Lucky to be alive

[sean]

So glad you went and took care of it! It's great you have this opportunity to change.

[Dangermouse]

+1

Healthy lunch for me today!

[Farrar]

What a close call! Glad you made it :-)

Farrar

[Iznodmad]

Wow, quite a story and glad you are here to share it with us. Reminds me of something that happened just last week. As some of you know, I am an eye doctor. A patient was in my office picking out new glasses, I had seen him last in June of this year. He motions me over to where he is at and says he wants to thank me for what I did for him. Honestly, I didn't remember what it was that I did. He explains that while I was examining him I saw cholesterol in his ocular structures, which is rare for someone whom is 37 years of age. This guy had not seen an internist in a few years. I told him to get a physical and get everything checked out, just to be on the safe side. He took my advice and when he got the bloodwork, his cholesterol values were through the roof! They started checking other end organs, and found something wrong with his heart. He then was sent to a cardiologist, whom did more testing and found 100% blockage in a coronary artery; and had already suffered a couple of heart attacks and didn't know it. He had the same procedure you did. The cardiologist asked him how a guy his age figured this out, and the guy replied to him that it all started with his eye doctor! So he was thanking me for saving his life! He has a young daughter 5 years old as well, so he was glad he could continue to be a father for his little girl. I think we have all learned not to skimp on taking care of your health, b/c without that you literally would have nothing.

[DMCMW Julee]

Andy,

So happy to hear that you are on the mend, but even more happy to hear that you didn't ignore what your body was doing such a good job of telling you!

We truly are an amazing piece of intricate machinery!

[sztybel]

If this doesn't make a person stop smoking, nothing will. Never pick up another cigarette, man, and stay healthy.

[DMCNY]

Thank you everyone for the well wishes.

Earlier today I scanned in the photo's they gave me from the procedure. It's the before and after.

(Before)



(After)

[Renee_1632]

Yikes! Glad you're all right, and that you decided to get it checked out.

[Jonathan]

Happy birthday Andy

Thank you so much for sharing your story. Good advice and good perspective. I have confidence in you that you'll conquer the quitting smoking bit. You have some unique incentives that not everybody gets... or really that most people get in a desirable order.

I had my last smoke about 6 years ago. Originally quit in 2002 after smoking what I would guess was 1/2 pack per day (that's a Canadian pack with 25 in it!!!) for the better part of a decade. I used patches and gum and will power and it lasted for about 2 1/2 years until I had the brilliant idea of having one with some friends after dinner one night. Whoops. Had about 1,000 more after that and quit for good on October 16th, 2005. Never to have another one again. And I am thrilled with my decision as I am sure you will be thrilled with yours too.

A couple things helped me in the early months where it was tougher. I decided to make a little money jar and put $5 per day in it to represent what I wasn't spending on smokes. Every month I would take about $150 and put it in a savings account at the bank. You know what was labelled on that old washed out pickle jar I used as a container? I made a little masking tape no-smoking sign on one line, and the words "DeLorean Fund" on the other. While it didn't cover the whole purchase price, it definitely got me started. And 3937 is living proof that I succeeded.

The other thing I did was drink coffee like a mad man. People say oh I'll have to quit drinking or going out or drinking coffee, but instead I would use the urge to have a smoke as the queue to have a coffee but without the smoke. If that tricked me for even an hour, it was an hour further into the ex-smoker world. I do recommend patches or gum or something to help. Those things are there for a reason and there is no extra honor later on being able to say you quit cold turkey. If someone said there was something as unmacho as sucking on a soother instead of a smoke and that would help me quit, I would have done it. Find something that works for you and run with it. And also don't tear yourself down if you have a momentary lapse as many people (myself included) only succeed at stopping smoking after a couple of attempts.

Good luck and we'll look forward to hearing about how you're progressing

[DMCNY]

Thank you guys for the kind words.

I'm using Life Savers like their going out of style, but it seems to be working good for me.

Coffee I've already been drinking for years and apparently too much of that, too according to the Doc, so I've cut down to 1 cup in the morning.

The $$, yeah. Here in NY it's about $10.00 a pack. I had switched to "roll your owns" about a year ago and that brought the cost down to about $30.00 a carton per week. That $$ will now be going to DeLorean upgrades.