Let me start off by saying how supportive and caring Hope can be.
Talking to some of you during this mayoral campaign has been enlightening and grounding at the same time.
Listening to everyone’s ideas on how to move our town forward has been very educational, and I appreciate you listening to my ideas and debating them with me as we get a deeper understanding of the challenges ahead.
During these conversations it has come up more than once about how my health is doing.
Many of you know I stepped down from the Chamber of Commerce to work on my health. So in the spirit of full disclosure, I would like to tell you what happened and what is happening.
First off, and let me make this perfectly clear, I am proud of the work we accomplished with the Chamber during my tenure: putting on a series of business seminars with the help of Gerry Dyble and Wes Bergmann, advocating for an inter-municipal business license which now gives us one of the largest trading zones in the province, helping found Hope Mountain Market with the help of Stephanie Hooker and Tammy Shields and later Shanon Fischer, and bringing to Hope, Trevor Linden, to talk about the business climate we are currently experiencing, and how businesses like his own have had to adapt to those changes.
When I first became Chamber president, I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. I hadn’t been feeling well physically, not my strongest.
And while this diagnosis affects a lot of people today, once all the numbers were in and tests were done it was determined my heart was only pumping at 32 per cent efficiency. I was getting tired. Ask current and past Chamber presidents, the workload as president can take up a lot of your time. This was happening while my doctor was trying new ways to improve my heart’s efficiency.
Shortly before the Trevor Linden evening I did some more tests with my doctor and moved to a different medication. It worked, sort of. My efficiency now fell into the range of what he said was low normal. But the side effect of the medication is it leaves you extremely tired and feeling like someone is sitting right on your diaphragm when you do anything physical. I had to resign. I saw the Linden event through to the end, but could go no further. I needed to fix me.
Shortly after I resigned I had another meeting with my doctor. We discussed the effects of the medication. He changed it to one they were having some success with. My concern was we would lose some of the gains we had made, so we did more tests a few months later.
Almost immediately I felt better then I had in years. And the tests proved even better – numbers into the normal range, and none of the side effects.
After meeting with my doctor, I am confident about all the steps we have taken to ensure my health is where it needs to be.
You might have seen me these past few weeks chugging along on my bicycle or seen a video of me cannonballing into our pool – it ain’t pretty, but it is me.
Like I said before, I appreciate the concern shown to me over the past few years, it is heart-warming to say the least, and please know this, I am ready for the next challenge in my life, and if presented, will meet that challenge head on.
Thank you,
Glen Ogren,
Hope, B.C.