It is an election year. Last night there was a debate between candidates for the US Senate seat from Pennsylvania. One of the men running for that office suffered a stroke earlier this year. A stroke can be mild to severe. It can be deadly as was the case for your great-grandmother. Essentially blood flow to the brain is stopped or is temporarily blocked. A stroke also causes brain damage. The amount of damage varies from individual to individual. Quick treatment is vital for both survival and to lessen the extent of residual impairment.
Politics is a strange business. After a stroke, an election campaign in the ensuing months seems to me to be the last item anyone would dial up if interested in health/survival. There have been conflicting reports as to whether the man should have continued, dropped out or gone on television for yesterday’s debate. News reports of the debate and snippets I’ve viewed indicate that sympathy for his medical condition is natural. However, he does not appear to have recovered. It is difficult to understand why no one stepped forward and forcibly protected him. Perhaps he had no one but dropping out as a candidate should have been on the table. That did not seem to be a mild stroke. Strange indeed.
But, politics is not what caught Papa’s attention. It turns out the poor man has a history of A-Fib. I have had that diagnosis in common with him since approximately 2011. I didn’t even know I had it. When I retired I started an exercise program and that was when my irregular heart beat was detected. I was lucky. Apparently my heart isn’t up to snuff. (Says the man with four by-passes stitched in his heart since 1988.) With A-Fib blood enters a chamber and over stays its welcome while it sloushes around a bit before exiting. That slight delay might make some blood a little thick and muck up the works. Things get really bad if a clot travels to the brain and causes a stroke. My crack cardiologist put me on a blood thinner. Warfarin is akin to rat poison but did the job for a number of years. The medication did require blood draw checks every six weeks or so. Recently, I was switched over to a pill that does not reuire such monitoring. Papa gets a kick out of his heart doctor. She says my condition is stable and SHE can live with me being on medications for the rest of my life without a cardioversion or more elaborate interventions.
Which brings Papa back to the debate last night. I researched the candidate. He stopped taking the medication to treat his A Fib. Duh. I have no idea what medication he was to take. I didn’t learn why he stopped. There is a simple lesson here. If you have a doctor you trust and you are prescribed medication in the future; TAKE YOUR MEDICINE.