Counterpoint - Real Men Do Cry (And so do their children)

Counterpoint – Real Men Do Cry (and so do their children)

October 5th, 2011.

Saturday came and went fairly peacefully for me; I was engrossed in study and trying to avoid the Grand Final. By the end, Collingwood supporters were none too pleased I gather, and Geelong, well, they were ecstatic. It seems real men do cry after all.

As the evening passed, my 69 year old father, whom many of you may have met at the Changeover Night, failed to enjoy his roast pork belly and baked veg dinner. His chest felt uncomfortable, as it had done the day before, and it was putting him off his food. As is often the case with people in cardiac distress, he put it down to indigestion, and tried instead to watch The Great Escape.

(Yes, this is one of those articles when you know what is going to happen. Like Romeo and Juliet we are forewarned in the opening scenes and left with the tyranny of time to slowly play out the outcome.)

By midnight there was an elephant in the bedroom at Dad’s, and it was sitting on his chest. The paramedics were called and he was shuffled between two ambulances, one a MICA where a second major attack occurred; then two hospitals, the last being Monash Medical Centre, where a team of cardiac care specialists were standing by to see him safely to the Cath Lab.

Into the groin and up through a blood vessels, the team did not miss a beat. They placed one stent into an artery on the front of Dad’s heart and bingo! - the elephant was gone. No zebras, horses or even horses’ hooves. Modern medicine had stepped in and dealt with the signs and symptoms of years of neglect, heart disease and risk factors in barely an hour. 

Dad was lucky, and so was I. I was nowhere near ready to lose him and I thank God I am able to say today that I didn’t. But we all know, if he doesn’t do something about the *starred risk factors below, (the ones he can change), I won’t be able to say that for very much longer.

Heart Disease Risk Factors

Factors you can’t change:
Male? Over 50? Family History?

Factors you can change:
*Smoking? *Overweight? *Diabetes? *Sedentary Lifestyle? *High Cholesterol? *High Blood Pressure? *Depression/isolation/lack of support? *Stress?

Heart Foundation Information