Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/697470
BY SUSAN COLLINS M y brother, Greg, is a retired New York City carpenter. For as long as I can remember, he was always involved in some kind of daredevil act. Greg could squeeze into, under or wiggle around anything and he was fast as lightning. Does the phrase, "Let's get Greg to try it." tell you anything? I was describing him to someone and said that if you were going to get in a $ght with Greg you better hope to put him down with that $rst punch because he will just keep coming at you. He was relentless. He'd chase you up a tree. Personally, I think he would have been an excellent wrestler. My husband, Tim, was friends with Greg growing up. I'm sure Tim has some stories to this day that he wouldn't share with me about their adventures. I remember one summer when Greg broke his arm in two places. !ere was another instance when he had an unbelievably horrible burn on the inside of his arm, which we would later $nd out was caused from swinging too far on a rope at a construction site where he then dangled until he dropped about three stories. Greg called me one a%ernoon to inform me of his disappointment in $nding out he was not a Mercedes. "Really?" I said. "!en what are you." Of course I was fully prepared to remind him that he was half Hungarian and a gypsy "the cat." Greg began to explain that he had been running for some time now, in a quest to become healthier and in better shape (translation: to get back down to his fighting weight). Apparently his knee had begun to bother him. While I felt bad for him, like most men he did nothing at first. Finally, when it became quite apparent that he could no longer run without the pain being unbearable, my sister, Annie (whom we will refer to as Saint Annie), a nurse at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, convinced Greg to see a specialist. Screaming and kicking all the way, Greg $nally went only to $nd out he had a torn, which would require him to have surgery. Before surgery could be performed, however, some tests would have to be done. During the testing, doctors discovered that Greg was born with a bicuspid heart valve instead of a tricuspid valve. A tricuspid is a normal valve with three freeways — the Mercedes insignia — while a bicuspid, you guessed it, has only two. His physician also informed him that they discovered an aneurysm large enough to send him into sudden cardiac arrest at any time if he did not have surgery. Now, this is the full-blown surgery that lasts for hours and includes weeks of recovery. In Greg's words, "Sue, they're gonna crack me like a clam." Apparently this is the surgery that leaves you with scars that you want to show o# a%er several cocktails. Well, at this point I felt it only my duty to remind Greg of how lucky he really was and had been over the years. If he had not gone in for the torn meniscus, they would have never discovered the Benz "less" valve and the aneurysm. I am very happy to say that "the cat" is back on all fours today and doing great. Maybe it was the luck of the Irish — his other half. Editor's note: Because our July-August edition is based on health issues, Susan's article reminds us — especially the men — the importance of paying attention to our overall health. Regular visits to a physician are of the utmost importance and can help detect medical problems that, otherwise, may be overlooked. In Greg's position, because he had torn his meniscus the pre-operative testing revealed problems with his heart that could be surgically corrected before other problems occurred. Remember to schedule annual appointments with your physician. Keep the appointments and make sure and ask questions. It could be a matter of life and death. The Nine Lives of a Cat DIRECTOR OF INDUSTRY RELATIONS Vo l . 1 0 , N o . 4 TRUCKSTOP.COM 21