Don’t take good health for granted

Warren Zevon, the circumspect songwriter responsible for “Werewolves of London” among dozens of better songs, didn’t shrink from trouble. It had followed him so long that he took the cards dealt him and made the best hand he could.

He took responsibility for his own existence, even when the end was in sight.

In October 2002, shortly after Zevon was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer, he talked frankly with television talk show host David Letterman.

“I may have made a tactical error in not going to a physician in 20 years,” said the man whose cancer would kill him within a year.

Letterman asked the dying singer what advice he might have for others.

“Enjoy every sandwich,” quipped Zevon.

On this Thanksgiving, that rings particularly true to me.

One year ago today, I was on an operating table at Southeast Alabama Medical Center, where Dr. Joseph Greenlee and a surgical team were stripping lengths of arteries and veins from my arm, leg and chest to repair 48 years of abuse to my heart. Three major cardiac arteries had two occlusions each. When they finished, I was the proud owner of six coronary artery bypass grafts.
Unlike Warren Zevon, I had seen a doctor in the last 20 years. In fact, had I not, I probably wouldn’t be here.

Dr. Paul Chan has a file with all my medical records. So when I showed up at his office on Nov. 26 last year with an aching shoulder and a story about a rear-end collision a month earlier, he knew my discomfort wasn’t coming from a case of delayed whiplash or having slept crooked. He knew I had chronically high cholesterol, a family history of heart disease and a cavalier attitude toward the medication he had prescribed for the cholesterol problem. He sent me to the hospital with an EKG in hand and reappeared shortly after a technician had taken blood.
“You’re having a heart attack,” Dr. Chan told me. “There are telltale enzymes in your blood work.”

So there it was. No real pain, just a dull ache in my shoulder. A trip to the cath lab with Dr. Andreas Muench confirmed the physicians’ suspicions. My heart was precariously close to real distress — so much that I spent the hours between the catheterization and surgery with a ballon pump in my heart to carry part of the work load.

Today, I am in far better health, perhaps better than ever. But that’s not why I am boring readers with this story.

On this day of Thanksgiving, I want to echo the sentiment expressed by Warren Zevon. I simply want to encourage everyone to not take their health for granted.

My cholesterol was 370. I blew it off.

I had stopped exercising. I ate whatever crossed my plate. I had never been sick, so I was invincible.

More important, I had ignored brief flashes of chest pain in the months before Nov. 26. They were infrequent, extremely brief and not all that uncomfortable. There was no Fred Sanford moment —  “I’m comin’ ‘Lizabeth! This is the big one!” — just an accumulation of subtle nudges.

In hindsight, I recognized the warnings. But not then.

What I am trying to convey without being preachy is this: If you have an ache or pain you haven’t had before, get it checked out. My symptoms were very mild, but my coronary arteries were almost completely clogged. I was a ticking bomb and would not have survived had my developing heart attack not been stopped that morning.

If you haven’t had a physical, get one. Find out what your cholesterol level is, and don’t be afraid to take statin drugs if it’s too high. If you have side effects from one, keep trying others. There are many, and there is likely to be one you can take without ill effect.

By all means, start this today: Relish life. Take nothing for granted.

And take Warren’s advice: Enjoy every sandwich. Particularly tomorrow’s turkey ones.

Bill Perkins is editorial page editor of the Dothan Eagle. E-mail: .