A new new “FLiRT” family of coronavirus subvariants appears to be highly contagious. A family wedding in Philadelphia last week (which I missed) turned into a super-spreader event with at least 5 people (including my brother, brother-in-law and the bride) becoming ill with Covid.
CDC statistics show that Covid is killing more people than the flu, almost all of them over age 65. But younger people can get pretty darn sick even if they don’t have to be hospitalized.
I have to keep a close watch over my health for the next few months. My PCP detected a heart murmur which an echocardiogram showed to be severe aortic valve stenosis. So I will be getting a valve replacement ASAP. Get that ticking time bomb out and hopefully get my energy back.
@WendyBG …oh WOW aortic stenosis. Following in Mick Of The Rolling Stones (apparently the J word ist VERBOTEN!! per TMF’s nanny filter) footsteps. I’m assuming you’re getting the valve replaced by a transcatheter procedure…TAVR? My husband’s first emergent symptom of his expanding/about to dissect aortic aneurysm was the brand new heart murmer caused, in his case, by the aortic incompetence secondary to the expanding ascending aorta. The exact opposite of your (and Mick’s) problem. A much more involved open heart surgery but very successful.
May you have a successful surgery and speedy recovery! I know from your posts you are very disciplined about getting your exercise. Have you noticed it become more challenging? Not the same diagnosis but a family member was struggling with his exercise routine, no chest pain just fatique and he had a 90% occlusion of his LAD. 6 months post coronary artery bipass he’s going strong at 79.
I looked this up since I’ve never heard of the word used that would catch it in a nanny filter. According to Urban Dictionary, for those who care, it means The best person you will ever know. Nice, sweet, sensitive, and overall well-rounded individual.
So, yes, I can see why it would be verbum non grata.
No. That would be hard to use anyway since many people got vaccinated against the original Covid-19 in 2020 but not necessarily more recently.
The data shows that even a new booster shot only lasts 6 months at best and probably less in people over age 65 due to weaker immune response. So even people who got the recommended booster in October 2023 wouldn’t be very well protected in June 2024.
i am far less worried about you, Wendy, than I would about most folk because you have a rational head and proven track record. God and smartness save our Empress Wendy!
The lyrics refer to a male’s ability to impress a love interest with his dance moves , which he compares to those of Mick Jagher, the lead singer of the Rolling Stones. “Moves like Jagher”
Not quite. That’s a song by Maroon 5. One of those catchy songs that don’t make much sense at all when you actually read what you think you heard/ have been singing.
In fact, I did the Wikipedia thing with the offending word as surname and found out that it probably originated as a name for someone who managed teams of pack horses. Recorded as early as the 1300s in Derbyshire.
@WendyBG , was it your diminished exercise capacity that took you to your doctor and the subsequent diagnosis…or a chance finding on a routine physical and a post hoc explanation for something you’d sort of noticed. My husband had no symptoms whatsoever…in fact, no murmer either just over a week before his physical, when he’d done a clean out of the earpieces on his own stethoscope and listened to check if he’d done a good job. It’s a bit daunting to think that just a few days earlier would’ve missed the emergent problem…and a few days later I would likely have been arranging a funeral.
Oddly enough, the daughter has her screening CT tomorrow (she’s inherited dh’s aortopathy)
I went to the walk-in clinic for a UTI and the nurse practitioner took out her stethoscope, listened to my heart and heard a murmur. Ironically, my PCP didn’t listen to my heart recently because she knows how much I work out.
I did notice diminished exercise capacity starting at age 65 and getting worse a few months ago but figured I was just getting old.
Not ironic at all, Wendy…a sign of the times. As I’ve started to call it The Curse of the Healthy Lifestyle. Basically a form of supervised neglect by folk who ought
to know better due to the obvious appearance and history of taking good care of oneself within a culture of folk doing just the opposite… and the smokescreen it can provide to things going awry in spite of such Good Custodianship. I might’ve mentioned the idea a time or seventeen.
On a positive not, if my basic physiological reasoning/personal experience is accurate and, if this pathology has been brewing for a while, you might find yourself strutting around like a Little Red Rooster on crack once the post op period is over.
Working out with a diminishing cardiac output to satisfy demands will have given your cardiovascular system a greater spanking than you realize…with a greater degree of adaptation in response. Those adaptive changes should stick around for long enough for you to notice the benefits once the cardiac rehab period is done. I’m pretty sure that’s how come I have the degree of coronary occlusion and reduced Fractional Flow Reserve that’d need stenting under most circumstances (and would probably earn me one outside of an academic cardiovascular unit) As it was/is…absolutely no symptoms. Teaching upwards of 6 group exercise classes a week plus the training I did to be able to maintain that schedule plus my own racing stuff throughout my 50s and most of my 60s has probably produced a collateral circulation to rival Secretariat’s.
When I’m feeling charitable, I oftentimes wonder if the benign neglect over the years plus my ignorance of what might’ve been going on under the hood has been a net positive. Would I have been inclined to provide that cardiovascular challenge over the years/decades if I’d been aware of my genetic predisposition and potential for cardiac crippledom at an earlier age?
That’s what I’m hoping for. I can’t wait to feel like my old self again.
Let me add that doing Zumba, with its fast and complex steps and coordinated arm movements, is a tune-up for the nervous system. Many aerobic exercises are repetitive motions (running, bicycling, swimming) that don’t stimulate the brain and peripheral nervous system in the same way. I’m looking forward to regaining that ecstatic feeling of dancing once my heart is fixed.
By the way, @VeeEnn , how are your feet doing? It’s been a while since your bunion surgery.
