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Hearty Experience |
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| This is the letter I wrote on June 11, 2008 - the day after I got out of the hospital. | ||||||
| Hi Guys, please forward as you want. Thank you all for your concern, prayers and well wishes. It's nice to know that there are people that care. So what happened and why? I went to bed at about 10, and woke up at 11:33 feeling some pressure in my chest. I tried to burp, but that did not change anything. I went to the bathroom to leak, and while there the pressure got more intense. I thought maybe I had to throw up, so I assumed the position, and it is then that I was starting to overheat and sweat. I realized then that this must be a heart attack. I sat on the floor and leaned against the wall. The cold tile floor felt so good, I was hot. I had brought my cell phone to the bathroom with me. I am sure that it was God that put that thought in my mind, because I wake up in the middle of the night all the time and don't take my cell phone with me to the bathroom. Now I know that some people will think that I must have realized it was a heart attack before I left the bedroom ... all I can say is that my faith says otherwise. So I called my wife's cell phone knowing that it was the easiest way to wake her. She took one look at me and called 911. As we waited for the medics, the operator had many questions to keep us both occupied. She was relaying some of that to the medical team on the way. Our house is hard to find. It is hidden well. We heard the sirens, so I asked my wife to flicker the driveway lights. But the fire truck drove right past without noticing. The aid car came a minute later and saw the flickering lights . My wife was still on the phone with the 911 operator and was letting her know to tell them to turn around. They did and came in. 4 guys were there to help. I was so hot and sweatting so much that the heart monitor stickers would not stick to my chest. They had to dry me off and try new ones. They took an ekg and decided right away that I was having a "heart event". Apparently that sounds more calming than "heart attack". I have not explained the pressure yet. It started off less, but built to what was like a 300 pound person balancing on my chest on a single point like their big toe or thumb. Initially it did not hurt, it was just pressure. but somewhere along the line it was hurting too, but not like I expected a heart attack to hurt. For me it was not a stabbing or jolting pain. But I think with other kinds of heart attacks it does do that. So they gave me aspirin, nitro glycerin, and 2 miligrams of morphine and then we went to the aid car. Our stairs are narrow and there was no place at the top of the stairs to set a gurney, and of course the bathroom is too small for a gurney and me and 2 firemen. So I walked down our stairs with the help of 2 of the firemen, and they had a gurney right out side the door. I remember how refreshing the cold night air felt. I was still way too hot. I don't remember if I already had the IV in or if they put it in when we got to the aid car. But they kept checking the heart monitor and asking all kinds of questions. They gave me more nitro 3 more times and it had no affect on what they were watching on the heart monitor, and they gave me more morphine 3 more times, but it was not reducing the pressure on my chest. The ride to hospital seemed long. My wife was following in her car and says she was speeding to keep up (she did not know where the hospital was). Once I was in the ER, everything went fast. They re-checked what the medics were telling them, and shaved the area where they would enter my blood vessels. The morphine and whatever they gave me in the ER was starting to affect my thinking. Then they were running along side the gurney as they took me to the surgery area. I tried to count the ceiling tiles and remember how many turns we took each way, but it was going by too fast. They transfered me to a table under a machine that had obvious x-ray capability, but it looked like it had more capability than that. It was a cold table (it felt very good). I remember looking at the x-axis ways on the machine (on the ceiling) and wondering what brand they were. I could not focus well enough to figure out the size. I should say at this point that I am at peace about my death because of my faith. But through the years as I thought about my death and my last minutes or moments on earth, I always thought I would be praying, maybe reviewing things in my life, or asking for forgiveness or something, or ... something along those lines. But whether I did not realize that this could have been the end, or I was just at peace about it I don't know. It was not as I thought it would be. And that is kind of bothersome to me. The next thing I recall is being in my hospital room and my wife and son and sister-in-law were there. I had 100% blockage of an artery on the front of the heart. They put in 3 stents to open the artery. I have a another artery on the backside of my heart that has a 90% blockage. I go in and have that one done in a month or two. They want to wait till this one proves to be healed before going to the next one. Apparently a 90% blockage should take years to get to 100% with the medications I am taking. When the doctor finished in the surgery room, she went out to my wife in the waiting room and told her the surgery went well and that we were very fortunate because this was what they call "the big one". Yesterday they did an echo-cardiogram (an ultrasound look at the heart and blood vessels surrounding the heart). The results were great! There was very little damage to my heart, and they think that area will come back on it's own. The pump efficiency of my heart is 65%. Apparently 60% is average for my age (I am 50). The Cardiologist says that the reason for so little damage is that I sat down right away and did not try to do more (laying down would have been better), we called 911 right away, and the minimal times getting to hospital and into surgery. So many things affected the outcome. 1) was the timing. It did not happen today as I was supposed to be driving down I-5 to San Jose. 2) that I woke up. I am a hard sleeper. 3) That I took my cell phone with me to the bathroom 4) That I did not pass out prior to getting help 5) That I recognized the symptoms early, 6) That we thought to flicker the lights and tell the operator that they missed the house, 7) that the "on-call team was able to get to the hospital in less than an hour, 8) that the doctors were able to put the stents in with no complications. My faith says that God did not want me to die yet. He has a purpose for me to remain here. Maybe it is just this letter, or maybe more. We'll see. At this point (because I am still alive), this was a wake-up call. It is time for me to learn how to eat better or this will just happen again. I hope that for those of you that need a wake-up call, you can learn from my experience and don't have to go through this. Again thank you all for your concern and well wishes and prayers. JJ |
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