That is the backstory. I wrote an article a month ago entitled, A Funny Thing Happened, which was about being in a doctor’s office. I usually draft articles about things that have occurred in the past, whether a day or millennia ago, but this is an exception. This one is about foretelling some future event. But first, the backstory.

In A Funny Thing Happened, I mentioned that I ran cross-country in high school and college. At the other end of the journey down my yellow brick road of life, I can’t even jog now without looking ridiculous. That said, not a day goes by without getting on my elliptical trainer every morning for thirty minutes. I haven’t missed more than five mornings in 2024. A couple of those days, I did my exercise in the afternoon.

Also, I wrote about the doctor’s assistant, as she was taking my blood pressure and pulse rate. I have a habit of watching the faces of the doctor or his/her assistant in an attempt to read their diagnosis from their facial expressions. I told the tech an example of watching Dr. Marchand, my cardiologist, years ago while I was being tested on a treadmill or while he was doing routine blood pressure readings.

Once I started talking about Dr. Marchand, I recalled other events. Once, I asked him about feeling different about my life than before. He paused to ensure I was listening intently and said, “You have seen the light.”

On I went, recounting our dialogue. I mentioned that on my first visit, Dr. Marchand asked me how much daily exercise I did. To impress Dr. Marchand, I said I exercised twenty minutes daily. Back then, I had a stationary bike. After completing my workout, I took 220, subtracted my age, and multiplied it by 80%, which gave me my beats per minute (bpm). I then stated that it was well within the normal range.

Dr. Marchand wasn’t impressed with my calculations unless I wanted to be a marathon runner. I haven't taken my bpm since that day, nearly twenty years ago...except the next morning. After doing my thirty-minute on my elliptical trainer, I calculated my bpm. It was 111. Next, I googled the American Heart Association for their chart, but the oldest group on their graph was for people seventy or younger. That was troubling. I googled other sites. While slight variants exist in the target range, I couldn’t find one that went to eighty or older.

Using the data for those 70 or younger, my 111 bpm falls within the range for a person a decade younger. As a fallback, I went to Social Security’s Life Expectancy Calculator, which predicts that I have 8 years and 1 month left on my yellow brick road of life.

Nevertheless, a more significant number is resting bpm after 15 minutes of exercise. The quicker your heart recovers from cardiovascular exercise, the stronger your heart is. There is another chart, the Body Mass Index (BMI). You enter your height and weight, which creates your BMI. . I need to drop 8-10 pounds and be within the normal range.

That was the backstory. This coming week, I have a doctor’s appointment with Dr. Marchand, the son of my former cardiologist. Dr. Marchand, jr. is my primary care physician. Guess what one of his questions was for me as his new patient? It was déjà vu all over again. This time, I started by saying I take Ginger for long walks and play Chuck It with her daily. We got off that question before mentioning exercising on my elliptical trainer for thirty minutes. He will hear the whole story about my bpm this coming week.

Next, I will mention that his father was looking for something when I was on a treadmill at the hospital years ago. I was exercising for at least twenty minutes and spent most of the time watching his facial expressions. I didn’t see any facial expressions indicating a potential problem, nor did the test show any cardiac problem he wanted to address.

The next question that I want to ask Dr. Marchand has to do with my general health. I’m healthy and not suffering from any life-threatening problems. I have some aches and pains at 81. I’m more tired than I was when I was in my 20s. I need to lose 5-10 lbs. I want Dr. Marchand to tell me what areas he would address.

One of my concerns is that I am fine physically. When I was young, I assumed that I would grow old and die from something like cancer or a heart attack. My concern isn’t fearing death, but it is about living with dementia, which isn’t living. Here again, I don’t get lost walking around in my home. I’m fine. I write all the time and care for Ginger. But...

Merely existing is not a valid goal in life for me. I came up with my mantra, “It is in giving that we get.” Unless you live for others, you have wasted the gift of being. While my mantra is an oxymoron, it is the essence of being alive. Think about acting on my mantra.

Additionally, my last essay was about Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard wrote about one of life's difficulties: “Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards.” Reach out to others, and in hindsight, you will be rewarded. Act now; your clock is ticking.