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Hello Everyone! Just got home this morning from the hospital from having a heart catheterization and a stent put in. I'm doing well at the moment, but for my relatives and friends I have chronicled my health issues, etc., on an easy BLOG website. If you're interested in reading about it all, here is the link: MY BLOG Forty-six (46) years of smoking has caught up with me, and even though I quit smoking in March of this year, the damage I have done will TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY. Your prayers are welcomed!
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Hang in there Ray. I smoked for 22 years. Have had several caths, a stent and a bypass back in 1997. I was fortunately to quit before much lung damage.
Anyhow, my heart function has increased over the last 12 years. It was slow for a while and then improved steadily after that.
I'm sure you are keeping in close contact with "The Great Physician."
Don S.
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Be compliant as you can, good diet, moderate excercise, the whole drill.
Good report on the O2 level after the walk, keep up the walking, one day at a time, bro.
--Mac
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You're lucky you are with us.... I had a heart attack in '87 = triple bypass QUIT SMOKING IMMDIATELY!! But the leg veins did not hold up with me, as they don't with many others. 6 months later the two leg veins "finished" closing...kept telling me for years that my continuing angina was just stress-induced (Bull Crap!), until they finally agreed to another cath in '95....ooops, they're long closed. Sorry. 2000 with only mamary artery bypass working for years, increased angina... Catheter lab shows mammary artery over 90% closed in two spots... 2000= two stents to solve above problem. Getting dizzy spells driving down to my new place in Florida...getting concerned, of course... 2003 pulse rate down to 45.....doctors say, "cut down on attenolol which slows heart up...." still low pulse rate with heart medicine modification....so, in 11/2003 - put in pace-maker/defibrillizer.... Upper chamber uses jolt from pacemaker 75% of time to keep things swingin' at 90 BPM SOLID!! POTATO SOLID!! Now... I refuse to get stressed by simple things. Smokers can go outside and smoke, thank you... Take the heart medicine and STAY moderate activity...76 next Feb, and I plan to still be reading charts! Oh....the diabetis type-two they diagnosed in 04...just watch your diet and take those pills religiously. Did they give you a choice of by-pass or stent???? Anyway, I had a choice of one or another...the doctors in '87 said bypass was the best route. That was way before the "reinforced" stents they use today. In those days you were lucky if a stent lasted a couple of yrs. 
Yamaha...Motif ES-8, Motif Rack, CS6X
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Plus, BIAB 2015 and Sonar Platinum 2015 Upgrade from Cakewalk's Sonar X-3
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Thanks for sharing Ray. Hope you are on the mend.
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Ray, sorry to hear about the health problems. It seems the older I get the more friends start having issues. Hopefully mine are over with for a good while. I wish you the best on the road to recovery, at least now you'll have some rest time to spend on the forum  Robert
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Do what you can and keep praying. The Potter makes each vessel for His purpose.The pot can't tell the potter what to make. As a potter, myself, I have learned the complexity of the different clays I use and some of the uses therein, but mine is a dim shadow of what Christ works with, in us.
Wyndham
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Man oh man. Good thoughts and good luck with all that, Ray.
Best, Tom SmithWin10/64 • i7-8700K • 24 GB RAM BIAB 2026 • Reaper 7.57 • Izotope MPS AKG C1000S • IK iRig I/O Pro
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Hi Ray,
Glad to see you're back & doing well.
I'm also happy that you think enough of us to keep us in your life.
Follow instructions & continue prayer. (good Rx)
You are in my prayers.
Mick
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G'day Ray, Quote:
Proverbs 17:22
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
May I encourage you to have a merry heart. Your joy in music is a good start.
Blessya mate.
--=-- My credo: If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing - just ask my missus, she'll tell ya  --=--You're only paranoid if you're wrong!
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Whazzzup, Ray..... Hope you're smellin' the roses today. Remember, Roses are Blooming in Piccardy alzo! Keep us abreast of youR progress MAY IT BE AS SWIFT AS A RIFF!!...and I know you must be feeling very much better with the stents!! Above all...kick the weed habit...you don't need any more hassle!! 
Yamaha...Motif ES-8, Motif Rack, CS6X
Korg...Karma,Triton Classic, PA-80, M-1+
AkaiSampler-S5000, Roland.. X5080 Rack/G-1000 Arranger
Various Guitars/Basses Amps Pedals Rec.Equip.
Plus, BIAB 2015 and Sonar Platinum 2015 Upgrade from Cakewalk's Sonar X-3
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Quad bypass and a few years 4 stents life does go on
may you have many more biab & realband upgrades to play with
take it slow
M4 pro Mac mini 1tb HD 24GB mem M3 MacBook Air 16GB mem casio wk7500 presonus audiobox i2 usb interface
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Hang in there Ray, I had 5 by-passes about 9 years or so ago and if not for the scars I would not even think I was ever sick.
On a side not I have one cousin who has had so many stents I kid him by telling him that if Sam's or Costco ever sell them in bulk he should be able to do the procedure himself!
Later,
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Wishing you a full and speedy recovery, Ray!
Take it easy and get better soon
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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Thank you, Everyone.. for your kind words, encouragement, wishes and prayers.
I'm feeling better today, although I am still a little stiff and I'm bruised black and blue badly in the groin area. It's like they beat the dickens out of me in that cath lab.
For some of you who mentioned it, yes I've quit smoking... stopped in March 2009 this year when the price went through the roof and I was coughing so badly at times I was getting strangled. I knew then it was definitely time to quit and I did. I haven't smoked one at all --- I haven't cheated the first time. I'm done with them.
My doctor suggested a lung transplant and I dismissed that idea quickly. I was given a good set of lungs and over the years I chose to trash and destroy those precious lungs. Now it's time to pay the price. Why should I get some young person's good lungs when I've destroyed mine with smoking. It isn't fair. I'd rather someone that needs a lung transplant and did nothing harmful to themselves to destroy theirs to get the new ones. I don't deserve another set --- it's not fair.
I'm feeling so much better. I'm breathing better. And now the cardiologist doesn't think that I have pulmonary hypertension as bad as my pulmonologist may have thought. My shortness of breath was dramatically caused by the blocked Right Coronary Artery (90% blocked). Now it's open with a PROMUS stent by Boston Scientific.
Thanks again for all your prayers, best wishes, encouragement and caring. I miss you all very much, but right now I'm just not doing any recording. Perhaps though now I can start thinking about it, as I might be able to sing a song now without going out of breath. We'll see.
Love to you all. Bless you!!
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Wise decision, not going for the lung transplant IMO.
Looks like the results are backing your decision up well, too, Ray.
--Mac
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Ray,
Sounds like you are on the right track. But keep in mind that the Good Lord would not make medical help available (i.e. transplant) if he thought you were not deserving. Don't sell yourself short partner as we have all made some decisions over the years that has adversely affected our health. Do what you can to do better and let the "Man Upstairs" send you any help he can, then accept it graciously and without trepidation.
Hang in there man,
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Quote:
It's like they beat the dickens out of me in that cath lab.
Just tuned in to this thread, and I wish you all the best, Ray. My experience in the cath lab was the same! I swear, they dropped me, though I wasn't aware of it at the time. The black & blue goes away in less than a week. Growing the hair back takes longer...
Best wishes,
matt
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Hang in there Ray. Every day that you don't smoke, your lungs get stronger and pinker. You may not get the function back that you've already lost, but what you have will become more efficient. Like Mac says, DO WHAT THE DOC TELLS YOU TO DO, adopt a healthy lifestyle, and never smoke again.
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