Icewind's Ramblings

One Hundred Twenty Five Hours that changed my Life - Part Three - The Hospital ER & OR I warmed my rig up and started for the hospital.  The winter time here in Alaska gives us a little different ambiance than that found in the Lower 48.  We are in our cold dark period and on this day it was minus 10 degrees outside and at seven o’clock in the morning it would be over three more hours before the sun would rise over the mountains to the east of Anchorage .  We are approaching the winter Solstice where we only get about five and a half hours of daylight.  The sun is up around 10:30 in the morning and sets just before 4 in the afternoon.  The rest of the time we are in darkness making for long cold nights here during the winter. On this morning traffic from my house to the hospital was extremely light with only a few cars making there way along my route.  I had seen a moose eating beside the road as I approached the Hospital by the University o...

One Hundred Twenty Five Hours that changed my Life Part Two  - The Time Line of Events This is the second part of sharing my recent heart attack and the lifestyle and possible events leading up to it.  Sometimes we are so busy living life that we fail to see or recognize things that may be in plain sight in front of you.  I recently had one of those experiences that oddly through the mental pain, the physical pain and suffering found a way to change some things modify my lifestyle a little bit.  It is from these changes and those events that probably saved my life.  We are getting older and need to be aware of our habits both in eating, exercise, and our mental state, not sweating the small stuff. What I am talking about is a heart attack. Friday, 11-30-12    11:00 am      Pick up Friend & go to Fred Meyer before lunch She had returned home from a flight late the night before and wanted me to give he...

Part One Sometimes we are so busy living life that we fail to see or recognize things that may be in plain sight in front of you.  I recently had one of those experiences that oddly through the mental pain, the physical pain and suffering found a way that surprised me and probably saved and changed my life. What I am talking about is a heart attack. Through my blunders and somewhat set ways I came through this and survived but as my cardiologist told me I could have easily died as most people do that have the type of heart attack that I did.  I had what is often called the “widow maker” is a nickname used to describe a highly stenotic left main coronary artery or proximal left anterior descending coronary artery of the heart.  Mine was the LAD type and the widow maker term is used because if the artery gets abruptly and completely occluded it will cause a massive heart attack that will likely lead to a sudden death. Mine was als...

Like most people at this time of year it seems like everyone takes a few minutes to think about and review the past year.  I do that now and again but try not to write those “year end reviews” that some people enjoy sending out each year which embellishes all the great things that have happened to them or their family members. Hopefully this will not be that type of review though there may be some exaggeration of a few things since I tend not to really want to go to those things which may have been negative for me this year. As 2012 started in January there was much work going on with me traveling out to many remote Alaskan villages where the company I worked built clinics, water & sewer plants as well as other needed infrastructure so needed in the bush.  Many Natives still do not have indoor plumbing or clean water and I was fortunate to help provide that in several villages. The time of my separation and divorce brought me to a period for the first time in...

It has been a little strange for me that since my heart attack that my being able to sit down and write just seemed to be stalled.  There was much to say and many notes to gain topics from which to write but it has been hard for me to sit down at the computer to write it down. I have tried many times in these last few weeks where I would sit and start and just as quickly stop not able to make my fingers hit the key strokes like they have so many times before.  It is strange in some ways as I could sit and write things on a notepad but could not bring myself to transfer the words from paper to word process.  I have wondered why that has been that way or what did not motivate me to sit and write during this time I have been in a state of convalesce since my hospital stay. It has only been two days now that I can seem to sit here and contemplate this state and start to put things down on what I would like to say again.  I have been editing my book getting it r...