A couple decades ago, I had a life altering experience. One Friday morning in late November I had a stroke in my doctor’s office, while waiting for a regular check-up. No warning, no signs, no reason. Within minutes I was in emergency at the Shawville hospital only a half a mile away. Both doctors and nurses surrounded me before I was on a bed in the ER. When I came to, I could hear a couple doctors chatting outside my door in the ER. This was a short time after that new clot-buster drug became available for dissolving clots that caused a stroke.
Strokes are usually caused by either a clot, which blocks blood from going to part or parts of the brain, or a ruptured blood vessel in the brain. If it was caused by a clot, and that new clot-breaking drug was administered quickly the clot would disappear and the stroke would also be gone with little or no permanent damage to the brain! But if the stroke had been caused by a bleed and that new clot-breaking drug was given, the patient could bleed to death within minutes. Whether the stroke was caused by a bleed or a clot could only be determined with either an MRI, or a scan. But our hospital didn’t have an MRI machine and the scan was inoperative at that time, and by the time that an ambulance would take me to the Hull hospital where there was an MRI, it might be too late for the new drug to dissolve the clot if that was the cause.
The doctors chatting outside my door had already checked me for damage. I still had feeling in both sides of my body (but the left side had less feeling), and I could still speak and move all my right side. After a thorough discussion outside my door, the very brilliant doctors decided to not take a chance with the clot-breakers in case it might be a bleed that caused the stroke, and decided to just give me rest until everything stabilized. After a couple trips to Hull a week later, the MRI showed that I had had a small bleed near the base of my skull. Those very smart doctors had saved my life.
I then realized that what was important in my life was really important, and not to worry about what I had no control over. Suddenly, most of my worries were gone. My family and friends have always been important, but after lying on my back not knowing what the future would bring, my family and friends, what they had taught me and what I had passed on to them became very important.
Teaching family, friends, and valued employees how to do everything that you can do not only allows you more time to think and plan, but it prepares them to continue doing important, timely jobs after you cannot. Let young people make decisions when they are still young. Too many young people don’t get to make decisions while they are young and when their decision-making parents are gone, suddenly those big expensive decisions not only put unbearable stress on them but can negatively impact the future of the farm or other enterprise.
A few days ago, a good friend of mine told me about the rule of threes. Three minutes without air, you die. Three days without water, you die. Three weeks without food, you die. When we watch our politicians make decisions which do nothing to improve our air quality; when we watch our streams, lakes, rivers, and oceans get polluted with chemical residues, forever chemicals or micro-plastics that never break down; when we watch acres of prime farmland used for buildings, roads, parking lots, or dumps; it begs the question of what is really important in our lives. How long have your descendants got to live on this earth?
Yes, I’ve flown in one of those big planes which spews more pollution than all the cows burping and farting in our county. Yes, I wash my car at a car wash. Yes, we have built a barn on class three farmland. But a modern barn can be built with zero wash water, phosphate soap, and copper sulphate from the foot bath dumped down the drain. Everything is recycled in the manure lagoon and spread on the fields reducing the need for buying fertilizer and bringing much needed water to the crops. Dairy farmers of Canada have promised to try to become carbon neutral by 2030. A farm vacation can be combined with educational visits or conferences to further a farmer’s education on more efficient production and improve mental health. What is really important in your life?
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations. gladcrest@gmail.com
