Anyway "The Three Weeks" is over but its effects this time is destined to impact me for the rest of my time on planet Earth. Hopefully my medical diagnosis during this time won't go the same way as my wife's initial diagnosis of her health condition which occurred during "The Three Weeks" of 2011 and ultimately led to her death less than two years later! Of course there are importance differences, such as, my wife have had for a long time been grappling with several health issues, some since her childhood, so the 2011 diagnosis was akin to the straw that broke the camel's back, she never recovered, indeed had gotten worse and worse until her merciful death. Me however I generally had a clean bill of health. As what hospitals do they tested my blood for at least the major health issues, and well I don't even have diabetes, my blood pressure was reasonable for my age, and well the only issue was high cholesterol but as the doc said even that wasn't terribly high and should not have caused a heart attack. It was the same level as my mother and my auntie, and neither of them had heart problems, my auntie is a perfect picture of health even for her age, and well what killed mother was brain/nerve related, nothing to do with blood or heart. Furthermore I actually lost weight. I was around 85kg to 90kg during those hell years with my wife, and at the hospital they weighed me and I was down to 78kg. So this out of the ordinary heart event that I suffered, which has the medical profession baffled, well I am recovering most nicely from.
I am now up to 15 minutes walks twice per day, adding a couple of minutes each day as I am able to. I so far encountered no problems while walking, certainly no chest pains. I am now walking around the local park. And I made two bus trips, the first to the doc, and the 2nd to the PO box.
The next big test will be when I return to work on Tuesday. It will be by public transport since I am still banned from driving for another week. I will be able to drive again on Friday, however, I will still take public transport to work for two reasons.....
1. It's cheaper. Driving to work costs me about $40 per week just in petrol, then the wear and tear on the car, and etc. However by public transport, its a 2-Zone trip, which attracts a $4:50 fare, making it $9 to and from work. However since I use a SmartRider card with an "autoload" feature, that being, a specified amount of money is deducted from my bank account when the balance on the card falls below a certain amount, I get a 25% discount, which is $3:38 per trip, thus $6:76 each work day, therefore $33:80 per week. Not that much cheaper than petrol but when also considering wear and tear on the car, etc, the savings long term is significant. And well I am off my bicycle for at least six weeks until I see the Heart Specialist in September, then its likely to be a gradual return to my bicycle riding so realistically it be several months before I be back to riding my bicycle to work, a 12kms trip each way.
2. By taking public transport I can incorporate my daily walks into my schedule, as the hospital recommends that I go for a walk each day. There are two ways of getting to work from my place - bus only, and a bus/train combination. The bus stop is literally at the end of my street, a two minutes walk from my place. The bus only option will see me dropped off at the nearest bus stop to work which is about a 5 minutes walk. The bus/train option will still have me catching a bus from the same bus stop near my place, albeit a different bus number, that bus drops me off at the train/bus interchange, and then the train to the nearest station to work which is a 15-20 minutes walk. Since it is still dark when I go to work, I take the bus only option since I don't like walking in the dark. However on my way home I take the bus/train option thus incorporating a 20 minutes walk to the station in my schedule. Then by the end of August it should get light enough in the morning for me to safely incorporate a 20 minutes morning walk from the station to work, thus making it two walks per day. So yes me being a Virgo I have it all worked out. We Virgos like to plan things and work things out logically ;)
Saving money where possible even if only a little bit is a priority. As my experiences shows, health issues translates to financial issues, though mine won't be as severe as with my wife when I had to go into debt to pay her expenses, a debt I am still paying off to this day. My increased expenses are not so high. It is mainly the pills that will put a dent in my budget. I am on five different pills each lasting for a month, so even with the pharma benefit which I think my payment is capped at approx $38 per box of pills, I be looking at $200/mth for the pills for at least 12 months. A visit to my GP is $75, and based on my experiences with my wife, I probably get about $20 back on Medicare, I will have to post my claim in since Medicare offices are as rare as hen's teeth and none near work nor my place. Not sure how often I would need to visit a GP, probably every six weeks or couple of months. My visit to the Heart Specialist will cost me $250 but I do know I get approx half back on Medicare, its in my appointment conformation email. Then when I finally get to visit the holistic GP in September, that will cost me $75 which I'll get some back on Medicare since she is a registered GP, however the costs will really begin to rise when I start using alternative medicine as none is covered by Medicare, but it will be worth it.
Now my quirky sense of humor.......
It be nice if I could go to work like this......
What would be a better choice? hehe ;)
Pesky salesmen.....
Mondays......
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