Sunday, January 23, 2011

Where Have I Been -- Redux

In the immortal words of Roseanne Rosanna Deanna "There's always something."

The latest "something" was a stay in the hospital to have a stent put into one of my coronary
arteries. This turned out to be a good-news/bad-news situation. The good news is that the stent
has improved my quality of life and I'm no longer having angina attacks. The bad news is that three of the five arterial grafts I received in 1999 are completely and irreparably blocked. The one that was stented was 90+ percent closed. Only one of the five is still clear.

This means a new round of drugs and restrictions. OTOH I'm alive and feel fine and probably will remain that way for a few more years.

The artery problems have been affecting me for about a year, although I didn't really recognize what was happening until about three months ago when I started having regular chest pains.

The moral of the story: Pay attention when you start to feel a persistent listlessness or find that you're losing the ability to tolerate exercise.

Meanwhile, I've got a couple of projects I'm working on, including some e-publishing stuff through Amazon Kindle. I really think that's the future for genre fiction.

--RC

7 comments:

Jonathan said...

Sorry to hear about all the health problems. My mother also has blocked arteries, but they're said to be inoperable; she survives with medication and diet.

Good luck as you press on...

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear about the health problems, as well, I hope that you can find a way to make it through.

The Wizardry Compiled was one of my favourite books as a kid, and I would include it as one of the influences that led me into a life working with computers and doing science. I'm sure that it's much more easily said that done, but if you ever manage to get your books on the Kindle platform I will be one of the first to plunk down my cash for the entire series. (It seems I can barely remember the last time I spent money on paperback books - Kindle and the iPad have had an amazing impact on my reading in an extremely short period of time...).

I wish you the best of luck....

Unknown said...

Very sorry to hear about you health problems; my heart's been acting up some of late as well (hypertension, whee!).

I have an unrelated question for you though. You see, I've been re-reading _The Wiz Biz_ and all through I kept waiting to see Moira's pizza again. I am both horrified and fascinated, sir. Does that come served with the 'standard' tomato sauce & mozzarella combo or if I were going to make the order myself should I ask for some garlic-butter sauce or... ?

Here's hoping you feel better!

Anonymous said...

Hope your health pics up. Look forward to any new works. I enjoy your writing

George Ellis said...

Glad to hear about you getting up and about Rick.

Cut anything of interest lately? You should head on over to GemologyOnline some time and hang out with the rest of the faceters. I figure Tuscon was a lost cause with the health issues. Roger Dery ran a good faceting week from all the talk with Lisa Elser and L. Bruce Jones doing some of the talks.

George Ellis

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear about your health and family problems. Both my parents died a couple years ago within a few months. I've been cataloging my books using readerware and realized I hadn't seen anything published by you in many years so started up google and ended up here. As a programmer/analyst/systems programmer/network admin/etc. I really enjoyed your wiz books and wanted to say thanks for the many hours of entertainment.

Tucci said...

Yeah, I got my chest unzipped and the plumbing re-arranged not too long ago. The cutters managed unintentionally to knock out my sinoatrial node and I coded a couple of days post-op when the epicardial pacer leads slipped out of position, requiring the emergency application of a transcutaneous external pacer and then a permanent implant.

Just had a visit with one of the electrophysiologists yesterday, and things seem to be going as well as could be expected.

I've been recommending your "Wiz" Zumwalt stories as an alternative to that odious "quest fantasy" garbage worshiped by the squishy types, and I deeply regret that you've not been in condition to keep on with your fiction writing.

Atheromatous coronary vascular disease is a pain in the ass, which the same I would rise (ouch) to explain.

How do you explain to the cat who considers your office his legitimate quarters that the anterior chest wall into which he had been sinking his claws since kittenhood is no longer a fit site for such attentions?