Rock 'n roll almost killed me... literally

heathentom on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 – 10:46 pm

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Well, maybe not directly, but it's all wrapped together.

I haven't been sure if I wanted to talk about this much, but I figured it doesn't hurt anything and it actually helps to give it some yammer time. I hinted at this in another thread but I didn't want to muck up that one up so I'm starting this one....

While I'm mostly retired from working concerts I worked a show at Shoreline on Friday to help out a friend there who was short-staffed, plus I've been a total blob lately and wanted to get out in the world and actually do something.

The show was Loverboy, REO Speedwagon & Styx, which definitely attracts a crowd of a certain age and the ADA situation was looking to be pretty overwhelming, which is why my friend asked for the help, as his crew handles all that.

I spent the evening running up & down the lawn hill, running up & down stairs and at the end of the night I pushed three separate 300+ ladies in wheelchairs up a hill to the front gates, which seriously gassed my old, overweight, very out of shape self.

After the last haul I was returning the wheelchair to the medical area, looking forward to having a beer or three and chatting with old friends when I suddenly began to experience what felt like heartburn in my upper chest. Tums usually works well for that but not this time, and it didn't go away so I began to think it could be something different and I got in my car and decided to stop at the ER, just to be careful.

That turned out to be a good idea, because within 30 seconds after I got an EKG they rushed me into a room and 8 different staffers began flying around and working on me 8 different ways.

So, long story longer, it turns out I was having a heart attack.

What a trip.

After a whirlwind of frantic activity they got me up to the "cath lab" and they did an angioplasty, going through my wrist (a very odd experience, I didn't feel a thing).

So it turns out it was a small blockage in a very narrow bit of artery, too small for a stent but the doc mushed it with a balloon and I was in a hospital room pretty quickly after that.

They kept me there over the weekend, and now I have a variety of new meds to take, but they tell me that it was a small episode, my arteries in general look good and that with some lifestyle changes and keeping on the meds I should be OK.

I feel OK now, other than being a little spacey and feeling a little washed out, but I think that is due to being awake for 33 hours, then sleeping 14, 12 & 9 hours. I don’t do well when my sleep routine is messed with.

I still have lots of questions and have a couple of follow-up appointments this week and next, but I figure whatever they tell me, this is a good opportunity to makes some changes that have needed to be made for a while now. I live alone and I'm a lazy fuck, and once the pandemic started but especially in the past year or so I've gotten really good at repeating the mantra, "I'll start that diet tomorrow, I'll stop drinking when that bottle runs out, I'll start exercising next week."

I'm thinking a heart attack is a more visceral tap on the chest, telling me to quit talking and start walking.

Anyway, I'm not looking for sympathy, we all go through shit and this is my turn, and apologies for the long post, but as I explained to Ras a while back when he was giving me shit for my long posts, it helps me to write stuff out. I usually write these epic posts more for myself than anyone who may be bored enough to read all the way through; it gives me a chance to get my thoughts together and straight.

I have to keep telling myself that I had a heart attack, and I need to get straight how to deal with it going forward and how to get back on track and not just fold up & shut down, so I figured I’d use up some black screen space to help with that. Thanks viva.

As for Shoreline, after 37 years, 26 of them as a manager of various levels, I'm done. Not because of this so much as because Live Nation & the kids they have put in charge have absolutely no clue how to run a place like that, and it drives me crazy to see it run so poorly and not have any authority to do anything about it.

At least half of what I was busting my hump on for 7 hours straight on Friday could have been avoided with a little anticipation & preparation, instead of everyone frantically scrambling around trying to deal with it all after the doors opened. It was amateur hour all the way.

I always said Shoreline was going to kill me, I figure a heart attack is an appropriate way to close the book.

So if you’ve read this far, thanks for the effort. I know a lot of people have been through this type of deal so any helpful advice would be appreciated.

On it goes.

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Rock 'n roll almost killed me... literally

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