August 10, 2006 - Day 2 - Week 19 - Yesterday and Today

I did not tell you the fun I had yesterday being interviewed on the St. John’s Hospital television show by my good friend Bob Klein and his co-host Paula.

I did two segments, one focusing on my environmental work and the flag magazine collection, and the other on my illnesses and my experiences with traditional medicine.

The key point of the program was to present my commitment to working pro-actively on my own health as I develop a trusting relationship with specialists who have a long history of providing top flight traditional and conventional medical care.  I am convinced that being a part of your own medical team is essential today.

Interviewing people is a privilege.  I have done around 210 environmental interview shows and each guest delights, annoys, stimulates, but each always arouse curiosity about some aspect of the environmental crisis.  I hope to tape a minimum of ten shows this year.  I would like to do a series on personal health and the environment, but that would depend on funding.

Yesterday led to good news today.

I had another photo session. This time the dye fed into me fostered the ability to capture my heart in 3 dimensions.  I was waiting for the technician to come out with those funky paper glasses we used to wear at the theater when a 3 d movie was playing, but no such luck.  At the end of the 30 minute session Dr. Cabeen was Johnny on the spot with the results which I knew were good when he came into the cubicle with a smile on his face.

“Your heart looks better than I thought prior to this image session, Peter and your injection fraction is 42.  I am less concerned than I was.  You may resume normal activities and you will not need a defibrillator, as of now.  I will increase your meds and I want you to maintain your good diet but decrease your sodium (meaning = cut back on clam broth, steamers, and Cape Cod potato chips).  Take it easy and exercise is good but no lifting weights.”

I was so excited I did not even ask what a 42 was on the injection fraction scale, and I do not care at this point.  I needed some good news, Katy needed some good news, and we are grateful for incremental steps towards wholeness.   Yesterday I envisioned that the Chief of Staff of St. John’s Hospital would be calling to ask me to be in experimental class 101 for the duration of my treatment.  Today I could call and say never mind.

Now back to the task at hand.  You know, I have come to realize that life is a bunch of curveballs.  Moving along on the path envisioning smooth sailing is usually short lived, because storms arise in the simplest ways.  This past week with the heart episode is one of those interludes or curveballs.  I expected prostate issues as a male aging in our culture, but I did not expect diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

 Now that the heart issue is not as acute as originally thought we can get back to the business of trying to find ways to beat cancer as well as discern the causes so as to help future generations.  There will be other curveballs, but frankly most good hitters become great hitters when they master the curveball.   I was always able to see and hit the straight hard one down the center of the plate, and now I am working on mastering the curveball.

Back to Week 19