Almost the Best Rx Ever

This is not about Lung Pao Sicken.  This is about “heart disease,” that will end up killing far more of us than the Wuhan Flu ever will.

I do not normally overshare personal details, but this is one where the dark cloud has a titanium lining.

A decade ago, after a life of burning the candle at both ends and in the middle, I had a heart attack.  It was a minor one, but it certainly got my attention.  It also left a bit of heart damage.

Fast forward to last week.  I am taking care of myself much better.  I can still run and get my heart rate elevated for well more than the median for my age.  I can work outside doing heavy manual labor for six to eight hours at a pop.  So I am not in bad shape.  But regardless, the doctors at the VA decided to put me through a series of heart tests, including the treadmill test and a number of non-invasive cardiac scans (no caffeine or nicotine for 48 hrs prior to the tests.  I was ready to chew up nails by the time of each test).

A cardiac specialist phoned me on Friday night to discuss my case at length (VA care is now some of the best care you can find in the U.S.A.).  One, he put me on a series of medicines that will make my risk of another heart attack negligible.  Two, he gave me a series of “doctor’s orders,”  one of which was to play golf (walking the course) as often as possible.  Good for the heart and being in the subtropical sun is also a great disinfectant for Lung Pao Sicken.

I was just given a prescription to play golf daily.

I was just told that I should now go to the golf course, every day, as a necessity for my health.

“Honey, can you —

Sorry Dear [clutches chest], late for tee time . . . .”

Without any guilt, I can get up early in the morning and play a round of golf — 365 days a year (“take one with coffee every morning” as the instructions say on the bottle).

I am still in a nirvana.  Never did I think that bad but expected news could be so, so good.  The only thing that might have been an improvement is if he had added an Rx for bourbon and broads.  But I decided not to push my luck by asking about them as part of my personal health regimen.

As the late Kenny Rogers used to say . . . “You have to know when to hold ’em, . . .”