I just want to race!!!

Ok- I've now had three appointments with my doctor cancelled in the last couple of weeks. I want to get to the bottom of this blood pressure issue and quickly. Two weeks ago it was- "we've sent the blood pressure cuff to Sydney to see if they can get the readings. We can't."

Last week it was, "we still don't have the data from the BP cuff." In the interim I had been keeping a diary of BP readings thanks to a good mate who loaned me a digital BP monitor. I even spoke with my GP on Sunday and advised him of what I had been doing (just in case they couldn't rescue the data) and was advised that what I was doing would be great.

Tuesday afternoon the phone rings and it's the doc's office saying they are cancelling my appointment for Wednesday because they don't have the BP readings. Not sure if you can sense my frustration but believe me, I'm nearing boiling point. They ring back again- "Can you go to the "Interventional Cardilogist, Dr. %^&^%&" to get a BP cuff fitted?"

As they say back in Cape Breton and Newfoundland."Jesus, Mary and Joseph!!" I grow weary of this but in an effort to get my health back and get back to racing- I wore the cuff for another 24 hours. Next episode is scheduled for filming on  Monday morning at the GP's clinic.

Oh yeah- tomorrow is the first official crit of the season on a new circuit of freshly built road. Well I can't race but I can go and gladly be soigneur for Dee.  

And on a very sad note, I read that 16 people are missing and presumed dead in a helicopter crash off the east coast of Newfoundland. They were on their way to a couple of the oil platforms in the North Atlantic when the chopper went down. One survivor pulled from the water and one body recovered. Having worked in the oil and gas exploration industry off Nova Scotia's east coast in the '80s and experienced the cold waters of the North Atlantic in the winter, my heart aches for the lives lost. 

As Bluenoser can attest- the Sea is a harsh mistress. It was 27 years ago in February (15th to be exact) when 84 people died when the Ocean Ranger went down off Newfoundland. We experienced the same storm as it passed Sable Island and our radio operators heard the drama unfold as the Ocean Ranger and all on board perished.

I later worked with a brother of one of the lost. He had a fairly reckless philosophy on life. "My brother worked all his life on the rigs and saved his money. Look where it got him- fish food on the bottom of the Atlantic. I'm leavin' nothin' behind me but empty beer cans."

Cheers- ride safe (life is fragile)

BoaB