My heart was grateful for all the individuals who helped us in such practical ways, but what really caught my attention in those first few days was the surge of positive emotions I experienced and how it helped put me in a positive state of mind going into surgery. What is especially surprising to me is that the positive emotions have been more like joy than mere happiness.
Heart disease progresses over time. Onset of the disease at early ages is often caused by genetic factors. Factors that affect heart disease between ages 30-50 may be quite different to those affecting the older population.5 Treatment is effective early in a heart attack. Besides improving function, coronary bypass surgery in patients over age 80 did much better than medical treatment in increasing 3-year survival: the ratios were 77.4 percent and 55.2 percent, respectively (Ko et al., 1992). As procedures have improved, the benefits of surgery have increased (Muhlbaier et al., 1992). If persons survive early heart disease, they may later develop chronic health failure (CHF) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) because of the interaction of reduced peripheral circulation, reduced cardiovascular efficiency, and hypertension (Kitzman and Edwards, 1990; Lakatta, 1985). The age-standardized U.S. hospitalization rate for CHF from 1973-1986 increased 60 percent (Ghali et al., 1990). Now both CHF and LVH are treatable using ACE-II inhibitors (SOLVD Investigators, 1991; Weber and Brilla, 1991).
When I was a child, I wanted to be an archaeologist, or an Egyptologist. I also wanted to be a firefighter, a navy officer, and later, a starship captain. I loved science museums, I loved history. I loved doing experiments with my chemist father, and learning CPR with my mom, a nurse. Later I wanted to study cardiology or thoracic surgery, especially when my little brother Adam was sick in the hospital. My desire to wander among science, technology, history, geography, medicine, and service is not uncommon for many children in schools.
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