User Profile

What is 'Restarting the Tutorial'?
This is a personal project and diary of starting again.

The Tutorial is always something in either a video game or a
sport where you are introduced to the elements of that environment. This is a
bit of a pun on the City of Heroes environment where every new character usually
re-does the tutorial to get their character to level 2. Its repetitive,
annoying, but is essential for good character, life and power
development.

This is where I am in real life.

Who are you in real life?
A 33 year old guy living in Perth WA,trying to raise a family, grow a generation of
Heroes in the MMORPG City of Heroes, and put my life and health back
together after a serious illness. I am essentially a the start again and while
I have garnered a lifetime of skills and abilities, in my mind I am starting afresh
in the basics of diet, health, martial arts and family life.

Who are you in City of Heroes?
I have been playing City of Heroes and City of Villains for over 2 years.
I have garnered a multitude of characters and regularly update my "Roster"
of Heroes and Villains. I was attracted to the game from a work friend
I supervised and really enjoyed the freedom the game offered in terms of
making superpowered beings and being let loose in a city full of darkened
alleys and majestic city skylines. I do have my main Hero Embergale whos
looks are modelled on mine (loosely I will admit :D )

What is this Sudden Illness you speak of?
This is a tricky thing to answer. I have actually had this all of my life, but was
diagnosed in the last six months. It is called a href="http://www.healthcentral.com/high-blood-pressure/causes-4654-108.html">Coarctation of the Aorta. This is not an illness per
se, but a birth defect that has impacted my ability my whole life until now.
Simply, I have a natural narrowing in my Aorta that has impacted the blood-flow
from the top half of my body to the bottom half. This is usually detected in
infancy and corrected straight away, but I am one of the unbeknownst masses who
managed to survive and develop with it. Unfortunately its one of those things
that are generally asymptomatic until many other factors such as smoking, weight
gain and sedentary lifestyle and these people succumb in their late 40's and
50's, of a sudden heart attack.

What are the symptoms of this condition?
This is what gets so many people. The post-ductal coarctation
are generally considered asymptomatic (no discernable symptoms) that
only really manifest later in life. It really falls into two catagories but sufferers
can have;

• Heart murmur as an infant/child
• Poor Endurance on sustained exertion (I talking in single
  minutes here)
• Pressure headaches on exercise
• Sustained cramps in legs or extremities (When these manifest in children
  and teens, they can be mistaken for 'growing pains.')
• Absence of femoral pulses

To compensate for this problem, the body as it grows will develop a whole new set
of blood vessels in the chest to push blood down. It sounds quite amazing,
however as you get older and more prone to weight gain and lack of exercise,
your blood pressure will start elevating. The problem is the blood pressure is higher in
the top half o your body above the Coarcation while quite low in the bottom
half. This results in;

• Increase risk of stroke
• Hypertension
• Enlarged Heart
• Angina (Odd chest pains and aches)
• Irregular heart beat
  

If it all gets too much, the heart or the Aorta will go, and when it happens,
its one of those 'instant' things that no-one can save you from.

Dude...Honestly, there are people who have survived cancer younger than you.
Why are you on LiveJournal bleating?
This is a project of my own choosing, not yours.
Everyone has a personal story to share, and this is mine. As I have stated, my
life has started again, thankfully with minimal damage and a new outlook on
life. This is something I have to maintain and I have had previous success with
private journals, so along with weightloss and a new lease on life, maybe this
will inspire others to do the same. Or maybe not and you can waste your pathetic
life flaming me. Believe me Ive had worse.

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