Heart Pounding
This is a heart rate monitor, but not the sporting kind-
My good friend Jamie Cowen just had open-heart surgery, and this is the monitor in his hospital room. He is recovering very nicely, but still… It’s heavy stuff to have your sternum cracked open & your aorta messed with.
Jamie is a board member of the Salt Lake City Bike Collective, and is a rockstar member of the inline skating community out here.
My Father had a vicious heart in 1993, I am so thankful he is still with us. But ever since then, going to hospitals really gets to me, especially since heart disease runs in my family like a wild stallion.
As human beings we are sometimes so fragile, sometimes so helpless in the face of our own crumbling mortality.
Yet the only answer to illness is appreciating your own health & using it. Feeling that amazing mechanism of the human machine, & what it can DO!
Jamie knows this; the bike & skates have literally saved his life from other health problems he has struggled with.
I’ve been spending a lot of time on the slideboard recently, doing long, evil intervals getting me ready for that 3k & 5k at masters world champs. I’m really bad at efforts like that, they hurt a lot, and are sometimes very discouraging.
After seeing Jamie, my attitude has changed, that slideboard sound-
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
as I hurtle across it, + the more rapid thwacking of my heart trying to supply blood to tired legs, now it feels more like a music of thankfulness since I saw Jamie.
Filed under: from home
First of all, our prayers and best wishes are with our good friend Jamie for a speedy recovery.
Last night talking to him, he did not sound like a man that just had major heart surgery. He sounded strong enough to skate another St. Paul marathon.
Like a race, life is a challenge… and sometimes we need to adjust our equipment and clean our bearings to make it to the finish line.
We love ya man! And we look forward to some zucchini, cucumbers and other home garden veggies this summer!
Los Kraan.
Jamie, I hope you are recovering well!!
Thanks Andrew, Kraans, and all for your good wishes. We are so lucky to be right here right now in history. At a time when insurance lots’ o science and skillful doctors and the members of the amazing health care industry can offer a solution to what in my case was a genetic deformity that finally just wore out and was replaced in due time.
When my GP Doc said “Jamie, I am sorry you have to go through this.” I said I am happy you all went to medical school so there is a “this” to go through.
Thanks again Andrew I am looking forward to those masters times and display boards showing that funny little pun I agree with: 1 Love, Andrew
And SkateNow can I use this deal as an excuse not to skate the SPIM this year well it is up to several smart doctors who I hope will say NOOOOOOOOOOO! Get yur lazy a on some wheels.
Jamie, we will not force you to skate SPIM, but we’d be VERY happy to see you on wheels very soon!
Keep Rollin’!
Jamie, Glad to read you are doing fine. If you ever want to talk about things email me. I can help out a lot. I had a series of heart attacks about five years ago where one finally took me out for a little over a minute. I flatlined. But as you can see I have come back. Now I will go into more detail later if you wish but the short version is I got into a program to reverse cardiovascular disease and my latest MRIs and EchoCardiograms show that it is working. I came across skating by trying to get my roadbike fixed and saw some rec skates, tried them on and was hooked. I do very seriously, diet, exercise, medications and meditation. I don’t think I am a fast skater and have never been in a race, my first is coming up this April for the Texas Roadrash marathon. I periodically do intervals but mainly I skate to help my heart. So I skate everyday in my speedboots and 5×90 frame and go around an hour and a half with an average heart rate around 150ish. Sometimes more. I am 52 years young.
So medical science is amazing and you can use it along with a lot of research into this area and come out doing great and feeling better than you have felt in years. Really. You have been living with blockage for a long time and one thing I can tell you is once you are getting back in just recovery mode you will feel happier and better than ever before. When you start building up your skating muscles again, WOW, you will just start laughing while skating because you feel so good. Five years ago, I didn’t even know how to skate, now I go out and skate do about 14 miles in an hour and a half. Depending on the wind.
So take care of yourself and let yourself recover. You have much healing to do but soon you will be feeling so good you will be having to control yourself to not go skate. Give it time and do it smart. The time will come shortly where you will be out there cranking out fast miles like never before and feeling better than ever before.
Thanks Dave, I will ask Andrew for your email it would be great to hear about your experiences and CAD preventative measures. I was shocked to fitness by a great doc a few years ago came back to skating and cycling after a stint on couch potato island.
Recovery from the chest crack reminds me of that lifestyle however sitting here painfully clutching a pillow to my chest I can see myself rolling on 100 mm wheels in a speed skating tuck in a pace line behind my friends as we have done many times over the last few years. (On a beautiful mile and a half long oval sidewalk across the street from Andrew’s house.) Going to that happy place for now is all I need to know couch potato island is in my past.