Here we go again...

  I've been missing for a bit - yeah, I know Ditch! There have been reasons though. Selling our last place (got too big for two of us & a dog to rattle around in), moving house (down-scaling big time!) & trying to find space for the stuff we couldn't bring ourselves to part with! Getting used to knowing where the other person is 24/7 'cos this place is REALLY small & getting used to hearing the neighbours on either side. Big changes & then came my big one!
  Walking off to gym one morning I suddenly couldn't make a slight rise in the road! Damn! I thought, must have been those fags I had after too many beers - it will pass, be better tomorrow.
Never happened, tomorrow came & the shortness of breath, chest pains & an unbelievable urge to sit on the side of the road & rest were my new companions! Who would have thought that after a lifetime of pretty high activity - squash, tennis, rugby, hiking, diving, horse riding including Polo-Crosse that I would be downgraded to this! It took about three weeks of bitching from my wife before I arranged a trip to the quack - just for a quick check up, y'know? Anyway, sitting there chatting about this & that I mention about the shortness of breath thing & chest pains & he goes a tad silly. From there on out it was many, many ECG's, blood tests, another doc looking at my ECG (latest scan) & saying " Yeah, well it looks ok on the surface but there is the heart attack that we all know about" (that floored me - heart attack? What heart attack?) before I was sent to Cape Town for a MIBI. Then after all the bone shakers get together & have a cuppa I am sent down to the Mother City again only this time for an Angiogram & stent procedure, Of course, by this time I am rattling when I walk from all the various pills they chuck down ones throat!
  To cut a longish story short, they stick this thing up my arm from my wrist & you can watch it all on TV monitors around you, & naf around for about an hour or so & then tell me that the one doing it does not feel confidant enough to complete the procedure & I have a choice of two 1) Another attempt by THE main dog where he will come in through the groin  😱 on both sides & sort it or 2) I can go for a bypass. Well, not being too keen to have them slice me open & tromp around inside my chest with their wellies and all I opted for the first.
  Soooo off to Cape Town again and the man goes for it for about 2 hours. Oh, I forget, do any of you know that you can lie flat on your back & have your bits & pieces placed on the table next to you? The nurse who shaved me managed that! So the guy starts his thing & with the result that, at the end of it, he tells me that it was no go. Couldn't get the stent in. And as far as the bypass goes "No bypass". Just as well, then, that I never went for that option with their multiple choice offer, isn't it? Otherwise I would now have a zip down my chest & more that likely some old rubber gloves floating around inside me that someone had left behind when they sewed me up!
  I must admit to feeling a tad pissed off at this stage! All my life my BP has been a fairly constant 120/80 - even when I was having those chest pains/breathing difficulties! Active most of my life & hardly ever badly over weight and you still get wacked with this dung heap!
  Ah well, I guess there's always some poor sod who is worse off than you!
Keep the shiny side up peeps! I hope to hear from you again Ditch! Looked for you a few times on Jim's but no luck!