On Friday, I saw a hummingbird hovering near my sliding glass door window. I took this as a good omen, as it is said that when a hummingbird visits you, it brings good news.
When passing through difficult times, the hummingbird tells us that the difficult times are over. Also, if they visit after someone's death, it means that you will heal. The hummingbird represents a reminder to follow your dreams without letting obstacles stop you.
Hummingbirds are magical creatures, rarely seen, with the ability to hover and almost stop in mid flight, then dart away, never to be seen again. Their little hearts are some of the hardest working hearts in the great show that is life.
How fast does a hummingbird's heart beat? Their hearts can beat as fast as 1,260 beats per minute. For example, my heart is beating about 69-79 beats per minute. For reference, average disco song is about 120 bpm.
After bypass surgery, it is important to reduce the possible strain to the patient’s heart. Generally, this goal is accomplished through two drugs, a beta blocker, and an ACE inhibitor.
One of the drugs they use to accomplish this is metoprolol, the beta blocker, which works by blocking catecholamine-induced increases in heart rate, in velocity and extent of myocardial contraction, and in blood pressure. Metoprolol reduces the oxygen requirements of the heart at any given level of effort. In short, it slows everything down.
Another is ramipril, which is an ACE inhibitor, (Angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitor. This medications helps relax the veins and arteries to lower blood pressure.
The end result is the system slows down, giving it time to heal. A side effect of these two medications is low blood pressure, which makes you feel dizzy and unbalanced when you stand too quickly.
After my operation, many friends wished me a speedy recovery. But the reality of the healing could not not be further than that truth. It is a long recovery, not one with speed, but with time and focus.
Many years ago, I had an interesting man who was my boss. He considered himself an entrepreneur. His favourite saying was a definition of success that goes like this:
SUCCESS IS THE PROGRESSIVE REALIZATION OF A WORTHY IDEAL.
He would stress two aspects of this saying. Progressive- meaning incremental progress, not overnight success, and is the way to build something sustainable. Worthy ideal- meaning something you personally feel is important.
He said for him that a worthy ideal was the accumulation of money ( no hidden agenda). But for me, he related, a worthy ideal might be something more altruistic, and for him, that was ok too, as long as his goal of making more money was accomplished. From the days we met, I would see him buy many companies, and often he would keep the existing management team, just refocusing them on his short and long term goals. It was always a considered expansion aiming to create a larger company or companies, working toward similar goals. And twenty years down the line, his strategy has been very successful. All because of his focus on Progressive and Worthy.
As much as I appreciate calls for a speedy recovery, please don’t expect me to have a speedy recovery. My goal is to have a progressive recovery toward the worthy ideal of creating a better person, who ideally, will be here for many more years.
Perhaps, I will be more like the hummingbird, who hangs in the air, and gives you wink, then whooosh, is gone to search for more nectar.
No comments:
Post a Comment