The “Mothership”- by Flip Pallot

November 2015

For 15 years my dear friend Lefty and I have commiserated regarding a commonly shared health issue…Indigestion, gird, acid reflux…’no stranger to many of us.

About that long ago, I found myself at 7000 feet in the Idaho Rocky Mountains, with a friend, glassing a meadow 2000 feet above us.

In the meadow, herding eight cows, was the bull elk of my dreams! 10 years of plying those same meadows had failed to produce the opportunity to stalk such a wonderful bull with my stick bow. I’d passed on many.

Sid, my younger hunting companion, suggested that we make a fast climb to the lower corner of the meadow where he reckoned the bull would herd his cows to bed down for the day. We started the climb and shortly and attack of reflux brought me to a halt. I drank some cool water and the pain abated. The climb resumed and we gained another thousand feet before reflux, once again , intervened. More cool water and we were climbing again, the meadow nearly reached. Sadly for us, the bull and his harem made it to the thick aspens before we could cut them off. That year, I was 61 years old…and remember Sid commenting… “I hope I can get around the mountains as well as you do when I’m 61 years old”.

That same year, Lefty traveled to  Thomasville, Georgia  where a mutual friend performed an operation on Lefty’s gastric system which, totally eliminated his reflux problems. Lefty had a new lease on life, and to this day, has never had another issue with indigestion! 

I, on the other hand, suffered constantly from indigestion. Each time I exerted myself, especially when it was cold out, I suffered from “Heartburn” or some other form of indigestion…always curable with cool water or some antacid tablet. Twelve years or so passed before I made arrangements to have the same surgery that had given Lefty so much relief. Our friend in Thomasville had agreed to do it for me and I was excited to be rid of such a long standing problem.

Surgery was scheduled for summer or early fall. At the end of the summer I spent a day bass fishing with  old friend Chico Fernandez and his Doctor friend , Robert Cava, from South Florida. It was a GREAT day of bassin' and during a sandwich break the subject of health came up and I mentioned my upcoming surgery to Dr. Cava. “Sounds good, he said…I know the  procedure and sounds like it’s just what you need…However, if it were me, my family or my patient, I’d recommend seeing a Cardiologist and eliminating any type of coronary issue before having that surgery! Often coronary and gastric symptoms mimic one another”.

I, and Chico, hold Dr. Cava in very high regard and so within days I wrangled an appointment with a local Cardiologist who scheduled an EKG, Echo-Cardiogram, and Nuclear Stress Test…the results of which lead to a heart catheterization and the realization that during all those years of indigestion, I had actually been experiencing angina…chest pain associated, not with indigestion, but with a significant heart issue.

My immediate question to the Cardiologist was…”Is there any conceivable scenario within which cardiac stents can fix the problem?”

“Not a single chance, was his rejoinder. You need to schedule by-pass surgery within days!”…And so it was done…Triple by-pass surgery when I was convinced for many years that I had indigestion.

There was some good news within the bomb just descended. I had managed not to damage my heart muscle and the pumping function remained good. The operation was long, with some complications, but successful..... leaving me with no restrictions on future activities whatsoever!

An immediate result of the surgery was the total absence of chest pain. I now fast walk a couple of miles a day along with other activities without a hint of pain and next season look forward to climbing to 9500 feet and dragging an elk out of the woods!

Last evening I found myself on my feet for several hours at a function with folks I had not seen in many years…much hugging and backslapping by the likes of Rufus Wakeman, Rob Fordyce and Karl Andersen…( IGFA Hall of Fame Induction). Really major hugs that I thought would re-split my chest, but everything held up well and I’m simply waiting for time to finish the healing process (with the help of a trip this month to Texas for whitetails)

Glad to be back and as always......Stay Close....more to come!

- Flip

www.flippallot.com