Now Playing ...

2016/06/20 06:55:57

Glyn Barnes

I am the Morning - The Album "Lighthouse".
Sleeping Pills

2016/06/20 07:02:07

Glyn Barnes

Moshkito
jamesg1213
Epic....

Very nice. Super nice actually!

I highly recomend the "Stone and Steel" live Blue Ray disk this comes from.

2016/06/20 07:51:08

jamesg1213

I'm waiting for the download to become available next month Glyn (don't have a Blu-Ray player)

2016/06/20 13:13:43

outland144k

craigb
Maybe eph was left speechless? All of my issues started when my Dad passed away (2003) though I didn't know it then. They peaked in 2008-9 and things are slowly getting better. Looks like those were tough years for you as well.

I feel things can only get better now, hopefully for you too!

It is better now.

2008 continued along the same lines as 2007, but "toned down", if you will. It all peaked, however, on June 23, 2009. I had a "Massive Left-side Infarction", also known as a "Widow-Maker". The heart attack actually started and did most of its damage the previous Saturday, seven years ago today (also strangely enough, my wedding anniversary), but I didn't make it to the hospital until the following Tuesday, largely because the band I was playing with on the 20th convinced me that I was only having heartburn. One of the singers related how three times he had gone to the emergency room thinking he was having a heart attack, only to be reassured that what he was experiencing was in truth only heartburn. Since I had never had either heartburn or a heart attack, I took an antacid the band gave me and it wiped out my symptoms (the antacid probably contained aspirin) very quickly. I played the gig, helped pack the truck, and drove home. I was a bit tired.

The following Tuesday, the heart attack returned/got worse with a vengeance. Thinking that it was simply a another bout of heartburn, I took some antacid, hoping that the symptoms would abate. Very thankfully, they did not (it most certainly would have resulted in my death if they had). Finally, I asked my wife to drive me to the hospital. After I got there, a doctor very wisely put me into a coma after I started spitting blood and informed my wife that what I was experiencing was beyond the ken of the scope of heart attack with which the hospital was prepared to deal. I was given a Medi-Vac to a more advanced hospital in the area and awoke from my coma a month later with an LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device) unit where the left side of my heart should have been. I was informed that I had wiped out 85% of the left side between Saturday, June the 20th, and the following Tuesday. Making a (very) long story short, two months after my heart attack began, I was released from the hospital with the LVAD unit still in place, making me effectively a cyborg, strange to say. I was to wait until the following November for a heart transplant, building up my bodily strength while on the LVAD. I received my new heart after being listed three days. I was released from the hospital with my new heart only nine days after the operation. I have experienced no rejection at all.

My donor was a sixteen year old boy who died of a brain aneurysm the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. My wife and I were so struck by his death that we remained in prayer for his family as we waited for his heart to arrive at the hospital. It was easily the strangest feeling I have ever had regarding anything. The devastation I felt for his family was profound. We had no choice but to pray for their healing at that time of year that many are counting their blessings (or shopping at Walmart). We had no idea of the pain they were going through, but prayed that somehow, in some way, they could find a measure of peace and trust.

I am thankful for a wife who stayed/prayed by my side every day I was in the coma or awake in the hospital. She talked to me while I was in the coma (and I did hear her) or read to me from the Bible, often Psalms. While I would not wish what I went through on anyone else, I wouldn't change a minute of it. I am blessed. God is good.

I hope your issues continue to get better. Everyday is a gift.

2016/06/20 13:26:30

Mesh

+1

2016/06/20 14:36:35

craigb

Wow, that's some story! I got off very lucky in comparison. At least it sounds like you're doing better now.

I might have a little talk with those band members though...

2016/06/20 17:22:08

outland144k

craigb
Wow, that's some story! I got off very lucky in comparison. At least it sounds like you're doing better now.

I might have a little talk with those band members though...

Actually, most of the band surrounded my bed in the hospital begging forgiveness. I forgave them all. Only one member of the band did not so ask, but I honestly believe her to be too shallow to understand what the others felt (I forgave her anyway; she is not responsible for something above her capacity as a human being to understand).

I continued to play with them after I recovered until I played a home birthday gig with them about two years ago that was really odd:

1) The birthday girl's husband complained about his wife to us for 20 minutes before the gig. No, none of us knew either him or his wife previously.
2) A room off of the main hall was filled with taxidermy. Now, I'm not into taxidermy, but this was stranger still as all the animals contained therein were endangered.
3) We were told it was going to be a pajama gig, but this was a ruse. The only people in pajamas were the musicians in the band. Apparently, the birthday girl thought it would be great fun to be able to laugh at the guys in the band dressed in PJ's while everyone else was dressed to the nines. I know I was laughing.
4) All the people in attendance at the gig treated us like we were pond scum.
5) The birthday girl had proudly displayed a picture of herself while she was shaking President George H.W. Bush's hand (the elder Bush for those of you who may be wondering). The President had on the big Bush-style grin with which he was often photographed . She looked like she was as enthused as she would be shaking the hand of a leper. Truly. Weird.
6) The birthday girl got plastered and tripped over my saxophone (thankfully, it was in the case). No apologies were offered.
7) To cap the evening, the gig was so loud that I left with ringing ears. They continued to ring for three days.

That's when I quit the band. But, at one level, I found out that they still hadn't learned anything after my heart attack/transplant experience. They tried to convince me to stay, even after I told them about the ringing ears. I literally had to say, "Look, a heart transplant is forever. Tinnitus is also forever. I've got one, but I'm not getting the other". That's when they finally stopped trying to convince me to stay.

One other odd thing about the band was this: one drummer that the band used was a mailman in his day gig.

The other drummer we used was a cardiologist.

The cardiologist wasn't on the night I had the heart attack.

2016/06/20 17:35:17

outland144k

Mesh
+1

Thanks Mesh. I've heard that one and Judy Collins sings it beautifully. I like this one as well:

and this brought tears to my eyes in the hospital:

2016/06/21 00:49:48

sharke

This is a truly outstanding track, Loisaida by Joe Jackson from the Body And Soul album. Great melody, great harmonies, fantastic arrangement, full of dynamics. Love it. In fact that whole album is superb.

2016/06/21 01:22:01

Moshkito

Mesh
+1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThBdmWGxDSk

This is actually my favorite version of that song ... Toni McPhee is great!

I specially like "Crosscut Saw" and "Black Diamond" ... both great albums, and the effects he uses on the guitar are tops!

Now Playing ...

Use My Existing Forum Account

Use My Social Media Account