It has finally come to this: my country's regulatory authority over my license has sounded the death knell over my flying days.
It appears that anyone who has had a brain bleed, or what aviation doctors call "haemorrhagic stroke", is considered permanently unfit to exercise the privileges of his license.
ICAO Document 8984 Manual Of Aviation Medicine does permit an observation period of one to two years before medical certification is permissible, therefore I do wonder why my regulatory authority's medical board has deemed me permanently unfit. As I only received the brief letter from them just today, I am unsure of whether I can challenge them or not.
Assuming that I don't, I am thereby retiring from the flying world.
I have had 30 years of flying, with the potential for another 4 years now forfeit due to my medical condition.
I feel fine. I am still cycling and riding my Vulcan S 650. I understand that the culprit for my brain bleed was the anti-platellete CoPlavix I had to take as prescribed due to my stent, which the neurologist, my neurosurgeon and my cardiologist agreed to stop upon my brain bleed incident. I feel wasted by the ruling of the board, yet nigh powerless against their summary dealing with my fate.
Perhaps they deliberated on the possibility of recurrence because I would have to return to some form of anti-platellete, but it seems ridiculous to presume that I would be placed on the double strength version I was on before. In any case, what's done is done.
Is this the end of The Collective Consciousness?
Brenda doesn't think it should. My blog is supposed to be for me, and not just about flying per se. I am toying with the idea of continuing to write till death take me. I haven't decided yet in this raw moment.
Till I make up my mind, I am looking forward to another 5-day ride with Brenda to hang around in yet another small town and sample its wares. Mid September seems a nice time to ride off together for a spell. We enjoyed our last coddywomple to Taiping, and a week later to Malacca. Hence the mischievous thought of doing another one soon.
See you in the next one.
