Notes From Dr. Sam

Good Day,

I hope this note finds you well.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

The nature of life is change and as we age this becomes quite obvious.

In the past few years I noticed that my physical body is beginning to slow down. I still go out and run long distances but as I tell people only half-jokingly: I can run so slow that I run with one foot and walk with the other.

Recently, I was working out at the YMCA in Hot Springs and decided to take a break. I was joined by my friend, Wilburn Powell.

Wilburn is a seventy-two-year-old triathlete from Mount Ida. He is a small slender man who was a construction engineer by occupation. By his mid-thirties his weight had increased up to 200 lbs. With that as a prodding factor he took up running and foot racing and soon the weight fell off. He discovered that he thoroughly enjoyed endurance sports and soon shifted his attention to triathlons.

Much to his chagrin, life intervened at age forty-eight when he had his first heart attack. Not to be deterred, he had angioplasty and was soon back at work and his sports. In the next few years he worked up to and competed in the Hawaii Iron Man (2.4 mile swim, 106 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run).

At age fifty-eight he had a second heart attack that did not require intervention; as before he was soon back to his normal life.  At age sixty-eight he had another major event. This time he required quadrupled artery bypass and a complicated post-operative course. Paying close attention to what his heart doctors told him to do; he slowly eased his way back into working out and a year or so later was back to competition. At age 72 he continues to race on a regular basis and has taken up mountain biking.

I asked him what he would do if his doctor walked in one day and said he could no longer run, bike and swim. He smiled a sheepish grin and gave me two answers. The first answer, that seemed a little politically correct, was, “I would ask the doctor if stopping would prolong my life because if it wouldn’t I would just keep going.”

The second answer was more implied than stated, “I was taking a medicine that was causing me to be quite ill when I did the least exercise. I stopped the medicine and the problem went away. The next visit to the doctor I told him what I had done and he wasn’t the least bit pleased. I don’t see him on a regular basis anymore.”

Another of the fellows at the YMCA is a Vietnam Vet with a number of obvious orthopedic problems that would have put most people in a wheelchair. He told me that when his injuries first occurred they were something he had to deal with but eventually it became part of who he was; it became his new normal

I admire these men. They both have been faced with difficult challenges without major complaint; they have adapted to their new normal and are living their lives with vigor.  I encourage you to do the same.

Have a nice journey.

Sam