Past my expiry date

A Birthday Organ recital. Read or pass.

Thanks everyone! Best wishes from every continent, from every school I ever taught in, and students from nearly every class I ever taught . How life affirming! I reflect on my luck:

87 today!

Now that is ridiculous. Never expected that! Especially when the cardiac team at Sunnybrook said I would not live out 2020 without open heart surgery, which I would not survive because of all my other co-morbidities. I can’t walk 50 metres now without stopping to rest. After 2 minutes my blood oxygen falls to the low 80s.

I’ve told the story before of Dr Strum in California who found my case so intriguing that he adopted me medically and poured over my results and case reports meticulously, created an online private website containing all my medical results, case reports and links to medical articles he has discovered ( most in China) relevant to my many conditions. He has recommended drugs and supplements unheard of here.

Two heart measurements that predict imminent heart failure are, one, the descending aorta. Open heart is recommended when it widens to 52mm. Mine was rapidly widening till it stopped in its tracts at 48mm after Dr Strum’s treatment plan. The second measurement is the percentage of blood ejected from the left ventricle with each beat . I was getting readings of 27% and 36% ( LVEF). When I had my recent echocardiogram it was 51%. In the normal range! Thank you Dr. strum!

Dr Strum is an advocate of having fatty acids tested as routinely as testing for cholesterol, blood sugar etc. My results were way out of whack and I now take Vascepa. I’m in the optimum zone now. He sent me articles by Dr Gary Lapuschuck a heart researcher with over 500 peer-reviews articles on how the heart metabolizes glucose and fatty acids in a fixed ratio in a healthy heart and the ratio gets out of whack in a failing heart. I sent Dr L a list of all my meds and simple case report summaries. I preyed on his Ukrainian background by signing off with my doctorate title and Yaroslaw, hoping our common academic and cultural background would entice him to respond. He did. I asked him if I would be a candidate for a drug called vasperal and he wrote an encouraging reply and agreed with Dr Strum’s treatment plan. Vasperal rebalances my fatty acid/glucose ratio. Vasperal is not approved in Canada or the US. So I ordered it online from Turkey and when I was in Saudi Arabia I bought more over the counter at the big pharmacy chain there. They make Shoppers Drug Mart look like a poor cousin by comparison. ( Btw vasperel achieved some notoriety when it was discovered in the blood test of the young Russian woman skater in recent Olympics. She said it was her grandfathers, so I believed her) .
My diabetes is so controlled. my endocrinologist fired me. "I don’t need to see you anymore’ I was sent to the dialysis clinic to begin dialysis for my polycystic kidney disease and the nephrologist there said I won’t need it for a couple of years or more.

With my limited mobility I do feel my life ebbing away. On my trip to the Red Sea I realized my travel days are over it was a bit too much for me, as were airports. Getting around Jeddah was impossible without Uber. I’m still dreaming though, and found a solution — a foldup electric scooter. 25 km per charge and a top speed of 30km per hour. My family is not as enthusiastic as I am.

My doctor here commented on my failing body saying, "there sure is nothing wrong with your brain"

It’s true, at rest my brain crackles with new ideas and things to do. At ‘the home’ I’ve given a number of talks, conducted workshops , I edit the Residents Review, write profiles on Residents, research for my monthly Swan Lake Digest of mental health issues, and trying to develop programming for anxiety, depression, grief/loss, insomnia, and loneliness. Not getting anywhere here so I went to head office. Progress is slow but they have adopted Canada wide, my inventory of anxiety and depression for all new residents.

But my brain explodes constantly with crazy ideas totally unrelated to anything in my life. For example I wanted to work with the chef here on a new snack product and sell the recipe to President’s Choice.

Birthday wishes, with so many happy connections in my life are uplifting. Stay tuned for my 2024 birthday reflections. Your friendship has meant everything to me.