March 19, 2026 Are We Ready for Spring Training?

 In six weeks we'll have our answer dear readers.

This photo has two people walking on a surface that looks like mowed Poa annua grass. Do you see them? I don't see golf clubs or caddies which makes me skeptical. We'll find out and let you know.

    Let's talk about Spring Training. It happens every year for Baseball Teams; it occurs every fall for Hockey Teams and Football Teams and it happens every year in Canada for golfers, tennis players and many others.

    My readers know me as having had 77 seasons of getting ready for burby, baseball, hockey, skiing, golf, tennis, squash and finally golf again for the last 40 years. My sons Greg and Rob know this and have poked fun at me while I tightened trusses and elastoplas bandages onto arms, legs, wrists, shoulders and spine to allow my passion for sports to play out on ice, snow, wood, concrete, grass and good old plain dirt. I didn't need these bands of assistance all the time, but often enough to be known as a weak kneed wannabe athlete. For years I walked backward down hills to ease the knee pain. Try it. You might see what I mean.

    The first time I tried downhill skiing I ended up banging into a misplaced wooden shack in the middle of a ski hill at Beaver Valley in Southern Ontario.

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This morning I'll visit OneHeartCare (OHC) at 11:30 for an Echo Test, followed by a Nuclear Stress Test at 12:15 ending at 15:30. I'm doing this at Dr. Wahba's suggestion because I told her I was having a shortness of breath during a small walk of 100 yards when we were in Mexico last month. This doesn't happen in the Therapeutic pool although I do break a very light sweat from the neck up.

    There are several handicap parking spots at OHC; the reception area has four check-in people in place to point me to a well defined operation with twenty seated and waiting patients. Within ten minutes I was taken into a darkened room for an Ultra Sound of the heart lasting 25 minutes, followed by another 20 minutes back in the same waiting room until I was walked to another for pictures of my chest area. After another twenty minutes Vlad arrived and took me to the Tread Mill.

    Vlad hooked me up with ten wires taped to my heart's chest vicinity and his computer after which I began to walk the Tread Mill while he slowly increased the speed and incline. He told me this test requires five minutes at the appropriate speed and incline to produce the required results. I said I thought I could do it. This procedure didn't work because I managed about three minutes or less and said so. 

    Vlad had mentioned before hand that if we couldn't do it while walking that they used another system that works as well if not better than the Tread Mill. The alternate is IV'd radium put into the blood stream, wait twenty minutes, and then photograph the area with this solution coursing through my veins.

    That was it. The people who did all of this for me and many others this afternoon of March 19 are top medical people doing an important job. I left the building at 16:00.  

    The next morning OHC called and asked me to make two more appointments; one on March 23 and one on April 15. The March 23rd visit will mount a Holter Monitor to my chest and wear it for three days, and the other for a Cardiology Consultation with the results. My guess is I will be needing medication or a surgical procedure to clear away some blockage in and around my heart.

    The Holter Monitor is on for the next 72 hours at which time I'll remove it and drop it into the shoot at OHC within 6 hours of its removal.

    This morning, March 23, Dr. Wahba called with lots of good news about my hearts condition and prescribed a blood thinner which will begin today. All is well. 

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My good friend Ray Coole from the golf club arranged a luncheon for a group of friends on March 21. To make it more special he invited the ladies Sylvia, Terryl and Debbie as well. I didn't realize it was Ray's 94th birthday until the waitress at the Copper Kettle in Glen Williams presents him with a slice of chocolate cake with a single candle. There was plenty of chatter potter too around our table that started at 11:00 and finished around 13:30.

Left to right Mark's shoes, Josh, Barry, Debbie, RAY, Sylvia, Paul, Terryl, Bill, I took the picture 

    

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March 23 and we're back on the topic that I've called Spring Training, moreover, I'm adding these words 'For Seniors.'

    About eleven years ago I asked my grandson, "How did you learn what you have just done?" Thomas was seven years old at the time when he replied, "I learned it on YouTube."

    So if one goes to YouTube and types in Chair Exercises for Seniors you too can get into our senior version of fitness while sitting down. Sound good?

In another five hours the Moditor complete with its record of three days of activity will come off and be delivered to OHC as soon as possible.  I have an appointment with a Cardiologist on April 15 to receive his diagnosis and potential treament.

    Meanwhile it's back to normal with Brampton's golf simulator, Chair Exercises for Seniors, Therapeutic Pool sessions and just plain Spring Training at home and surrounds in good old Port Credit.

I have not forgotten about the two bodies walking on the green-like-golf course photograph that opened this post. It looks like a golf green or fairway to be sure, but, it's not. 

This is not me...either.

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