Time Passages

Today was a seminal moment in the river of my life. I was asked by the waitress at lunch if I qualified for the senior (55+) discount. Life is a series of id age checks and I just entered a new zone. I was honest and did not take the discount.

In the spirit of senior life, it was medical week as well. I finally broke down, saw the ortho and got a lower leg MRI on Thursday. I will hear the results and treatment plan next week next Thursday.

My wife also pushed me to do an exercise stress test. I finally broke down after reading about the sudden deaths of Ryan Shay and of a fit man who was cross country skiing over the holidays. The stress test was today. I learned that indeed I am quite fit. The test pushed my HR to 168, about 90% of my max, and my METs work score was 15 (VO2 max of 52.5), which is in the superior (highest rating level) category for my age group and indeed for any male over 19.

The bad news is my ECG had some abnormality, so my stress test was positive. This means that I need to have the more reliable nuclear stress test. Due to travel, this won't be done until mid February. If that is positive, I guess I'll score another rite of passage....that of shipping dollars to pharmaceutical companies and pills to me. The doctor knows I exercise and did not tell me to change my habits. I will try to avoid doing any intervals or high heart rate workouts until after the more reliable test.

You might want to have a stress test done if you have not already.