Earle Is Back!
Earle Canfield, Answer Founder
A Curse can be a Blessing! A Thanksgiving. 
In May of this Year I was trekking with some of our staff through the Annapurna range of the Himalayas seeing if we could transit the highest pass in Nepal, Thorong-la at 15,000 feet. This pass connects schools on one side with those on the opposite slope. Unfortunately, at 13,000 feet one of our members had an attack of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), aka "altitude sickness" which forced us to turn back and descend in a hurry. Fortunately, we all made it back down safely. But as I look back, I am not sure if the mountain deity was angry at us or was intervening to protect me with a misdirected warning.
Three months later, in August, I had returned to Grand Rapids, and the intensity of life slowed down as I re-acclimated to the comforts of home. In the US, the conveniences, esp., the refrigerator and the automobile, are the bane of my physical fitness, so I value my daily walks with our little toy poodle "Puppy" as token exercise. These are usually around the block and through the woods one way, or across the immense school grounds where she can unchain and run herself silly. These are quiet times for thinking and reflection, interspersed with a moment here and there to bring out the plastic bag for puppy: the sacred and the profane. And so it was on one of these walks up our sidewalk that I noticed a very subtle "twinge" in my chest and stopped to ponder it. In a few seconds it went away, but still, I wasn't sure if I had actually sensed it or not....that is until the next day. On the same walk, at the same spot, I felt it come on and resolve again as I rested a moment. I then knew that this was likely the "warning sign" of angina. My heart wasn't getting enough blood supplied to it as I walked. When I finished the walk, I called an old friend, Dr W who is a cardiologist in town and has trekked in Nepal a number of times. Dr W had, in fact, been an ANSWER sponsor and one of our initial board members when ANSWER first started 12 years back. How lucky is that! The upshot is that two days later I had my workup; another two days later, I had my diagnosis; and the next morning I was undergoing coronary bypass surgery. With no risk factors, I never imagined I would have open heart! And as is fitting, this all occurred on the weekend of our Annual Concert Benefit....and I am told, "the best one ever!" All went well and now 8 weeks out, I am not just walking the dog, but running with her, too. I have had to cancel some of my trips to churches out West in the meantime, but my docs assure me that this will in no way limit my activities. I plan to return to Nepal in the Spring.
I am old enough not to ask, "Why me, God?" However, I am haunted by the thought, "Why would a quiet walk with our puppy bring on angina when by all rights I should have had a fatal heart attack while ascending to 13,000 feet?" Was it by the Grace of God? Or, was it the benevolence of a mountain deity who had thwarted our party from making the pass? Like everyone, I thanked God when I first awoke post-op, but I must again return and summit Thorong-la to leave an offering of prayer flags for my "safe passage to the other side."
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