Fidel's Guestbook

Fidel - Thank you for offering up the great poem - supremely poignant.  Can you suggest any other poems by this guy  (G.A. Bécquer)  - or other Spanish ?  You can be our culture curator for 2026....

Car ride was short. Around my yard. Golden girl never see salty roads. Its good to move it around a little every 2 weeks. Just starting it does more harm than good. Losing my pcp next month and his other docs are not taking new patients. Ugh. Do i need this stress. All my other doctors are in this group. Found another guy out of town , new group, but its a 40 minute drive and no  portal link up with other doctors. Interview him next month. Hope he’s ready. Thankfully i am a sales rep. It will be more work for me coordinating the 2 groups but i am up to it. They have yet to find out what a pain i can be. Already started a list of written questions. My cardiologist is replacing my a fib loop recorder after 3 year battery ran out. We decided to install another rather than nothing. Size of a dog chip. Even though it has detected almost nothing, it would be my luck to have an incident after removal. Having lunch today with a few former basketball team mates i have not seen in 20 years. Quite a few have left us over the past few years. All over 80 of course. 

Fidel: Our house transformation since we moved in when my grandmother died in 1978 has been an expensive labor of love but worth it, covering many years. It was a mess but with good bones. Our goal was to modernize it but retain the 1790 look as its historic in a historic village. Not easy. We started outside before we moved in by replacing the exterior shingles that were falling off and insulating the attic and walls. There was none. We even had to jack it up to replace rotting sills. New heating system, new kitchen and bathrooms on and on.  my kids suffered growing up with no second floor heat in the bedrooms till we added a second furnace in the attic years later which heats the second floor.  Board walls. Now we have ac. Also. We kept the 12 over 12 original windows but added storm windows. Still a little drafty. Sorry, no andersen windows for me. We even bought a couple of empty adjoining lots that were part of the original footprint that were sold off during the great depression. Every time we made a change we had to get an ok from the local preservation society, which aggravated me, as you might guess knowing my personality. Will my kids want it, probably not but its value has skyrocketed since 1978. 

Spending xmas with a relative in a nursing home is a worthwhile endeavor. Although, years ago my mother was in a nursing home and going to visit her was very depressing. The care is not so great. My dad could not take care of her. When it got so he could not live alone any more, we moved him in with us. When he passed we were all by his side. Yes. Mgh is mass. General in boston. They are in the top 10 nationally for heart care. When i went they were #5. I did not join or know about Adams site till after my surgery. It was in the middle of covid so options were limited. So far, so good. We just received 4 inches of snow. Ugh, i hate it. It will harm our daily dog walks till the sidewalks melt. I am much more cautious as i age. Falling over 80 can be the kiss of death. Treadmill tomorrow, 

Hi Fidel, good to hear from you, your condition is the same as mine , same age, I had my surgery on my birthday 4 years ago on the 29/11/2021, I had a bad bleed after surgery and had to opened up a second time to have the bleeding stopped, I was in hospital for 25 days. I have a problem with a Keyloyd scar Thats irritated by my shirts . I have tried a number of scar repair creams with out success, I had steroid injections also with no success but haven’t found any one with the same problem. Like you I have been told to try and keep my heart rate between 115 and 120 bpm for short periods (30min) when exercising, for me that is bike riding and walking. Keep well 

I read your comments on prostate mri. I had a fusion mri which is then used during the biopsy for accuracy. I am thinking like an overlay. Probably over simplifying it. My first was over a year ago and i had a couple of 3+4=7 lesions on the gleason chart.  Hopefully they have not advanced to 4+3=7 which will then require radiation but time will tell. No sense in jumping the gun. I was reading about former president biden being treated for prostate cancer spreading into his bones. I find that amazing especially after the extensive physical testing they do on usa presidents. Did they not do a routine psa test ? A mystery for sure.

Your post concerning the spanish civil war was interesting so i checked it out for details. We had our own civil war of course. Americans fighting americans, spaniards  fighting spaniards. One might say we are in the middle of one right now, especially after this past week.  The amount of usa haters out there among us is staggering to me. I am the total opposite. Usa, all the way. Yes, we have our stains but if anyone bothered to look almost every country has their own to not be proud of. The trick is to learn from your mistakes and try to build on it and not tear it down. The tear it down crowd seems to get more press lately. 

Fidel, to discuss your antibiotics question....I had rheumatic fever at age 7 and kept getting strep throat.  This is what further damaged my bicuspid valve.  So, this was back on the early 1960s.  They put me on a regimen of penicillin to prevent strep throat.  I took one pill (I don't know the dosage) 3 times a day up until I turned 23.  I do have somewhat of an immunity to penicillin. That being said, I don't have any issues with antibiotics working for me other than I sometimes need a higher dose.  

Regarding the best dog breed for fidel in spain is probably not a sled dog of any breed. We have had a few and they all preferred winter over summer. Heavy Shedding goes with it also. I chuckle when i hear folks complain about their dog shedding. They have no idea. We thought about starting a cottage industry making sweaters from the hair but decided against it. We thought the customers might howl when the fire alarm went off. However, on a cold winters night having shadow curled in next to me is a delight. Remember the group 3 dog night?

Hi Fidel.  Thanks for responding to my post.  I’m glad your mitral replacement went well!  I understand you had calcification which was a big reason for the replacement vs repair.  I specifically asked the surgeon about calcification and he said that wasn’t an issue.  I feel better about getting a second opinion, and appreciate your support.  Thx

After reading your post, it sounds like you had no choice. After my last years biopsy i had 2 professional opinions of the readings by 2 different hospitals and they pretty much agreed. I also had a gene test to determine my bodies rate of cancer progression. It came back low. Another indicator that is vital is whether the cancer has progressed beyond the prostate and where exactly  in the prostate it is located. The gleason  scores are also important. Mostly 6 but a couple of 7’s which are on the edge.  I could have chosen radiation but i went with active surveillance, at least for now. Time will tell. Its a balancing game. The upcoming second mri will add more data to my situation. After my heart surgery in 2021 the thoughts of cancer makes me tired. 

Now that you know about col. sanders i want you to visit a kentucky fried chicken. Do they have them in spain? After you get the complete family bucket i want your thoughts on the mashed potatoes and gravy, and cold slaw sides. They are the best. They also have great rolls which my wife and on site chef saves and uses them later for strawberry shortcake. My grandson did a semester in spain while attending college in the states and loved it. He stayed at a womans home who takes in exchange students.

I saw your cow valve comments lasting 15 years and you at 76. Who knows what barnyard animals may be used for their valves in 15 years. I may opt for a rooster valve so i can wake my neighbors up in the morning. 

I just saw that you updated your profile but not sure what changed. If you are still looking for future treatment options, I suggest you consider a transcatheter mitral valve replacement. Given you current age, I think you would be a good candidate for one when the time comes. I was 54 when I got my bio prosthetic mitral valve, and was told the likely scenario for me was one more open heart surgery and then a TMVR. Technology is still evolving, but here is the latest on this site I was able to find: https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/videos/tmvr-update