Dammit - not again!!!

Well, it happened again - twice in fact. Once in March and then again 2 weekends ago.

I am talking about AF of course. But with the addition of Atrial Flutter this time, a bit of a more serious condition.

Anyway the first time I ignored it for two days, hoping it would go away on its own. Besides the Gold Coast Hospital is full of drunks and drug addicts on a weekend and it is bedlam.

As a result they couldn't do a cardioversion becasue I might release clots into the brain for a stroke, so had to go onto Warfarin treatment in preparation. Luckily the extra drugs they gave me made me feel so bad that my heart reverted on its own a few days after - so no more warfarin or a cardioversion. Whew!

Weekend before last it happened again. But this time my cardiologist and I had worked out a strategy. Self injection of clexane, a blood thinner, then off the the hospital for an immediate cardio version. So I took a trip the our newest hospital at Robina just to see what it's like. LOL. Luckily it only needed one jolt at the lowest setting to fix me up, and I was back home Saturday afternoon. But the after effects of the anaesthetic kept me sleepy for 2 days.

Anyway I was banned from any sort of physical work for a couple of weeks and my weekly dresage lessons which is a bummer.

The thing that pips me off is every time this happens, I seem to take a step backwards. Both mentally and physically. I know I am lucky to be alive, and that at least my heart is strong and pumping well apart from the electrical problem.

But I wish I had a permanent cure so I didn't have to monitor and gauge the physical activity which seems to set me off.

Anyway that's my story for the moment. BTW Fitness by Phone® is coming along nicely, and if you are overweight or need a fitness program that fits in with your schedule, please have a look.

Bye for now.

Rick

Fitness By Phone

I want to thank you for all of your support in the growth of my fitness business since I began in 2007, and it’s been a pleasure supporting many of you in your health and fitness goals. My guess is there are still many of you who are struggling with getting started, getting results, or sticking to an effective exercise program when you don’t have to. The bulk of my fitness business is now based on my Fitness By Phone® Coaching Program, and I guarantee it will end your struggle once and for all.

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Stay Well.

Rick Rakauskas

Water under the bridge

Well, a lot has happened since the last post. Since my last pericarditis attack, I have spent a total of 14 more days in hospital over 3 visits, been invalided out of carpentry, had to plan my own treatment and rehab, because the public health system isn't set up for long term care.

It's good at saving lives (including mine) and it works from that viewpoint. But the drugs, side effects etc are never explained, and if I took everything on faith, I could be headed for major long term health prtoblems by now not associated with my original condition. Drugs and drug companies...

Bottom line, I have a "permanent" condition where the part of the heart which controls the rythmic beat is larger than it should be.

This means the electical impulses go haywire (sometimes) so I take beta blockers as a prohylactic.

I got a cardilogist to change the type last August (last time I was in hospital) because I couldn't stand the lack of energy or the way I felt. I have managed to reduce the dose by 75% since then, and with the right mental conditioning, I reckon I can get my body to completey heal itself.

Unfortunately, I still get energy blackouts, and one of the more unpleasant side effects, even at low doses, is insomnia (oh for a solid 8 hours of sleep) So I need afternoon sleeps to make up, which kinda breaks the day up a bit.

Anyway by December I had had enough. How could I use the shitty experiences I had suffered over the las 12 months to profit?

I didn't want to lose another year of my life.

Upshot is I went and did a fitness course fulltime which means I am now a qualified personal trainer.

In fact I took extra credits to become a Diabetes Australia Queensland accredited fitness professional, because I figure obesity and diabetes II are the root cause of all the other problems including heart conditions.

So here I am 4.5 months later with a strength level i haven't seen for 2 years, a pretty good fitness level for my condition (and the meds I am on) and have clients who have already got great results. See www.reviveyourlifeonline.com to see how they fared.

Some of the things I see outside my office window every day.

Ma and Pa Kookaburra showing off their new baby.





Crazy lorikeets




The Chairman of the board






Corellas by the dozen






Pretty Rosellas (Eastern Paleface)






Checking out the antics of this lot provides me with some laughs.

There was a lorikeet feeding on the feeder on his own, and a big cocky landed on the tree trunk above him. The lorikeet couldn't see him, so the cocky grabbed the rope and gave it a yank. Then he moved quickly aound the trunk so the lorikeet couldn't see him.
The lorikeet in the meantime couldn't figure out why his calm feeding perch was suddenly jerked. He looked out and around, you could see him scrathcing his head wondering what was going on.

This happened four times before the big cocky flew off. I swear these birds have a sense of humour.

I almost died, but didn't

December 21st, 2005 by Rick Rakauskas

Hiya.

Couple of weeks ago I had pain across my chest and left shoulder.
I ignored it of course, putting it down to muscle strain from setting my bike onto its centre stand the day before. It had happened before so I knew what it felt like.

After putting up with the pain for a day and a half, I was reading Joe Vitales book “The Attraction Factor”, and it went away for a half hour or so.

I stood up, the pain hit hard, and my heart rate zoomed up.

So I called my Doctor, who said I had better get down to his surgery pronto. Being only a 2 minute drive, this was still easy to do. The pain had subsided, and it was just a racing heartbeat that worried me a bit.

Anyway, after a nice ride in an ambulance, during which the ambo said “Geez, I’ve never seen this before” as my heart flip flopped between 70 and 215 beats a minute, I found myself in hospital.

X-rays, 5 big shots of onticoagulants and beta blockers, 4 doctors asking the same questions and next thing, I was whisked upstairs into cornary care with an ongoing “heart attack” for an angiogram and catheter insertion to place a stent into my clogged arteries. After signing the usual waivers of course.

They stuck the catheter into my right hand groin artery, and the doc said “We’re going to release the dye now, and it will feel like a warm flush”.

Which it did. The wierdest feeling ever.

Then all I heard was “mutter mutter mutter” from the 5 medical staff.

A minute later the doc came to the head of the bed and said “Mr Rakauskas, you are one of the few people walking this earth who knows for sure their coronary arteries are completely clear”.

The upshot is I have pericarditis which caused tachyarrhythmia.

Life threatening only if left untreated, because of the danger of unpumped blood clotting in the heart, then heading off to the brain to give you a stroke.

SO I could’ve died, but didn’t.

I have (or had) 2 careers, one as a copywriter, and one as a Carpenter/Builder. For the next 3 months at least I am not alowed to lift anything heavier than a nail punch, so I am effectively out of business as a Builder.

And I will take 6 to 12 weeks to get rid of the pericarditis, which is still leaving me with low energy levels (cause it is still squeezing my heart so it doesn’t pump the normal volume) and the beta blockers I use to control the rhythm keep the rate set between 58 and 86 beats a minute.

You try to have good sex when your heart rate won’t lift higher than 86, no matter how much energy you expend.

Not natural, and no fun.

So I am sort of an invalid for the next few weeks.

Nothing like this sort of experience to clear the head and create focus let me tell you.

I was always going to write full time, but the safety of the steady income from building held me back. There are a lot of web marketing projects on the back burner too that have been there for years.

After reading Joes book, I get the impression I had to have something like this happen to me so I could get the break from one career completely.

Soo I can properly focus on another.

Lessons learned so far.

Already I have a clearer focus on what needs to happen in my life.

My priorities are different now, both personally and careerwise.

I seem to be more patient, but with a sense of destiny.
My goals are clearer than they have ever been.

I now truly believe I will accomplish my goals, it’s only a matter of time.

And I have no fear.

Strange.

Even in the ambulance, I knew I wasn’t going to die, not yet anyway.

I guess the lesson is kick fear out, because in the end we are all food for worms anyway.

Get out and live life, do stuff, attempt.
Failure is only another thing that doesn’t work, which means you are closer to doing the thing that does.

Who was it gave the obituary to a man who had lived a colourless life and wound up with the words…

“…he arrived safely at death.”

Life’s short, make it great.
Rick Rakauskas

Back Pain can be fixed,- don't suffer needlessly

I found this great site for any back pain problems
They can have a 97.7% success rate which ain't bad in my book.

Have a look, just click on the title of this post.

Rick

Money for Any Business.

Turning Words Into Money for Any Business.: "See, I learned the hard way this doesn't happen very often. In fact, millions of dollars are wasted on advertising and sales pieces that flat out don't work. I wasted my fair share over the years before I learned the secret of results producing sales writing. What about you? Does your stuff work, make sales, warm people up, get them to call... or is just printed crap, designed to make you feel good about yourself and your business."