It was a pain I never experienced before and after 10 minutes it went away. Around 10pm later that night, it came back and did not go away. After 15 minutes, I went to the authoratative source of most people, the Internet to check on the symptoms of a heart attack. I searched multiple sites to verify the symptoms. My problem was that while the sites were consistant, I was not meeting most of the signs, I think I met about 1.5 of the symptoms. No pressure on the chest, numbness in the arms, etc. It was only when I felt like throwing up, I went to go get Gayle to take me to the hospital.
Long story short, I had open heart bypass surgery on Sat.Sept. 17th 2011. Quadruple bypass surgery due to 97% blockage in four arteries.
Why 5%? On a previous blog, I shared that Gayle's brother had a heart attack in Feb. of this year. I called our Dr. the next day to get a referral to a Cardiac Doctor to get Gayle checked out. It is her side of the family that has a history of heart disease. Of course I made the appointment, drove her there and waited for her. She was a little irritated at me, especially since she passed with no problems. To appease her, I scheduled an appointment for myself the next week.
I also passed the EKG, Echo Cardiogram and Stress test. Since that time, I have pretty much lived my life as usual. Jeff's wedding, officiating basketball games, climbing stairs at work, going to various board meetings, etc.
But the comment that struck me the most was from the Cardiologist. I am among the 5% that pass the tests, yet usually experience what they call the widow maker. The guys who fall over dead with a massive heart attack. Gayle always says I am definitely not normal. I guess it worked in my favor this time.......
You will see over the next few weeks posts of what I went through, both physically and emotionally.
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