Welcome to The Club Spring 2023

Welcome to ...
THE Club
“Big or Small, JohnnyRemax
Sells T hem All”
John A. McCharles, Broker
Re/Max Sarnia Realty Inc. Brokerage
519-383-4812
johnnyremax@bellnet.ca
Come In
& Eat
With Us!
For over 20 years,
we have had the
pleasure of serving you,
our family & friends.
Here at Big Fish,
you are a part of
our family & we can’t
wait to share a drink,
our love of food
od
& laughs with you.
See you soon,
on,
Alex, Stacey & Gus
For Lunch, Dinner or a Special Occasion
Make Reservaons at Sarnia’s Finest
1717 LONDON LINE, SARNIA I 519-542-5553
BIGFISHLOUNGE.COM
Growing old is inevitable, but growing up is optional!
The
Retirement
Coach
© by Mike Keenan
http://theretirementcoach.libsyn.com/
Blood Pressure
When you age, circumstances can
unexpectedly affect your best laid
plans much like poet Robbie Burns
with his mouse. A few years back, we
were https://amzn.to/2KBdPWQ
set to visit France for an entire
month. We booked our flight and
secured accommodations in Cannes on
the French Riviera. Visions of young,
coquettish Brigitte Bardot flooded
my brain, accompanied by scores of
topless French bathing beauties, and
where did I leave my camera?
Shortly before leaving, I visited a
walk-in clinic because my doctor for
the past 45 years had reduced his
workload to three days per week prior
to imminent retirement. The walkin
doctor dutifully took my blood
pressure, and my reading zoomed off
the charts. He muttered something
about Vesuvius, and suggested that I
promptly return the next day.
Your blood pressure is recorded as
two numbers. Systolic blood pressure
(the first number) indicates how much
pressure your blood exerts against
your artery walls when the heart beats.
Diastolic blood pressure (the second
number) indicates how much pressure
your blood exerts against your artery
walls while the heart is resting between
beats. Typically, more attention is
given to systolic blood pressure as a
major risk factor for cardiovascular
disease for people over 50. It rises
steadily with age due to the increasing
stiffness of large arteries, long-term
buildup of plaque and an increased
incidence of cardiac and vascular
disease. However, either an elevated
systolic or an elevated diastolic blood
pressure reading may be used to make
a diagnosis of high blood pressure.
My results were discouraging.
My insurance company was also
discouraging. If I ventured to France
and encountered a medical problem
with my heart, I was not covered.
According to their stringent rules, I
had to wait precisely three months
to be fully covered if I ventured
even out of our province. Alas, the
much anticipated trip to France was
cancelled.
I have since arrived at the conclusion
that insurance companies control the
world. Soon after seeing a specialist
and taking a stress test (which I
passed), I was prescribed new meds,
but had a reaction to one drug, and
guess what? Yup, the three-month
insurance period now applied to the
new meds. Any change of medication,
and they force one to wait another 90
days before travelling anywhere. It’s a
wonder that they allowed me to visit
the bathroom without a note from
our old doctor whose writing is so
bad that the chaps who deciphered
Egyptian hieroglyphics would have
serious trouble figuring out his scroll.
Suffice to say that I’m now on meds,
which have brought my blood pressure
down to normal numbers, often hitting
the perfect score of 120 over 80! My
spouse and I have a small machine that
we keep handy on our kitchen table,
and this wonderful appliance provides
accurate blood pressure readings at
will.
I often say to her, “Let’s have
some fun tonight; let’s take our blood
pressure readings right after watching
the Blue Jays play the Yankees.” And
when we have guests over, we ask them
if they would like a complimentary
reading from this superb apparatus.
It’s part of our social package along
with handshakes and hugs. I keep a
notebook on the table, and record my
daily readings much like a navigator
might plot the course of his vessel.
Accordingly, one might peruse my
blood pressure notebook and easily
predict on which days I watched the
Blue Jays. So many strikeouts. Gees!
And pitching. Gees! After they won the
World Series twice, they were frugal
with their money despite huge crowds.
Now, they seem to be improving with
their young star athletes.
In three months, one beneficial
result (other than being alive) has
evolved from my dreary situation.
I can wear most of my trousers that
had formerly languished deep inside
the closet, patiently waiting for me to
drop a few pounds. I dropped twenty.
Have you ever lifted a twenty pound
weight? Not so light, is it? Well, that
was the extra baggage that I was about
to transport to France!
We have embraced a strict salt-free
diet, try to eat fish three times per
week, and avoid carbs associated with
a decadent diet. I am also trying to
exercise regularly. Both of my parents
died of cardiovascular diseases in their
60s, which I have long passed, so that’s
a good sign—the fact that I’m still here
at an advanced age! Yes, parents are
amazing; mine haunt me even when
they are long gone.
The bottom line and my advice to
fellow seniors is this: do not waste
time; drag your sweet ass to your
neighborhood drugstore, and use their
free blood pressure machine to take
a reading. Before you self-test, try to
relax. One suggestion before the test—
do not think about Brigitte Bardot or
the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Blue
Jays.
Listen to Mike’s podcasts (humour,
travel and poetry) at: The Retirement
Coach: http://theretirementcoach.
libsyn.com/ His book, ‘Don’t Ever Quit
- a Journal of Coping with Crisis &
Nourishing Spirit,’ is available in print
& electronic format at Amazon: https://
amzn.to/2KBdPWQ
Listen to Mike’s podcasts (humour, travel and poetry) at: The Retirement Coach:
http://theretirementcoach.libsyn.com/ His book, ‘Don’t Ever Quit - a Journal of Coping
with Crisis & Nourishing Spirit,’ is available in print & electronic format at Amazon:
Welcome to ... SPRING 2023
P A G E
28
Clear the clutter from your home, car & desk.