Article Main Image

Living Healthier on the Road

I had a cold, so I went to the doctor to get some antibiotics to clear up the cold. Because I was 75 pounds overweight, had high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and my sugar levels were rising, my doctor wanted to run some blood work.

It is a scary thing to get a call from your doctor’s office asking that you come in to the office that day. Wow, I said. I explained that was impossible because I was in Las Vegas. After a week of stressing about the call from the doctor, I got home and was able to go see him. He talked about my lack of health and schedule me with a cardiologist.

The cardiologist gave me the standard stress test. The test consists of running on the treadmill and doing an EKG at the same time. The doc did not like what he found, so he ordered a nuclear stress test. Again I ran on the treadmill but this time with some nuclear dye in me and bookended with a ride in an MRI machine.

Still unhappiness all around, so off I went to the hospital to get an angiogram. They inserted a camera through the top of my leg and traveled through my veins into my heart. They wanted to see how much blockage I had and if I needed a stent.

The odds of dying on the operating table were very slim, but not slim enough for it to be zero. The moment they took me from the waiting room, as I said goodbye to Christine, I knew that my life had to change or I would lose everything that was near and deal to me; one of those things being my life.

I have learned a lot since those days about taking care of myself at home and on the road. Over the next few months I will be sharing with you in this newsletter what I have learned and how to live a healthier life on the road.