Celebrating Positives (offset of the Gripes Thread)

[Jerry_Atrick]

10 hours ago, octave said:

This is the "nerve test"

 

 

My brother has done that.. I couldn't bring myself to even try.. 

[octave]

This thread is supposed to be about celebrating positives.

 

We did not just decide one day to go on a strenuous bush walk. Since retiring 4 years ago we have done about 3 bush walks a week.  There are many walks we would not do. Known bush walks are very easy to research in terms of difficulties.

As far as age goes one of the greatest threats to health is inactivity. This is a threat both physical health and mental health. Depression is not uncommon amongst the aging.  Whilst bush walking we do cross paths with older bush walkers who are older than us and obviously very fit.  I do in fact have a cardiac condition.  I do yearly stress echocardiograms.  The last one whilst noting my abnormalities pronounced me to be much fitter than the average for my age (63). If we're not fit I would be having symptoms,  I do not. My cardiologist advises me to keep up the exercise 

It is important that as we age we don't give up.

 

[facthunter]

Injuries when you are older are harder to recover from.  You have to keep moving, but don't overdo it.  I've had 4 hamstring tears and 3 desiccated Lower back discs (From lifting Ford V8 engines when young) which have, by doing carefully programmed exercises, become freely Moving. Specific exercises keep the Joints firmer and less likely to be damaged. Be careful HOW you LIFT things. Prolonged effort gets the Heart working It is another "Muscle" after all but you need a check out before heavy exercise. I've not been in favour of doing stress ECG's. It's like testing a Bridge by driving a BIG truck over it. There are safer tests that can be done, and diet and stress avoidance considerations etc How much Plaque is in your Carotid arteries?   Nev

[nomadpete]

Nev  An echo cardiogram is not an ECG.

Different thing entirely.

[red750]

Echo Cardiogram  -  Ultrasound -  Gooey stuff on a wand pressed against the skin. Image of the beating heart on a screen.

 

 

Electrocardiogram  -  a dozen wires to contacts stuck over the body. Wired up like an astronaut. This is an ECG.

 

[octave]

Jeez the post was supposed to be joyous.

Fir the record I about a year ago an stress echo where you have an echo at rest and you go on the treadmill and when you heart gets above a predetermined maximum safe rate they very quickly do another echo to observe how your heart works under stress. This test has a good rate of detecting blockages. Normally I would post a link but I am on my phone in a park after another highly dangerous walk.

It feels like some of these posts are kind of condescending. We use an App called All Trails which gives accurate information about trails and their conditions, elevations etc ass well as currant track and weather.

We would average about 3 walks a week although the last few days we have been in the Grampians so multiple walks a day

Are usual regime includes a daily short exercise session guided by an app. We alternate between cardio, muscle building and flexibility. So we are not naive idiots wandering off until the bush.

We are just sitting in a picnic ground after climbing down and up which if course was a little more arduous to see a magnificent waterfall

My heart rate hovered between 90 and 100bpm

[facthunter]

I specifically said Stress ECG . The type Avmed love is called Bruce's Protocol.  To survive is to my way of thinking, a POSITIVE. Nev

[nomadpete]

Octave, I consider the EchoCardioGraph is a fantastic invention. I was overjoyed to SEE the blood flow and valve operation. It is awesome! 

 

Such things are great advances in medical science.

[octave]

43 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Octave, I consider the EchoCardioGraph is a fantastic invention. I was overjoyed to SEE the blood flow and valve operation. It is awesome! 

 

Such things are great advances in medical science.

 

Yes, I agree, fascinating seeing it all working

[facthunter]

 I think it's terrific Also.  The image is produced by Ultrasound.  The red and blue are Pressure. It will show leaking valves and the volume of blood pumped and turbulent flow. Nev

[octave]

7 hours ago, facthunter said:

I've not been in favour of doing stress ECG's.

Stress tests, both ECG and Echo, are pretty important for me.  They are quite safe, with only 1 in 10000 having a cardiac event (not necessarily a heart attack) If you are going to have an event, it's definitely the place to have it.  During my stress echo, there was a cardiac nurse who hooked me up to the ECG and took my blood pressure during the treadmill part. There was also an echocardiographer doing the echo and a cardiologist monitoring the ECG all throughout the test. After the treadmill, they rush you to the table where they do an echo to see what your heart is doing under stress. It is better to find this out with a stress echo in a medical environment than during a stressful drive in city traffic.   In my case, my heart was looked at 164bpm, and whilst it is far from normal, there is nothing dangerously abnormal at this stage. During my bush walks, which some of you seem to believe are dangerous, I seldom get above 100BPM. Bush walking is extremely good for bone density. Loss of bone density can be a major factor in fractures from falls, etc.  Likewise, older folks tend to lose muscle mass.

Anyway, I am not sure how this became the "health report" Perhaps this is not the right forum for this kind of post.  I was elated by the whole expedition, and I thought people might be interested.

[nomadpete]

Well Octave, I think your posts are positive so they are not out of place here.

Thanks for the input.

[red750]

I had one of each a couple of weeks ago. The results were good, because the cardiologist said "I don't need to see you for another 18 months." I'll have a pacemaker check in 12 months.

 

The sound of the heart in the echo cardiogram.  Chock taw, Chock taw, Chock taw.

[pmccarthy]

You must be Billie Joe McAllister.

[nomadpete]

9 hours ago, red750 said:

I had one of each a couple of weeks ago. The results were good, because the cardiologist said "I don't need to see you for another 18 months." I'll have a pacemaker check in 12 months.

 

The sound of the heart in the echo cardiogram.  Chock taw, Chock taw, Chock taw.

Waste of money. All that effort for nothing.

 

 

(Only joking. Great resilt of course)

[red750]

31 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Waste of money. All that effort for nothing.

Didn't cost a cent. I'm a pensioner - all bulk billed.

[old man emu]

On 19/11/2025 at 6:15 PM, old man emu said:

I went to my Mum's birthday party today. We were going to put candles on her cake, but 100 candles would have set off the fire sprinkler system.

 

 

I guess this was way too subtle for you blokes. The positive I celebrated was that my Mother reached the age of 100 years and is still mentally acute. I have been so lucky to have had the past three years since I came up here to reunite with her after sparse contact for forty or so years.

 

She received greetings from everyone in government from King Charles to the local Shire mayor. 

[octave]

11 minutes ago, old man emu said:

and is still mentally acute.

That is the most important thing. I guess you will be hoping that this bodes well for your longevity and mental acuity. I can think of nothing worse than your body outliving your brain.  I tell my wife that when my brain goes, she "put me to bed with a shovel" (do me in). The trouble is when I lose my keys, she does look at me strangely.

 

Anyway, the positive: we are back from our little trip to the Grampians.  We walked a substantial number of KMs. saw some awesome sights and met some lovely people and generally had a most excellent trip.     Now it is back to my arduous life of retirement.

[onetrack]

I just bought another tractor to add to my collection of restoration projects. A Chamberlain C6100, complete with a Gason cab and front end loader - and all for $1100. I'm positive it will make my retirement even busier. Oh, it does have a buggered engine, the venerable old Perkins 6-354, so that's not such a positive thing.

 

The previous idiot owner/s left it out in the weather for years, and rainwater rotted out the muffler, and water ran through it into the engine, and it's locked up. However, at $1100, one has to expect a few downsides. Another downside appears to be the number of empty Aerostart cans I found on the floor when I was cleaning out the 40 or 50 years of accumulated dirt, general trash, rags, dog bones, etc.

 

I guess this is an indicator that the engine wasn't in too good a shape, prior to it being abandoned. Poor old girl, these were great tractors, but some people should never be allowed to own machinery.

 

[facthunter]

Start Ya Bastard saves Batteries at altitude and frosty Mornings. Used at the right rate it's a soft start. I thought they Made their OWN motor I've seen one with 20K hours on it. That's too much for Most Crankshafts. Tractor Parts CAN be Quite Cheap. The gearbox will tell you how much work it Has done. How much corrosion in the cooling system?.   Nev

[onetrack]

Nev, the cooling system is in quite satisfactory condition, and yes - that area is one of the first things I look at, it can be a very expensive repair trying to fix major cooling system damage. Copper/soldered radiators are priced like gold plate today, and you're struggling to find anyone to repair them, the Workplace Health authorities have deemed soldering to be a major workplace health risk.

 

Yes, Chamberlains started off with their own 2 cylinder horizontally-opposed kerosine engine, then they converted the design to diesel, and it wasn't reliable, due to regular engine failures.

So Chamberlain then decided to employ outside engine manufacturers. They went over to GM 2 stroke diesels, which were a roaring success, but GM diesels became expensive to buy in AU dollars, so Chamberlain then went to Meadows, an English engine manufacturer. The Meadows engines were just O.K., but their performance was lacking, and the engines had various problems.

 

So Chamberlain then went over to Perkins and never looked back. Perkins engines were so popular and reliable and produced in large numbers, so Caterpillar decided to buy the company, which they did in 1997, and it has been owned by Cat ever since, and Cat-Perkins engines power a lot of the smaller Caterpillar equipment.