STROKE and BEYOND blogg 4

Bit of Background prior to my event of 2011.

I always pushed, this was my way of succeeding, if I kept on pushing long enough I would eventually get it and succeed. I knew that if the problem was hard or large, I just had to constantly work and if needed, adapt to overcome IT. My constant fight attitude came from my having a ‘different’ upbringing, leaving home at an early age, seeing defeats which should not have happened. I learnt and understood that to ‘win’ you just had to keep on trying. Off course it helped if you had that ‘something’ else.

I had been under a fair bit of pressure, mostly from my work. I was employed as a Manager of a large, basically ‘unknown’ company, and also assisted the State Operations Manager. I had just been given a 6 month trial chance as the State Operation Manager, and I wasn't going to stuff it up. I was on anti-Depressants from previous pressure, both work wise and family, stuff, I thought I could handle. Finished the role, sort of OK, wasn't too happy with the results, found out people only really care about themselves, and how they ‘imagine’ you can help them for their profit. As an added pressure, Sharyn, my wife, was suffering Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) and had under gone Heart surgery in 2010, for an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (these are sometimes used in certain situations with the risk of developing serious and life-threatening arrhythmias. They are small devices which are similar to Pacemakers and are inserted under the skin in the upper chest. Wires are passed through a vein to the heart. The device monitors the heartbeat. If it detects an abnormal rhythm, the device can send a small electrical shock to the heart to change it back to normal.), and she was still in recovery. The operation was not a cure, rather offering assistance to ‘handle’ the systems Anyway – my pain and discomfort was continuing to getting to me, I was beginning to get pain in my chest, left arm and jaw a fair bit. Saw my local doctor who said all seemed ok, just to take it easier. Then I was offered the role of State Commercial Manager. What an opportunity! I very happily accepted and jumped into this new Role. Still getting the sharp ‘warning’ pains, but I kept a box of Aspirin handy,1 or 2, maybe more, and the pain would go away. One morning I had this massive headache, plus the usual arm and jaw pains, definitely 2 aspirins this time! Ended being a 4 aspirin session.I thought ‘heart attack’, not now! Time for a smoke break, aspirin and coffee besides I still had much more to do and it seemed to go away. By now I was an official ‘Aspirin Junkie’, always had Aspirin on me, downing the Aspirin daily in my car before and after meetings, in fact anything or time that offered some pressure. I knew this wasn't good, but it would ‘only be for a while’, till I had everything where I wanted it.