[BearwWthoutBorders] Note from Jyri: Pacemaker for his father, and all OK (and related thoughts from me)

[David McReynolds]

Very good news!

David

On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 6:47 AM, Hunter Gray <hunterbadbear at hunterbear.org>wrote:

> **
>  This is an interesting and welcome little account that, in the last
> analysis, speaks well for Jyri's father's basic good health and
> resilience and "Western medicine" (about which I can be very schitzy) and
> the Finnish health care system (despite a few minor bureaucratic ripples.)
> For any of us who may have actual or potential heart problems, this is
> reassuring. I seem to have escaped heart things  but did, of course, have
> two consecutive cardiac arrests in the course of  a botched and unnecessary
> colonoscopy in the very initial stages of my late Lupus War back in early
> September 2003. During these cardiac arrests, I was sitting peacefully in a
> dark tunnel similar to a "drift" in a hard-rock mine.  When I eventually
> emerged, I found about a dozen frantic heart docs in the room -- in
> addition to the frightened colon doc,  Within a couple of days, my ticker
> was completely normal and remains so.  Again, this from Jyri is
> reassuring,    H.
>
> Dear Hunter,
> Here on the home front, my father got a pacemaker yesterday. He had a
> fainting spell in town on Friday and had felt dizzy over the weekend with
> occcasional high blood pressure  (home monitored). His wife is recovering
> from a shoulder operation, so I took him straight to the hospital on
> Monday, without a referral from the local health centre as per regulations
> if you’re not a casualty case. He and I both had to make a fuss to get him
> admitted:  “You want this man to die here in the lobby?” (in a slightly
> raised tone of voice) . Of course, he wasn’t dying, but they couldn’t know
> that and as taxpayers we pay for the public health, and not for the
> bureaucratic rigmarole. A childish and basically incorrect attitude, I
> admit, but it gets things done.
> Tests showed that my dad’s heart was otherwise OK but with a poor “
> electrical connection” from one part to another. They kept him there and he
> had the operation yesterday with local anaesthetic. They slipped the
> pacemaker under his skin with wires to the heart. He’ll be discharged
> today.
> I went to see him a few hours after the operation. He was like a new man.
> Before the op, the heart rate monitor above his bed had shown a slow 40 –
> 42 and he was obviously tired and  slightly pale. Now, the HR was a steady
> 61, colour in his cheeks, and the guy was like a Duracell rabbit. Chatting
> away, half-flirting with  the nurses, joking with the doc. I couldn’t get
> him to stop.
> Till later,
> Jyri
>
>
> HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
> Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
> Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
> www.hunterbear.org
> (much social justice material)
>
> See my reflection On Being a Militant and Radical
> Organizer -- And an Effective One:
> http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
>
> The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
> http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
> (Expanded, and with more photos in Fall 2012. Material on our Native
> background.)  And see Personal Background Narrative:
> http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm  (Updated into 2012)
>
> For the new (11/2011) and expanded/updated
> edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI --
> with a new and substantial introduction by me.  We are now at
> the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement
> of 1962-63:  http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
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