In July, 2007, I suffered a heart attack which included 29 resuscitations/cardioversions, having 3 stents inserted and a triple bypass. It would be fair to say this came as a shock. Surviving this was one thing, getting through the recovery and rehabilitation process was another.
Depression and getting over this became a real challenge as did the need for me to reassess my life and lifestyle. One of the things that helped me to do this was becoming involved in caring for wildlife.
A few years before my heart attack, my wife became involved in Wildcare, specifically looking after and rehabilitating injured parrots. Whilst I had helped out a little, this really was my wife's "baby". This all changed about six months after my heart attack when a particular bird visited us one day and decided to make our house a regular stop on a daily basis.
Honky is a Western long bill corella and so named after her particular barking call. It was clear that at some stage this bird had been tame but had obviously either escaped or been let loose and had taken up with a local flock of short bill corellas, some of which had been visiting us on a regular basis.
Interacting with this particular bird really opened my eyes and became a joy and something both my wife and I looked forward to each day, and still do. Not long after, my wife came across an Eastern long bill corella which also appeared to have once been tame - although not as tame as Honky. We called this one Gilly and later found out it is a male.
Because he had wing damage - looked like someone had butchered part of a wing - and he could not fly properly, we kept Gilly and he in fact has become my soul mate - when I do my daily exercise, he does his exercises with me and without doubt has become part of my motivation to not only exercise daily but to get over my depression at the time.
Then earlier this year, my wife was given another eastern long bill (female) to be a companion bird for Gilly. We named her Tzippy and whilst they have been together in an aviary for around three months, they are still learning about each other without having bonded as yet.
In these videos, you will see just how important our birds have become to both my wife and I, and I would urge anyone recovering from heart surgery, or any illness for that matter, to find an activity or passion toward which they can draw positive energy and direction from.
Caring for and looking after injured birds has helped me overcome my illness and depression and for this I am very grateful.
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By way of explanation I only rediscovered photography and got involved with wildlife following a massive heart attack in 2007. These two hobbies became very much part of my recovery program and still are today regarding what I did (and still do) to deal with depression, anxiety and stress. I can not recommend highly enough the benefits of a hobby in dealing with the after effects of a major health scare.
You can find photos I have taken on my Facebook page Wildlife in Nerang and you can also view items I have created after my heart attack at www.heartattackstore.com. Towards the end of 2014 I created a blog called My 29 Lives.
