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I wanted to share with you my recent experiences.

This is a story with many levels of lessons, some of them I recognise, some I have yet to discover.

In this instance, listening to my guidance and following it without question literally saved my life.

I will tell it in chronological order.

Around January 2004 I had a strong sense to take better care of my diet and fitness. At that time I consumed a *lot* of diet coke, a *lot* of very strong coffee, pizza, KFC and many other unhealthy high fat foods. I instinctively knew at that time that cutting it all out in one go was not the answer, so over the next twelve months I gave up the coffee, diet coke, pizza, KFC and other high fat foods that were part of my diet.

In January of this year, I then focussed on losing weight. I tried at that time to also introduce exercise into my life, but I kept getting messages that it wasn't the right time.

I focussed then on my food intake and did all the right things based on the best medical advice I could get.

I began losing weight at a steady pace and continued on my diet. By June I had lost 20 kilograms.

Now, here is where it gets interesting.

I have suffered from gastritis (over acid in the stomach) for many years. It's painful and produces pain not unsimilar to heart pain.

Whenever I had pain that felt more than usual, I always went to the local hospital ER to get it checked. It *always* resulted in my going home after being told there was nothing heart related in my pain. One such visit in May resulted in a chance comment by the doctor who suggested I get a stress test.

My intuition said I should follow through with that suggestion. I was unable to complete the stress test ordered by my GP due to pain. I was convinced at the time it was gastritis pain.

My GP referred me to a cardiologist as a result of this and I was able to get an appointment early June. At that appointment the cardiologist assessed the risk factors (family history etc etc) and decided that I should have an angiogram. (Dye injected into the heart via a long tube inserted into an artery in the groin and fed up to the heart)

My angiogram was for 30th June 2005. Even driving in for the test I was convinced they would find nothing wrong. I had even in my mind discovered enough anecdotal evidence pointing to gastritis being the culprit.

Even my cardiologist expected to find little or no problems, but my intuition and guidance said I should go with it.

The results of the test were a huge shock.

Of the three arteries that feed the heart muscle, one of mine was already completely blocked, the second was nearly completely blocked and the third was half blocked.

Events led to me being kept in hospital that night until I had life saving emergency heart surgery 6 days later on 6th July 2005.

In that surgery, another vessel was found to be blocked and I had a total of 4 bypasses!

I learnt post surgery that if I hadn't made those lifestyle changes beginning 18 months previous that there was a chance I wouldn't be allive today. There are many other minor aspects of this story that I have left out simply because I didn't wish to write a novel length message here, but they were all inspired events that were directly related to my needs both before and after my surgery and for my stay in hospital.

Because it was caught before any damage was done as I have never had a heart attack, there is a very high chance I will have a complete recovery with better health than I had before.

At the writing of this I am 3 weeks and 5 days post surgery. It will be a few months before I am able to resume normal activities but already I can feel a difference.

The experience has fundamentally changed me in ways that I haven't yet been able to identify.

However, the point of my post is to share with you all just how important listening to your guidance is and that sometimes it is literally your life that is on the line.

With Much Love and Light,

Donald

Monday, 1st August 2005.

Many changes have happened recently to my website and to me personally.

In June 2005 I moved my site to a more permanent server home after a few stepping stones. It was a somewhat rushed job that has left many of the links in here not working. That will be slowly fixed over the next few weeks.

On July 6th 2005 I underwent emergency heart surgery having only found out 6 days previous that I had a problem. The problem has been fixed and I am now slowly recovering. Like all things, it was meant to be found when it was. The excellent news is that no damage was done to my heart and I should be back to full health in the coming months.

I am not sure what the lesson is yet, but I do know I will be shown when the time is right.

At the writing of this page, I am only 18 days out of surgery and only 11 days out of hospital hence why my fixing of the broken links will be slow.

If anyone notices any glaring mistakes, please send me an email as I am bound to miss one or two.

My website will be undergoing some changes that will include much greater content among other things. Keep watching for more details.

With Much Love and Light,

Donald

Sunday, 24th July 2005