It was Monday, January 21st, Martin Luther King and President Obama’s Inauguration Day. As people gathered to mark those two important occasions, I was checking in that morning to Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center’s Cherry Hill campus. I was scheduled to have an angiogram to determine if I had blockages in the arteries to my heart.

This was my second angiogram. The first happened in 2003 after an abnormal stress test. No blockages were found, but because it was done so late in day I ended up having to spend the night in the hospital. Back then, the procedure was done by going through a blood vessel in the groin area to check out the arteries to my heart. Afterwards I had to stay in bed with my leg kept straight for six hours. It was not fun.

Ten years later, things are done a little differently. This time, my cardiologist, Dr. Peter Demopulis went through my wrist. Just like the first time, I was awake. The entry area was numbed and I was given some medication that made me a bit groggy, but I was able to talk with the doctor and nurses. I could see a television monitor and the arteries to my heart. Dr. Demopulis told me he found two areas that were narrowed by 40 to 50 percent. He inserted two stents and opened up the narrowed areas to what they should be normally. A stent is a wire mesh stainless steel tube that opens up the artery and keeps it from closing again. Having a stent placed into my arteries is lot better than having a heart attack. I feel fortunate.

The entire process lasted about an hour which I found to be quite amazing. I spent the night in the hospital and was allowed to go home the next morning. I took a day off and then went back to work. Looking back, I think I should have taken a few more days to rest. I guess I let my macho side get the best of me.

So how am I doing now? Pretty good, but I have had some issues and it has been unnerving at times. A few days after I got out of the hospital, I started having pressure in my chest and pain in left shoulder and side. It would come and go, but by the weekend it didn’t seem to be a problem. But on the following Tuesday, I started to have the chest pain again, plus nausea and aches. I ended up in the doctor’s office that afternoon. I had an electrocardiogram or EKG, checking the electrical activity of my heart. The doctor and nurses asked a lot of questions about what I was feeling. The EKG was normal but the discomfort was still there. Some medications were added and changed. Since then, the pain and chest pressure has subsided. I want things to stay that way. It was annoying and scary.

The past two weeks have been quite an adventure. I have come to appreciate how medical technology has progressed so much, how responsive my doctor and his staff have been to my concerns, how my family and friends have checked up on me, and most of all, how patient and caring my girlfriend Diane Harter has been through all of this. Thanks to everybody that sent me good wishes.

2013 has gotten off to a most interesting start for me. In July, I will turn 60. As I reach my sixth decade, I will try to do what is necessary to live up to the message of the fortune cookie posted above. There is so much I still want to do in this life.