Dying Man’s Daily Journal – Vi is home

 Vi got home yesterday. Now I do have to say it is nice to have her home, just for the sake of having her here. I have to admit the feelings go a little more deeply than in the past. I suppose a bit of a sense of relief that some one is here with me.Now yes I do have that life alert pendant through with I can summon immediate help which is a comfort but still isn’t the same as physically having someone here.

Hearing those words from the doctor a couple of months back that he felt a heart attack if immantent, days maybe weeks away but not months. Now that is a little unsettling but I have been hearing that sort of thing from doctors for years now. Well in the past maybe not such a specific time frame other than the one time about 10 years ago. Yes, I listen, yes, it shakes me up a bit but I just can’t let it get to me to the point where I give up and stop live as normal a life as I can.

If you let it, it can really wear on you. I know I might not have a tomorrow but then really none of us do. I have thought, by this time next week I may be nothing but a memory. i can’t let myself dwell on that or I am going to rob myself of the chance to live today.

Now there is something I want to make clear. i have had 2 emails from friends questioning why if my health is in such a state, would Vi leave town for a week? Now I thought I had explained that but if friends are looking at it with shall we say raised eyebrows so may others. Now I do take exception to that.

To a large part it was my idea!!! Doctors and there predictions in my experience anyway have proven to be way off. I accept that OK it might be today but it could also be in a few weeks, or inspite of what he said months or I am hope for even years. This heart of mine seems to be continually fooling everyone it is a lot stronger than it seems to be given credit for.

For me to be able to live and enjoy life I need as large a degree of normalcy as possible. That does not include everyone sitting around watching me nap, just in case.

I should explain, yes, there is a surgery that could be done. That though is considered to be such high risk that it is questionable if I would survive. Medications are allowing me to live a good life as things are and that is what I am doing. My doctor has been pretty blunt about all of this and I appreciate that. I am blessed to have been so lucky to have made it a long as I have. Nothing lasts forever. Odds are when I hit the ground with that next heart attack I won’t be getting up irregardless of who may be around or where I am. If I do that is when that surgery will come into play

Dying Man’s Daily Journal – Violence against Women

There are things in this world that just make me sigh, shake my head in wonder. This world of ours is filled with such wonders such beauty and then there is the other side of the coin.

I am just reading our newspaper the Winnipeg Free Press, an article by Mia Rabson. Her article is titled: Why should women fight assault alone?

What an excellent and thought provoking question. My info here comes from her article.

International Women’s Day was last week. There was a large meeting at the U.N. to discuss the status of women. Here is a direct quote from the article: “according to the head of the U.N.’s Commission on the status of Women, 40 per cent of women will be raped, beaten , abused or mutilated in their lifetime. In some countries, the figure edges upwards of 70 per cent. And one in three girls born in developing countries are destined to become child brides.”

Reading that just blew my mind. It leaves me feeling stunned or something. How could this be happening? Now I am not naive and have known this is a problem but to this extent. I am speechless.

Apparently last year at this annual meeting on the status of women, Canada made a suggestion that wasn’t warmly received. We are putting a lot into programs teaching women how to protect themselves, avoiding bad situations, how to get out of bad situations…….. That is all wonderful and should continue. Canada’s suggestion was that we should be also looking into something directed towards teaching men basically not to be abusers. now to me at a quick glance that idea sounds crazy. I mean shouldn’t just plain old common sense tell men that. Obviously that level of common sense is absent in a larger than I imagined per centage of the male population. This year Canada made that same recommendation and it has been much more warmly received. I am not sure what sort of programs can be developed through this but I certainly wish them every success.

I may have said this before (memory guy) but I really do believe no MAN has ever abused a woman. For that you have to understand my definition of a man. A man will respect, protect and support all females. Simple as that, no exceptions for any reason. Sadly, society seems to recognize a male as being a man based simply on age and size, neither of which qualify a male as being a man. The world seems to be full of over aged, over sized delinquent bullies masquerading as men but they are not. Comments thoughts please. Can you tell I am fired up?

Dying Man’s Daily Journal – all Religions/Faiths welcome

I stated that one item in my fantasy bucket list was to receive comments from followers of all of the Faiths and Religions.

This whole dying thing is not limited to Christians. In our time every single one of us will be facing it. It is the only thing each and everyone of us has in common. I consider myself to be Christian and often state my thoughts a long those lines. It has never been my intention that this be considered a Christian site, all are welcome to share your individual thoughts and beliefs.

all comments are accepted in a totally non judgemental way. Through the sharing of thoughts and beliefs we can possibly gain a greater understanding  and acceptance of each other. I am not trying to convert anyone to my beliefs nor am I looking to be converted.

Death transcends all religions, cultures. Can we just join together to help and support each other as we near the end of our earthly journey

Dying Man’s Daily journal – Acts of Kindness

Is it strange but it seems most of my fantasy bucket list pertains to the blog. I guess that shows how important it has become to me. OK, I am a guy and as it is a fantasy list, well I won’t mention what Jennifer Love Hewett is doing on the list.

Anyone that has followed the blog for any time knows I am not shy about asking for gifts. Now I am not talking about what you might think of as your traditional gifts. In fact I have never gained anything of that sort through the blog. No, I ask for something of yours that is far more precious than any amount of money can buy.

I ask for some of your time. How much time? Five minutes a week. Now I don’t care how busy we feel we may be, surely we can all find five minutes a week. OK, what am I asking you to do with this 5 minutes. Actively look for an act of kindness that could be done for someone else, anyone else. Who it is doesn’t matter, what the act of kindness is doesn’t matter, be it big or small. All that matters is that those precious 5 minutes are spent looking and then doing.

At the top of this post you will see a row of titles spread across the page a all are different pages I have set up with and as part of the blog. Please click on the page titled  Spirit within Me. My wish would be to have that page explode with activity

Dying Man’s Daily Journal – Chat room efforts

I am doing well, just very tired no energy. Hey, that means I get to do what I enjoy most, laying around. Huh, I guess that being the case I have nothing to complain about. Being able to do that all day may well make me the envy of many.

I have been spending some time looking for a chat room dedicated to the terminally ill but am not really finding what I am looking for. A big thank you to Mel for leading me to several different sites. All had chat rooms dedicated to those with various different illnesses and ailments. I am sure they provide wonderful comfort to those with that particular need. I entered various chat rooms but all were empty at the time. I found contact information for the administrators of each site and emailed them about setting up our room but none have replied.

Now the way I look at it if you are going to do something you might as well go big. I sent an email to the World Health Organization again no response to date.

While surfing the web it found different sites that would have been what I was looking for but they all seemed to have long since been abandoned.

I did though come across http://www.virtualhospice.ca . Currently they do have chat rooms for those with various diseases. Sort of meeting places to gather as almost a self help support group. Like minded individuals that can understand where the other is coming from. They are currently conducting a survey of other chat rooms or services that could be added to their program. Naturally, I made my suggestion. Hospice is truly a wonderful organization, if they were to take this on it would be wonderful. I ask all to please click on their site. Now you will have to give an email address but it is a safe site. Go to forums and suggest the addition of a chat room dedicated to the terminally ill

Dying Man’s Daily Journal – life carries on

By my standards but was a pretty busy week. Louise a childhood friend of Vi’s spent the past week with us. She had knee replacement surgery last fall. She is still having a lot of problems with it and was in town to see the specialists. It was our pleasure to be able to extend our hospitality during her stay.

In my last post I wrote requesting prayers Karen, Amanda and family as Karen was just admitted to the Cancer Care hospital and I do ask that those prayers continue. I suppose it would be best described as we are in a wait and see mode as to what if any thing we should or could be doing. I don’t know Karen at all and I believe I have met Amanda once, we are strangers. I really don’t know anything about cancer treatments other than they are really not pleasant. While in the midst of that do you really want a stranger showing up. I can only speak for myself but I know when I am not feeling well I would prefer to be alone. Have made it loud and clear, we are on call 24/7 for anything that may be needed.

Vi left for Thompson yesterday. She will be spending a week visiting daughter Lynelle, hubby Jason and grand kids Sadie and Seth. It has been asked why would she be leaving town when my health is in such a precarious position. Well there are a couple of what I consider to be very good reasons.

It will be very good for her to get away from all the worry and stress arround here. There are a number of life issues going on above and beyond me and my health. In that regard I am doing my best to be supportive and reassuring but words from the doctor seem to carry more weight than do mine, when it comes to that sort of stuff. Go figure.

Something that has been very important to me right from the beginning of this journey is that she not miss out on living her life, enjoying her life because I am a “gimp”. I may be moving a lot slower and have a lot less energy but I can still manage around the house. I wear one of those life line pendants around my neck, where by one push of a button and an ambulance is on the way. I am safe and secure with that.

A really big one for me is, I need to as much as possible maintain a degree of normalcy. I understand and accept that a heart attack or stroke is indeed looming on the horizon. It could be today or it could be tomorrow, nest week or I am hoping at least a year or two down the line. The way my chest is feeling, well what can I say. Through this time, I can’s think of anything that would be more depressing than having everyone just sitting around looking at me waiting for it to happen.

Hey, this means I get to live the wild bachelor life for a week. Now that is my story and I am sticking to it. Geesh, just thinking and realize about as wild as my bachelor life will be, is eating lunch while laying on the bed watching TV. Huh, just thinking I do that already. I guess so much for the wild bachelor life.

I appreciate all the loving comments being left. I do read and treasure each one. In the next few days I hope to be responding to all.

Dying Man’s Daily Journal – Prayers Please

I have a special prayer request, please.

Last night a very nice young lady, Amanda graced us with her company staying for the night in our home. Actually, Vi picked Amanda and her mother Karen up at the airport and drove them to the Cancer Care Center where Karen was admitted.  Any time you are dealing with cancer is with out a doubt a very difficult time. I can only imagine that difficulty must be compounded when you must travel to a different city away from the support most if not all family and friends.

Karen, Amanda and the entire family are going through such a difficult time, I ask for prayers please.