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On the 2nd of June of this year, while eating dinner, I experienced some sudden and extremely sharp chest pains. I begin to think I was having a heart attack. It's never supposed to happen to you. It always happens to the other guy, right? I mean you sit at home watching the news or some reality show on TLC and you see heart attack victims rushed into ER with people feverishly working to save their lives. OK, not to be overly dramatic, I drove myself to the Emergency Room as there was one only a few blocks away. More on that later as it could have turned out to be a big mistake. I had taken two aspirin before leaving home and by the time I got to the emergency room, the pain in my chest had subsided greatly and there were no heroic measures needed to save my life. In fact, because I walked in under my own power and looked OK, the receptionist asked me to fill out a long form before anyone saw me. I was adamant about saying no, I may have had (or be having ) a heart attack and I want someone to look at me now. With that I got results and was quickly whisked into an examination room where I was given an EKG and some nitroglycerin tablets to counteract the small amount of pain I still had left and some other assorted medication.
The EKG showed that something had happened, but the doctors weren't quite sure what it was. I had not broken out into a sweat and I experienced no nausea, as do many heart attack victims. The two most likely candidates for what happened to me were a mild heart attack or a strong attack of angina. Either way, all was not as it should have been.
While waiting to take a scheduled test a couple of days later in the hospital, I experienced more chest pains similar to my initial ones that sent me to the emergency room in the first place. This time, however, I was wearing a heart monitor which showed that I was not having a heart attack, but an angina attack. Angina attacks are caused by an insufficient supply of blood to the heart and are usually pretty good evidence that there is something wrong with one or more of your heart's arteries.
Next came an angiogram, a procedure whereby they inject a dye into your body and then watch it as it flows through the arteries of your heart. It's a pretty sure fire way to show what's going on. My results (which I watched on a monitor) showed that I had two nearly blocked arteries and three very clean arteries. The only logical course of action from there was a coronary double bypass in which they replace the nearly blocked arteries with arteries from other parts of your body. My operation was performed the next morning and took two and a half hours.
Strangely enough I did not fit the profile for heart problems. I quit smoking 24 years ago, I have no history of heart problems in my family, I'm a very mild user of alcohol averaging only five to six drinks a month (I often go weeks without ever thinking about having a drink) and I don't have high blood pressure. I did, however, smoke for twenty years and that may have been a contributing factor. On the flip side of that, quitting smoking may be the reason it was only a double bypass instead of something worse and also may be why I didn't experience this problem earlier in life.
When you wake up in ICU after the surgery, it takes awhile to realize where you are and what's happened. Moving is not a good idea as everything hurts. Still, this condition gets better every day and four days after my surgery, I went home.
Physically, they tell me it will take eight to ten weeks before I will feel fairly normal and have all or nearly all of my strength back. Mentally, however, I experienced an immediate change. You priorities are reshuffled all at once as you realize that you are, after all, mortal.
I'm fortunate to come from a family (both sides) that lives a longer than average life span. If I make a complete recovery, as the medical experts tell me I should, the odds are that I have some twenty to thirty years left in my life. Sounds like a long time at first, but I still have so much I want to accomplish and suddenly it doesn't sound like much time at all. You quickly realize that family, friends and goals, in that order, are the most important things in your life. All the other minor parts of your life suddenly have no real meaning at all.
Finally, here's what I did right and what I did wrong when my chest pains came on that night in early June. First, I took two aspirin which was exactly what I should have done. Aspirin promotes blood flow and can either stop heart damage from occurring or greatly minimize it if it does occur. Next, I drove myself to the emergency room. This was really a dumb idea. I got away with it because mine was a milder attack than some, but I've since learned that driving one's self to the hospital is often the cause for a heart attack victim to die either from the attack itself or by traffic accident. If you ever find yourself in this situation, call 911, which is exactly what I should have done.
The bottom line for all of this is that I'm feeling stronger every week, my priorities are relined and I have a strong aversion to watching medical shows on TV like ER or Chicago Hope. When they come on the tube I have to quickly switch channels. Maybe I'll be able to watch them in the future and maybe not. My appetite, which disappeared the first few weeks of my recovery, has returned. I lost eleven pounds, but believe me, I had them to lose.
I sincerely hope this never happens to you, but if it does, please remember two things. Aspirin and 911. Both could save your life.
©2000 by Ken Kreps. This article may not be re-published in electronic or print media without the express written permission of the author. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ken Kreps lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife. He has written a number of published articles, essays and short stories, as well as numerous consumer and business pieces. Ken has also written scripts for Imagination Theater, an award winning audio drama series heard on over 150 commercial radio stations across the nation.
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