I started this blog as personal journal and a photo album. I need to get back to that plan. I’m going to wax eloquent here.

Life sometimes gives us surprises that at first seem negative but turn out to be serendipitous.

My long-time PCP suddenly closed his practice without an explanation. Luckily, I was able to get a new doctor whom I like very much. One of his areas of expertise is gerontology!

A few weeks ago I had a “meet and greet” appointment with him. While his assistant was checking my vitals, it was discovered that I was having tachycardia. I hadn’t noticed a thing. I felt just fine, but my heart rate was 180 BMP. They were unable to reduce it in the office using several first-aid techniques and I was immediately sent to the ER.

Briefly, I received immediate and excellent care in the ER and as an inpatient for a couple of days. I was very impressed with the attention I received at the highly-rated cardiac unit in my nearby hospital.

They quickly got things under control and I still feel just fine. I have to wonder what the result might have been had I not been in the doctor’s office. But never mind what might have been.

I really like my new PCP and my cardiologist. My main concern at this point continues to be rehabbing my new knee. I need to be able to get in and out of my kayak. Cardiologist still wants to do a stress test and yet another EKG.

This “event” prompted me to re-think my future plans. In the next year to fix up and sell 1880 and move to a much smaller place where I won’t have to deal with a lot of the things I no longer want to deal with in this large house and property. I feel relieved about that.

And it prompted Kate to drive up for a visit and to spend a crazy night with Dolly while I was hooked up to every device imaginable in the hospital. I even had a talking bed that immediately and loudly admonished me when I was so bold as to get out of bed when no professional caregiver was in the room.

When I got home, Kate reminded me that she had sent me an oximeter for Christmas. I hadn’t even put batteries in it, but she did and I have used it regularly ever since just to reassure myself. My BPM has always been about 60, I think maybe because I jogged for many years.

I look forward to down-sizing. I have always loved small spaces. My favorite childhood room was a little porch Mother and Daddy closed in to make my first bedroom. At 1880, it is the snug. I will be very happy in a new snug. I’ll take all the furniture from this one.

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I subscribe online to the daily entry from Garrison Keillor called “The Writers’ Almanac.”  It’s a nice way to start the day.  I highly recommend it.  It’s free. Much more relaxing than Wordle! I still miss listening to “Prairie Home Companion” on Saturday nights and the cohort I shared that with.
Today, I got an announcement that Keillor has a new book out.  I liked this excerpt

Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80: Why You Should Keep On Getting Older A book from Garrison Keillor, a man nearing age 80, on leaning into the beauty of getting old. “My life is so good at 79 I wonder why I waited this long to get here,” he writes. You learn that Less Is More, the great lesson of Jesus and also Buddha. Each day becomes important after you pass the point of life expectancy. Big problems vanish, small things make you happy. And the worst is behind you because you lack the energy to be as foolish as you might otherwise be.   Including 23 rules for aging, including “Enumerate your benefits,” “Enjoy inertia,” “Get out of the way,” “Don’t fight with younger people;”  and finally, “Ignore rules you read in a book. Do what you were going to do anyway.” I’m not sure “gaiety” is a word I can embrace.  Instead I like the word “joyful.”  Not exactly the same thing, but I advise finding some little thing every day that makes you joyful.    I am very comfortable with the age I am now.  Gertrude Stein wrote that we are always the same age inside.  That’s true.  That girl is still in there.  There are some things I can’t do anymore, but mostly there are things I don’t have to do anymore.  I might read the book.  If it’s on Kindle.