racprops retirement!!!

[racprops]

Thanks, but I am now locked in with this path.

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[joberg]

Thanks for the update Rich...yes, those machines are a little bit like scuba-diving with bottles and a regulator. Regulator is what is says: it regulates your breathing and you feel like you have no control about your own.

It gets a use too for sure, but as we have seen, sudden changes are not accepted readily by the body, and certainly not the mind.
It's slow going and it all depends on how accepting you are of those changes. I know that it's easier said than done, but you're on an other level now and the life you knew before has been transformed...but it's still life in another form.

It seems that you're followed well by your doctor/medical staff and these will always be important partners into your recovery.
I wish I could accelerate time as to re-read our posts a year from now and see the clear improvements you will make.

Courage and keep well

[TM]

Regarding processed foods, this article in the New York Times Magazine is rather frightening:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Tony
_________________
If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes. . .

[joberg]

Thanks Tony for that link...yes, scary but true. It's a complex issue for sure: as I said before, junk food has always been a staple of society and present into almost every strata and economic level you can think of.

We are now living in a society of instant rewards and very little patience.
This translate into many problems, including our diet. Very important discussion for sure. I learned a few months ago that the FDA has approved the sale of clone meat in supermarket (U.S only): welcome to the new world

[racprops]

I wish I could life another 100 years just to see how all of this works out..

With all the climes and counterclaims and all the “fact finding”.
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[Bassnoir]

..I'm currently reading a new book by Michael Moss..."Salt Sugar Fat-How The Food Giants Hooked Us"...instead of simply demonizing the industry he actually supplies an interesting and important history of the specific people involved with useful information...a worthy book by any standard.
_________________
...the future is not all it's cracked up to be...

[TomVDJ]

Man, I just read this thread. I'm more active on the RPF than here on propsummit, but only in december 2012 I bought a metal blaster from Rich (I first sold my previous partly plastic raprops blaster I bought march 2012). Communication and service were always perfect. And his blasters were just incredible. A friend of mine was considering buying one of these too, but that won't happen it seems.

Rich, like all people here, I wish you all the best. With all those props around us, you'd almost forget that your health and the health of your loved ones, is one of the most precious things on earth.

[hirohawa]

[joberg]

True that hirohawa, true that

[racprops]

The second sleep study was done on Friday 3/29th2013 and I was able to see my Doctor on Monday 4/8/13 whom was then able to prescript a treatment machine which I will receive on Tuesday 4/16/13 which I then have to set up an appointment to have it setup for my use. So I hope to begin treatment sometime around the 20th.

There is no real projected time for my adjustment to this treatment, but based on how poorly my sleep study went,(They noted I had problems using the machines) and from reading a number of web sites I can only guess that it may take from two months to six months for this treatment to help me if I can get adjusted to the machine.

There is also the chance I will always have sleep disruption for the rest of my life. (This treatment is not a complete cure, just an aid.)

Due to my sleep disorder I do not and often cannot get a normal good night's sleep. (up and down a lot)

Due to my sleep disorder I have to be able to go to bed when I am able and sleep in If I have a bad night the next day. (Some days until 11:00 AM)

Lastly due to all these medical costs and bills I am under a major financial deceit and really need to work on making some income to start paying off my Credit Cards that we have lived on for the past five months and to start making payments on the medical bills.

Summing up:

So I am still at this time unable to work, second will be unable to work for some time from now, lastly I am facing near bankruptcy if I don't start earning an income.

But because I can work at my own hours and days when I am able to, I hope to produce a couple of models a month.

I hope to start this light building sometime in May or June.


Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[joberg]

Always good to hear from you Rich. Of course with what has happened and is happening in your life right now, it's sometimes difficult to concentrate on the positives when there seems to be so many negatives.

That machine will help you regain some of your sleep and therefore you'll not only sleep better (less waking during the night) but your overall health will be better for it. Will it be 100% better? Who knows (unknown future), but it's worth it because the opposite is certainly a 100% negative.

Now I'm sure that you have already adapted your life routine and schedule to counter those nagging changes and you'll find other tricks along the way to still change in trying to transform negatives into positives.

You have still the opportunity of building props at your pace (let's try to say to our brain not to overdo it) and little by little those bills will be paid-off.
For every door that closes, another opens and that's the truth.

Hang in there, concentrate at getting better and keep us posted

[racprops]

I totally agree.

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[Space Jockey]

Best wishes on your road to recovery, Rich.

[racprops]

Well here is the latest update:

I am now more like Holden: hooked up to medical gear and monitoring the following daily:

Blood pressure. (Very good most of the time :118/70)

Blood O2 saturation: (How much O2 in my blood) Nightly reports.

Sleep on an ASV PAP Machine nightly reports.

Like this:



And this:



I still have some minor chest pains from time to time when I move the wrong way.

I am trying to do some work, about a couple of hours per day, on the good days.

At best I hope to become Simi-retired and make a couple of models a month…

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[racprops]

And my revised history and warning:


When I hit 225/100 and went to the hospitable I ended up with a Quadruple Heart Bypass Surgery on Monday Jan 21 2013 in the afternoon.

I would keep a sharp eye and be ready to rush to the hospitable at a seconds notice of any chest pain and left arm pain, which is the only warnings other than my own blood pressure readings I got. And my pain was mild, not the drop to the floor kind.

During my recovery and stay in the Hospitable I was informed I also have sleep apnea , and to make matters worse after two tests I have learned I have complex apnea and will need a ASV PAP Machine.

IT TOOK over 6 weeks after my surgery to stop my chest busting coughing and to recover enough to start looking into my sleep apnea.

Also from what happened to me:

A WARNING about heart disease.

Knowing my father did not make to past 57 years old due to heart failure I was worried and keeping a eye on my health.

I have just learned that by the time many tests show any problems, you might already be dead. Kind of like the oil pressure light or gauge in modern cars that light up AFTER the engine has already failed.

I have had some high blood pressure for years. Normally 140 over 78.


Heart disease usually shows up long before the big heart attack, there are normally lots of warning signs.

I had none. I had three days of light chest pain, and if I did not keep a watch on my blood pressure and not felt 225 over 110 should be checked out, I might have not be here to tell this tail.


BUT: None of the tests I have had helped:

On Paper I looked fine, I had no high cholesterol, (I just saw my hospitable report and even when I was going in for surgery I have fair cholesterol levels) only higher blood pressure which was not considered really high as I ran 140/76 most of the time...

I did a simple stress test a little over a year before and passed with flying colors..

EKG
Whether you spell it EKG or ECG, it's an electrocardiogram. Found nothing.

Chest X-Ray: nothing

6 heart enzymes tests failed to show any damage: no problems.

Echocardiogram (Ultra sound)
There are several variations on the echocardiogram, or "echo," as doctors call it.
Again no real warnings..


Stress Test:

• Treadmill stress test: As long as you can walk and have a normal ECG, this is normally the first stress test performed. You walk on a treadmill while being monitored to see how far you walk and if you develop chest pain or changes in your ECG that suggest that your heart is not getting enough blood.
• Dobutamine or Adenosine Stress Test: This test is used in people who are unable to exercise. A drug is given to make the heart respond as if the person were exercising. This way the doctor can still determine how the heart responds to stress, but no exercise is required.
• Nuclear stress test: This test helps to determine which parts of the heart are healthy and function normally and which are not. A small amount of radioactive substance is injected into the patient. Then the doctor uses a special camera to identify the rays emitted from the substance within the body; this produces clear pictures of the heart tissue on a monitor. These pictures are done both at rest and after exercise. Using this technique, areas of the heart that have a decreased blood supply can be detected.

This time the full boat: Nuclear Stress test:

All failed to show real problems. They did say there seemed to be something so wanted to go to:


Cardiac catheterization -- also called a coronary angiogram -- means running a catheter into your heart. It's done to help doctors see what's going on in there, and whether they need to operate.

THIS last test was a winner it showed I was only minutes from meeting god in person.

It was to only test that:

A) really showing my near death conduction and

B) Saved my life.

I have a Quadruple Heart Bypass Surgery because 3 arteries were down to thin lines. Stints and blowing up to open them were not a option anymore.

So I would suggest if you have ANY problems you get coronary angiogram.



Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[Bwood]

[joberg]

Thanks for the updates Rich...yes, slowly but surely... and tests are sometimes useless (false positive and the insuing unecessary biopsy/stress for the patient sometimes...but not all the time ).

We tend to think that science/medecine has the answers/results that we're looking for...but most of the time, it's a process of elimination.
So when someone says: let's go for this exam (last one on the list for example) and discovers that it should've been done first, it's a frustrating process for the patient of course, but also for the doctor.

A lot of time, hospitals/doctors, will go with the run-of-the-mill exams (kind of a check-list): we did Test A and we got Result A: check.
They'll proceed in a certain order until they hit the problem; nobody will start with Test Z, ain't gonna happen! You have to follow a certain protocol and certainly that protocol is fear-driven (law-suits by patients/familly,etc).
In court, it's easier for a hospital/doctor to show that regulations, processes, policies were followed to the letter, therefore minimizing the losses that the hospital could face.

Some physicians are taking chances with their patients by ordering to start a check-list in an other order, because they have the experience and a hunch, that they should proceed that way. It's a gamble of course, if what they thought was the right course of action fails.

Back to you and your health Rich; small steps were made and small improvements have been achieved: time to tick those in your personal check-list...and glad that you'll be able to slowly get back to work

Keep us posted of course.

[racprops]

Latest report:

Sleep apnea is becoming the main battle.

I am on two web sites forums about sleep apneas and both sites tell me I am among the rare people with my kind of problem.

They also say it will be months before real progress will be made.

Recover from the heart surgery is going well, but I still have popping in my sternum and some light pain.

And again I am told it could be months before these clear up.

So at best I will be working part time. ½ days at best.

So I am still retired.

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[Bwood]

If you are working at all, I think the term "semi-retired" would apply here…
Good luck with your progress. I have a stepson who has lived with apnea for years so I can sympathize..

[racprops]

Thanks, but as these 1/2 day will also be hit or miss....

What kind of apnea does he have?

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!