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Triple by-pass heart surgery can really clarify your priorities.

I went to the hospital for an angiogram expecting, well, I don't really know what I was expecting. I certainly wasn't expecting to find out I needed heart surgery. The surgeon brought in an illustration of the heart, showing its four main arteries. Three of mine were blocked, including one he said "They call the widow-maker." I really didn't hear anything after that.

The surgery gave me my second chance in life. At age 52, it was high time to change my diet and begin an aerobic exercise program. It wasn't easy for a guy who loved nothing more than burgers and fries and hadn't done any exercise since my high school gym classes. On the other hand, I really didn't want to keel over from a fatal heart attack.

In addition to diet and exercise, the key ingredients of my second chance include a different attitude towards life and the cold hard realization that I am no longer young.
These are really two sides of the same coin both of which relate to growing up.

When you're in your teens and twenties, you're indestructible. You think you can do anything to yourself, and maybe suffer some kind of hangover, or at worst break a bone or two. It's all about having as much fun as you can as fast as you can. In this respect I was more like the grasshopper than the ant in the classic children's story.

Suddenly I was confronted with the reality that I have to take better care of myself, and achieve a major attitude adjustment.

So, how am I doing so far? I'm doing pretty well with the diet, cutting way back on the red meat in favor of chicken and fish, more vegetables and fruits and much less sugary or salty junk food. I do 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week. (I should be doing at least 4, but I'm getting there.) I take my medication and I see my doctors regularly.

And I appreciate life a lot more than I ever did before. I savor it, treasuring special moments while they are happening. And I'm telling the people close to me how much I appreciate them and love them.

Have I grown up? To me, that's a never ending work in process. I'm certainly a lot more grown up than I was before the surgery, and I'm working on it every day.

Learn more about this author, Bruce Pilgrim.
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