Due to Old Age, I Guess

"Mom, do you know how old Grandpa is?" my daughter Kate asked from the back seat this evening as I was driving her to lacrosse practice.

"Yes, he is 78."

"I know. Can you believe it? I thought he was in his sixties."

This was the defining conversation that I knew today's slice would be about my father.

My father is in amazing health for a 78 year old man. He is very active. Walks five miles a day, seven days a week. He is not sure when the last time he took a day off was.

I have memories of my father growing up. Running. Running shoes. Lots of running shoes. At one time, I remember ten pairs lined up by the door. Who uses ten pairs of running shoes? And then there were the road races. Lots of road races.

But about eight years ago, my father had a health scare. I couldn't remember all the details, so I called him tonight and talked to him about it. This is what he had to say...

"I began running in 1979 when I was 38 years old in order to lose weight and get in shape. I ran until I was 65 years old (27 years) when I ran my last two marathons, The Big Sur in California, and the Rome Marathon in Italy on a trip with Judy. I ran a total of at least ten marathons in those 27 years.

Diet, exercise and medication kept my health balance. I graphed my cholesterol in those years to keep things under control. I never had any problems with high blood pressure, ever, as it was always under control thru exercise. I have been on cholesterol medication all those years thanks to my mother and the heart disease of my dad when he died of a heart attack at age of 62.

On August 26, 2011 when I was 70, I had a central retinal artery occlusion, mini stroke. I went to emergency to find out what it was and permanently lost vision in the center of my right eye. Today, I see about 60 % thru that eye. I have my eyes checked once a year at the Kellogg Eye Center.

Between August and October of the same year was when I started to have angina pains in my back and went to to a stress test and for first time in my life flunked it. I went in and had a catheter test and four blockages were identified. Fortunately, my heart was good.

On Columbus Day, Monday of 2011 I had open heart surgery, a quadruple bypass.
I had to walk next day with all my IV's and was home that Friday. I asked the doctor how did my heart start after being on ice? He said it started back up by itself once it was defrosted.

In seven years life has been good. I do everything I ever did before open heart surgery. I took about a year of rehabilitation at U of M in a variety of exercises. I try to keep active everyday by walking now more than jogging and watching my weight. Since my operation, also due to old age I guess, I do take a minimal of blood pressure medication daily, along with my cholesterol medication and have a physical and blood test once a year.

I keep a minimum of ten thousand steps daily to stay active."

My daughter spent the last weekend with my father and step-mother. If it wasn't for his love of being healthy and active, he never would have been able to keep up with her. She kept them busy. And by the sounds of it, they kept her busy too.

Kate and her grandpa, 78 years young.