Last year on July 15th, 2002, my cardiologist gave me less than a year to live. With the 14 remaining blocked arteries, there was not much hope. Even a by-pass would only correct 3 or 4 arteries and give me a slight lease on life. No doctor to date has ever performed a 14-way by-pass.
I have been living carefully. No more smoking I love and miss smoking ... slow long draws into the lungs of fine American tobacco - I am a Marlboro man ... very low cholesterol diet that is still great because it allows a lot of good foods - and pizza once in while is still allowed ... lots of vitamins ... (PS: Vitamin E is oversold and the science on its effectiveness is poor) ... Omega-3 Fatty Acids (Fish Oil) is working well and Doctor recommended (Science is great on this one with triple-blind studies by well recognized doctors) ... lots of grape and cranberry juice ... red wine and beer too ... Alcohol itself is found by serious studies to be very helpful ... Oh Gawd! Life is soooo good ... oh and of course Lipitor, a choloesterol lowering drug ... it works very well ... and regular blood pressure medicine ... and last but not least, aspirin, to be taken every day for the rest of my life.
So, I was supposed to be dead by today ... and I can say that I have beaten the odds ... I am not out of the woods ... and possibly surgery and/or radio-therapy on the arteries will still be needed ... so I am getting ready to volunteer as a patient at a teaching hospital and give some snot-nosed kid a shot at working on my heart ... under supervision of course ... but hey ... it is worth it.
While I get tired still, and sometimes winded with little effort ... my exercise is going good and I am feeling a little better everyday ... I recently helped chain saw a tree that was strom damaged ... so ... in case anyone at the Watchtower headquarters thought that their little weakling Jehovah was going to whack Jim Whitney ... they have another think coming. - Jim W.