Life Example: Living in the Present Moment
Meditation and the related benefit of living more in the Present Moment may seem illusive. A silent activity. Arbitrary, even disconnected from daily life. But after several years of meditating almost daily, I have realized that the value of meditation is not only the peace that comes from time in daily silence and “no thought”, but in using it as a tool when life brings you turbulence. As an example, I wanted to share this story of a recent opportunity that I had when pursuing my love of travel.
The day I left Southern California for Athens, Greece (Sunday 8/8/21), I felt a bit of pain in my left calf, but thinking it was just a small sprain, I put on compression stockings - as I usually do for travel, and flew to London and then to Athens to join The World where we have a small apartment. More on The World at http://www.aboardtheworld.com
After arriving, I went to see Dr. Pedro Blanco, the Ship’s physician, and we both agreed this looked like a muscular issue, so at his advice I iced and elevated my leg. When a day later it was worse, Dr. Pedro did an ultrasound exam and concluded it was most likely a “small surface thrombosis” (ie:blood clot) or less likely, but possible - a more serious DVT. (Deep Vein Thrombosis). These can be serious and potentially life threatening if they break off and move to one’s heart or lungs.
During this time we sailed from Athens/Piraeus to Milos a Greek island in the Aegean Sea ~800 nautical miles to the south.To be super safe, Dr. Pedro also started me in injections of a blood thinner (Lovenox) 2x a day - which the ship miraculously had available. My leg/foot began to improve almost immediately, but on Saturday Dr. Pedro suggested it might be a good idea for me to get to a clinic or hospital with the ability to do a thorough ultrasound diagnostic - and if necessary based on that - blood work and a CT scan. Test of Presence #1 was clearly before me.
Throughout this time, while it would have been easy to be upset, fearful or just plain angry , by putting into practice what I have learned from meditation and especially living in the Present Moment - I remained calm and to be quite honest, not worried at all. Little did I know this was just the start of what would turn into multiple opportunities that would test my ability to keep that calm and Presence.
As the island of Milos has no capable Hospital or Clinic and we were still 10 days out from Dubrovnik, Croatia - Dr. Pedro suggested I take a “fast ferry” - which covers those 800 nautical miles in about 3.5 hours, back to Piraeus/Athens to have a thorough exam. And that is what I did Saturday afternoon - August 13, 2021. The Ship also sent Theodora, a Greek National and native language speaker to accompany me on my journey.
Arriving at about 6 PM, I checked into the Metropolitan Hospital’s Emergency room and a couple of hours later, found myself in a darkened room with an ultrasound technician carefully scanning my left leg with intent focus. She spoke little English, I spoke no Greek & despite Theodora’s galant attempts to find out what was going on, all we heard for the next half hour were the technicians occasional grunts, groans and mumbling, none of which sounded positive. Clearly, another test of my ability to stay calm and Present as one could already get the “vibe” that what she was seeing was not good. But by simply intently focusing on the Present Moment, and not what might come in the next minutes, hours or days, I was honestly just fine and actually found myself enjoying the opportunity to spend time getting to know Theodora and seeing the Greek medical system first hand.
After returning to the Emergency room and waiting about an hour, the Doctor in charge, an attractive and clearly intelligent no nonsense lady, came to my bedside and in heavily accented English said, “Mr. Minarik, you have a surface thrombosis in your left leg mid calf down to ankle - so fairly large - and unfortunately a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) in the area behind/below your ankle. You need to stay off your feet, and mostly in bed and we will be admitting you to the hospital after you have a CT scan to be sure no clot has moved to your lungs.” Test of Presence #2 was squarely before me, and I am pleased to report that instead of letting fear or any “why me” thoughts take hold, by simply accepting what was and thinking, “ah, some new information” and then just releasing even that information, I was able to remain calm and free of fear.
The ER Doctor then told me that a Vascular Surgeon would see me in the morning, and with that they wheeled me off to room 315. That evening, as it was already about 10 PM and after dinner, Theodora went out and picked up traditional Greek Gyro’s and we enjoyed both that food and more conversation before she left at about 11:30 to stay in the local Marriott, and I quickly drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, at 9:15 AM, my room door opened, and in walked Dr. Papadakis, a tall Greek vascular surgeon who was approximately my age and very experienced with DVT’s and Thrombosis’s. He also spoke very good English, and he had FANTASTIC NEWS - I DID NOT have a DVT, only a small surface Thrombosis above my ankle. Apparently the tech who did the Ultrasound and the ER Doctor the night before were simply WRONG. The other good news was that the CT scan of my lungs - where they look for possible bits of a clot that may have dislodged and moved to the lungs - was CLEAR.
Dr. Papadakis then told me he wanted me to stay overnight and would return in the AM and would either ask me to stay another “few days” as a precautionary measure, or release me to return to the Ship. He also started me on an oral medication (Eliquis) that I will be taking for a few months as the thrombosis resolves itself. While this of course was excellent news, it was also my Test of Presence #3 - as if he asked me stay a few more days, I would potentially have a more complicated and potentially expensive challenge finding a way to catch up to The World, as it was leaving Monday at midnight for it’s next Port. (Theodora returned to the Ship that afternoon)
Monday morning Dr. Papadakis’s returned and gave me an official hospital document with his diagnosis: Superficial Thrombophlebitis of the Greater Peripheral Saphenous vein, noting this was to be treated Eliquis (oral blood thinner) 2.5 Mg, 2 x per day. (A very small dose) He also told me that he felt the chances of any complications were “close to zero” and that “I could return to The World immediately to resume my journey and my “normal activities, including hiking, biking and exercise without any restrictions.”
Dr. Papadakis added, “Because you do not have a DVT and only this minor surface thrombophlebitis, if you were my patient here in Greece, I would have you stay on Eliquis for 2-3 weeks and that would be it. But since you are traveling and will not be in my care, I prefer you continue to take the Eliquis until you return home and have a new Ultrasound and possibly CT scan - or whatever your physician in California recommends.” Finally, I asked about flying, which is commonly understood to be something to avoid with DVT’s or Thrombosis’s - and he told me I could fly “even today.”
And that’s it! Took about 5 minutes and he was gone. A few hours later I took the SeaJet Champion II back to Milos - with stops along the way at a couple other beautiful Greek Isles - Serifos and Seranos, and rejoined the World about 4 hours before we departed for two days at sea, bound for our next stop at Ithaca, Greece.
Of course, as all of this was going on, it did occur to me that the expenses of this were potentially significant, but as it turns out the Travel Medical Emergency Insurance that I have from Allianz for use outside of the United States (very low premium btw) is going to cover most everything. So also something not worth having spent any time worrying about. As to the WHY of this happened at all - it’s impossible to know. Genetics, travel, the Pfizer Covid vaccine I got in February? (My daughter Kelsey had a DVT over a decade ago at age 21 that was the inspiration behind the company she founded - RejuvaHealth. More at http://www.rejuvahealth.com) But also something I don’t think is worth m spending any time or mental energy on.
Needless to say this was certainly an unexpected event, but by staying in the Present Moment, it was actually not stressful at all. And I am grateful beyond words for the care of Dr. Pedro Blanco of The World and Dr. Papadakis, the vascular surgeon of the Piraeus/Athens Metropolitan Hospital, and of course Theodora of The World.
🙏