Horns of a dilema

Taken into Jorvi hospital with chest pains. I had them from last Thursday when I had gone out with Ilona for an Indian meal to celebrate her birthday. They persisted until Saturday morning so I drove into Jorvi. They took my blood pressure and it was 180/108. Not so good... and there was something wrong with the ECG... some irregularity.

They gave me some nitrate and it brought my BP down to 120/60 and made me feel light-headed. After a few hours they decided to do a stress test so I climbed onto a bicycle and pedeled. After three minutes they increased the resistance by 50 watts so it felt as though you were going up a slight incline. They did this 3 times more, and I began to sweat. My pulse went up from 60 to 120 and my BP was soaring at 220/120 and I had a pain in my sternum. I stoped and they had me blow into some apperatus to measure lung capacity. The needle hit 700... top of the range. The medic cracked a joke... see how exercise is good for you... that exercise really opened up your lungs.

They put me in a room with a man of about 77.  One of his legs had been amputated below the knee, and now his other leg was giving him trouble. He had a scar running from his knee to his ankle. He lay on the bed drenched in sweat. He had lost the ability to speak properly, and his words came out as a croak. I was feeling OK. The nitrate does that for you.

Slept well and next morning the doctor comes in and says to the man in the bed next to me. "We will have to amputate your other leg below the knee... how do you feel about that"?  The man was silent. The doctor then says, "If we don't amputate then you may loose your life" The man's wife is there and she observes  "He has recently had a heart operation... do you think his heart could stand another major operation"?

So there you have it, the horns of a dilema. You are given two choices both of which are equally bad. Who wants to make decisions like that.