PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

To say that December 1, 2004 was an important day in my life would be an understatement.

The day began like many others. I was in Seattle for a meeting with clients, then drove back south, stopping in Portland for dinner with my partner, Pat McCormick. That done, I headed out for my home, Salem, where I arrived home at about 7:30 p.m.

It was a Wednesday evening, so with garbage pick-up the next day, I took the cans out to the street.

As I went back into the house, I felt queasy, but, initially at least, chalked it up to a busy day, with hours in the car. The feeling persisted, so I drank a couple glasses of winter and sat down on the couch in our family room.

Nothing helped, so I told my wife, Nancy, I ought to head into the emergency room. By car or ambulance, she asked. I said by car.

So, as she looked for her car keys, I went out to the garage and, as I put my hand on the door to open it, I knew I would go down so I got down on the cold, cement floor.

That’s where Nancy found me, so she immediately called 911 and, within about 10 minutes, the ambulance arrived, which is saying something because we live fairly far south of the central city.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was having a heart attack, which I prefer now to call “my episode” because I dislike the phrase heart attack.

Within about two hours, doctors at Salem Hospital had inserted a stent to enable the main artery to my heart to function properly. That saved my life.

I was in the hospital for three more days during which two more minor stents were inserted in subsidiary arteries.

By Friday, I was home recuperating, which hindsight says, didn’t take long as I thought it would.

On the evening of my arrival at the hospital, my wife and son, Eric, were told by the doctors that I had experienced a heart attack. They had no idea that had been the case. Neither did I at that moment. And, the doctor said, it was a major one from which many victims don’t recover. They even don’t always get up after going down.

So, as I look back on all of this after 13 years, I am thankful for a lot.

• I am thankful that Nancy was home when I went down so she could call the ambulance and get me to the hospital in what must have been near record time.
• I am thankful that Eric got home – he lived across the street from us – just as the ambulance arrived, so was able to help Nancy respond to the emergency.
• I am thankful for the doctors and other medical personnel at Salem Hospital who responded so well to my emergency.
• I am thankful for the cardiac rehabilitation services at Salem Hospital that aided in my recovery.
• I am thankful for my daughter, Lissy, who came down immediately from Seattle to tell me how much she loved me, which is great to hear coming from a daughter as great as Lissy.
• I am thankful that a wonderful dog, Hogan, came into my life shortly after my episode and played an instrumental role in my recovery. [The bad news is that about two months ago we had to put Hogan down as he suffered from a brain tumor. His departure created a huge hole in our lives, which we have filled with another great dog, Callaway.]
• I am thankful for all my friends at work and in our neighborhood – including on my golf course, Illahe Hills — who rallied around me in what turned out to be a successful recovery.
• And, most of all, I am thankful to God for giving me a new lease on life.

In your own situation, whatever that may be, take time to be thankful, both during the aftermath of one of the best holidays on the calendar, Thanksgiving, but also as we anticipate Christmas and what it really means – the birth of our (my) Savior.