Hi, Bob!  Awhile ago you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

BA>  The husband of one of my co-workers died of prostate
BA>  cancer a year or two after I had the surgery to remove
BA>  mine.  We were about the same age.


          Hmm.  It's sad if others aren't paying attention when you might
have been able to help.  I wonder what variety this man had & whether
or not he put off taking action.  I heard the details of our neighbour's
situation only when his wife noticed an article in READER'S DIGEST, shortly
after his death, about the same kind he had... she was beside herself. 
Apparently the slower-growing varieties are more common, and people often
survive for a long time regardless of what they do or don't do.  But when I
say others I know of who were treated earlier survived for at least a
decade that's a conservative estimate.  One of them... at the lower end of
the scale... was not diagnosed until he was in his eighties.  One is
currently in his eighties & still going strong.  IIRC he was diagnosed
when he was in his fifties or sixties.  Then there is my father.  In my
experience the range goes to forty years or more... and if anybody lives as
long as these people have, they've outlived most of their contemporaries. 
I'm not suggesting there's any competition here to see who lives longest. 
One may have opportunities to pack it in, however, and decline to accept
them....  ;-)



BA>  The whole angioplasty took about 45 minutes from the
BA>  time they wheeled me into the cath lab until they wheeled
BA>  me out.  I even got to watch.  The *bill* for it was no
BA>  picnic, though.


          Yes... I heard from other parents of children with leukemia that
the bill was over $200,000.  I believe it!  And depending on what medical
coverage they had, some had to pay the whole shot while others paid
nothing.  In Canada the answer lies somewhere in between.  We didn't have
to pay for the treatment per se but we did have to pay for pharmaceuticals
which were needed because of various side effects.  So... what's the $$$
value of a human life??  When it's your life or that of someone near &
dear to you life may be priceless....  :-)



BA>  I also discovered *exactly* what a heart attack feels
BA>  like - when the doctor inflated the balloon it completely
BA>  blocks the artery for a few seconds.


          I discovered what asthma feels like recently when a bit of food
went the wrong way.  I attempted a routine breath, but nothing happened. 
Luckily I was able to force the air in & out until I could breathe
normally again.  As a clarinet player I've had a lot of experience in
diaphragm breathing, rationing my breath, etc.  I noted with interest that
the instinct for self-preservation took over.  Although I may grumble about
the circumstances on occasion, as our friend in his eighties does, I reckon
I'll be here for some time yet....  :-))

          You mentioned a feeling of tiredness in the chest as a warning
sign, and I read elsewhere that a more general feeling of tiredness and/or
shortness of breath (especially in women) may indicate the same type of
problem.  I also remember reading some years ago that (especially in men)
the pain, if any, may be felt more in a part of the body other than the
chest... typically along one arm.  When your artery was completely blocked,
how did it feel to you?  That's the sort of information I collect & put
on the back burner, just in case.  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+