. However, based on the EKG and lowered heart rate from beta-blocker (minimal dose), I took the advice to consult a cardiologist we've used for Pamela. Like a colonoscopy ought to be routine at 50, he said a nuclear heart stress test ought to be routine at 60. This was done one July 1, at CHI-St. Luke's - Brazosport Area. Heart catheterization/stent installation scheduled for July 5 became an immediate run via ambulance to CHI-St. Luke's in Houston to bypass two 100% blocked heart vessels, the third having been trying to do the work of all three. After a week's recovery, I'm back home and headed to the bed.

Will have to re-plan, and tickets are non-refundable BUT can be used at a later date. Hey, she may have to shoot it all, but I am going along for sure.

Barry

FWIW, spending 222 bucks (against a $14K trip) would have saved me at least the $350 to rebook our flights. Linda Carroll of Falcon Travel is helping make the new plan and this time I will NOT pass on the Travel Guard AIG offer. Just didn't get to it in time.

HEART

I am a heart patient. Miscued data from regularly scheduled blood work done at my GP for b.p. meds, then read to me over the phone, led to me getting a company doctor’s second opinion, including new blood work. (When we later compared the results with my GP’s, the actual samples appear identical. Now why had no real problem appeared as a very big deal??) Not sure who’s results I was given at first. If dropping twenty pounds, eating right, etc. had produced those blood numbers, should I put them back on? Why did it feel better weighing less? What was going on anyhow? Seems Providence was still in charge of my days on this earth as we’ll see.
Based on my EKG and low pulse rate, the company doctor recommended my consulting Pamela’s cardiologist. A colonoscopy is now routine at 50, and he said a nuclear heart stress test ought to be similarly routine at 60. We did this in his office on July 1, near CHI-St. Luke's Brazosport hospital. Heart catheterization/stent installation operation scheduled for July 5 at the hospital became an emergency run via ambulance to CHI-St. Luke's in Houston. Two 100% blocked heart vessels were subsequently bypassed. Another had been trying to do the work of all three! After a week's recovery, I returned home, headed to the bed and began to meditate. Pamela had obtained a prayer bowl after one Sunday sermon on prayer and chiming it as a prayer offering reminds us to worship Who is in charge. Lots of information to understand while adjusting lifestyle and perspective. And, man, these new medicines really effect my concentration!
“Aortic-coronary bypass x 2”, my exit paperwork said. CABG (Coronary Artery Bypass Graft) surgery. A diagram from the heart cath operation shows RCA (Right Coronary Artery) blocked 100%, D (Diagonal Branch) blocked 100% and OM (Obtuse Marginal) blocked 30-40%. The OM was trying to supply all my heart’s needs for aortic blood. Well, no wonder I’d been wanting to lie down so much!! Bet I feel better when full walking resumes, and I think going to Quick Weight Loss Centers may have extended my life until the operation. Hmmm.
When your primary cardiologist asks the wife, “Wonder why he’s still alive?” the answer has to produce a brand-new life view. I can still enjoy being me, but sixty-one years spent in the old approach has died. Living for the LORD trying to find my purpose in His plan has simplified into “Well, God, what would you like to have happen today?” Every day is yours and dying to self means You are in charge of how the rest of my days play out. This is the answer now to the question “Why LORD has it been so difficult for me to figure life out? As a TCK, I have been lost in America since descending the plane from Nairobi, into a hot Chicago summer, wearing a kitenge and wondering about college.
I almost did “have a coronary / heart attack”, but not in the middle of a safari previously scheduled for August. Plans fully in place and the anticipated hunt can be fixed with a new plan. We’re still returning to hunt at Blaauwkrantz, likely in October. Our perspective is what is changing. Lots more wonder to it now, I’d say.
Details of my journey of the heart may follow, but I really don’t want to dwell on them. Instead, my focus in on new perspective and how living each day for God changes to living each new day with Jesus. Less “doing” and more “being”.

As my wife says, "Everything happens for a reason!"

Annoyingly, she is usually right.

Good luck on your new path and perspective!

Best wishes from a "sort of" neighbor! I live in Oyster Creek, just up the road from Clute (depending on the direction of travel!).

Mike Holmes

McCray
A spouse's favorite three words: "You were right!"

Mikewriter
You have an iconic hat, right? Or is that Mike Shelton?

Thanks guys.

Surgeon says "green light" for October safari. One cardiologist to go!!

Good luck!

Cardiologist says "green light" too, and is still wondering how I made it with two 100% blocked coronary arteries.

great news

Dummy for post-cardio rehab walking at local college nature trail. Ought to be non-threatening enough.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/TBgx9rb.jpg?1[/img]+

Tried one shot with Pamela's .270 Wby during her own sticks practice session (early September). No problems. Seven shots yesterday with my 7mm Wby and no problems this morning. Flew to Arizona and back last week, Thursday and Friday. No physical issues and cardio rehab is moving along swimmingly. October's safari will be just fine.

First Lariam in eleven years and -- might not work this time (Oct 2018.) No malaria near Port Elizabeth, but Jo'berg overnight and Senegal refuel point might have it.
Heart / blood pressure meds are now part of the mix -- not a factor during three earlier trips. Haven't researched doxy or malarone, but they are likely problematic.
Ambien is and has been part of the mix, but I never reacted before like today. Oh, well.

Cutting metaprolol dose in half seems to have solved a bunch of issues. Pics when we return (around Halloween.)

Hope you have the time of your life! Good luck.

From 'there'
[img]https://i.imgur.com/e1GS6Gj.jpg?1[/img]

to 'here'
[img]https://i.imgur.com/1B0nYyV.jpg?1[/img]

July 5 to October 28, 2018.

Wow, looking good these days! Romans 8:28 works for all Christians, all of the time.