Waay OT My halloween Heart attack

[KIMFAB]

Haven't been on for a while.
I'm writing this as a warning to the other Big Fat White Guys out there with the bad genes.
Warning, graphic material


Last fall I was diagnosed with legit acid reflux and was treated at the local hospital.
Everything started to get better but along about April was giving me grief again.
Went in for an EKG and it looked OK so I figured my ticker was still good.

During the summer my stress load magnified and by October I could hardly walk the 50 ft to the shop.
Luckily my doc basically forced me to see a cardiologist and he took another EKG

With the recent comparison of the April test he advised an angiogram so off I go to the hospital.

Here's the good part

It's the morning of halloween
I'm lying on this table while these guys are sticking a tube into my arm and into my heart.
I'm awake and in the semi groggy state they have you in for this test.

The head doc is saying "we'll have to redo this one, that one is completely plugged" etc
Then out of nowhere someone drops a fully loaded cement truck on my chest.
The pain, which was a 2 or 3 on a scale of 10 suddenly goes to a 12. I black out.

The elephant starts to get off my chest and I hear "Ahh he's coming back, how is your pain Mr Hudrlik?

Seems that when they do these things, if the heart is really bad it can trigger an attack,
so they have this guy with nothing else to do but watch for it and when it happens,
give you a shot of the magic juice.

Ended up with a balloon pump in my heart to keep it going while I was wheeled into ICU for the
bypass operation scheduled for the next day.

That nite I had a nurse at my side at all times that had to call for a relief if they had to leave.

I wake up the next day with this tube down my throat and 2 more coming out of my belly,
one in the groin and several out of my neck. Of course there is the much needed catheter.

I was supposed to get 5 bypasses but they only did 4 because of the extensive damage where the 5th was to go.
3 days later they remove the balloon pump and every other day pull out a couple more tubes.

Left the hospital on the 9th after walking around my section and climbing a flight of stairs.

The moral of the story is, pay attention to your ticker, I was extremely lucky,
the doc tells me another week might have done it and a stress test certainly would have triggered it.
That's about all I can do now, still a bit weak. I'll fill in more if there is any interest.

[RetiredFAE]

Glad to hear you are on the road to recovery!

Were you at UMC in Vegas? Can't remember seeing a hospital in Logandale last time I was there visiting, hopefully they have one now, long way to Mesa View Hospital in Mesquite, or UMC in Vegas if you are in dire straights.

3 of my buddies here in Pahrump, who had pretty much the same experience you just described, are alive because of the Flite For Life air crews and the good Drs. at UMC Las Vegas.

Our local "hospital" couldn't handle their situations, so they were airlifted to Vegas.

UMC supposedly has one of the finest Cardiac care facilities in the country.

[mike4]

Man were you in the right place at the time, i hope you recover ok and take care , lifes too short .
Michael

[flylo]

Glad your going to be OK & thanks for the heads up!

[alanganes]

Haven't been on for a while.
I'm writing this as a warning to the other Big Fat White Guys out there with the bad genes.

<graphic, interesting and scary stuff snipped...>

The moral of the story is, pay attention to your ticker, I was extremely lucky,
the doc tells me another week might have done it and a stress test certainly would have triggered it.
That's about all I can do now, still a bit weak. I'll fill in more if there is any interest.

My oldest daughter is a cardiac nurse. She has lots & lots of scary stories like this, many have bad endings. Made me lose 30+ pounds and get lots of my test numbers in line. Good post and really glad you are around to post it. Good reminder for most all of us. Pay attention guys!

Hang in and get well.

[browne92]

Doesn't apply to only Big Fat White Guys....us scrawney ones can have bad genes too. Have never weighed more than 175 and had mine at age 40.

Glad to hear you're doing well.

[A.K. Boomer]

Glad your going to be Ok Kimfab... life's short but can always be a whole lot shorter too...

My oldest daughter is a cardiac nurse. She has lots & lots of scary stories like this, many have bad endings. Made me lose 30+ pounds and get lots of my test numbers in line. Good post and really glad you are around to post it. Good reminder for most all of us. Pay attention guys!

Hang in and get well.

My Bro's wife was a cardiac nurse also - he woke up one night with her frantically beating on his chest yelling out all kinds of phrases and CC's of such and such - totally freaked him out - he had to grab her and stop her cuz it was getting real serious, talk about taking your work home with you...

[Evan]

Have your cholesterol and total lipids levels checked. That is the best indicator of long term trouble early in the game. Not everyone that is fat has high cholesterol and not everyone that is skinny has it low. Like most things it is partially genetic and in some cases all genetic. If you have familial hypercholesterolemia your weight is not a reliable indicator.

See here for the good information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001429/

Glad that you survived.

[uncle pete]

Yep plus one on what everyone else has already said. And you certainly don't need to be overweight to have high cholesterol. I'm most certainly not now and have never been over weight. When I had my stent put in they advised me that 1 in a thousand don't survive the procedure, never mind what you just went through.

Pete

[winchman]

Makes me realize how incredibly lucky I am. My grandparents, my parents, and most of the family have lived to ripe old ages before having serious problems. My brother, who is 71 and four years older than me, is still getting around very well. I had to go through the new patient routine the last time I went to my doctor, since I hadn't been in for over three years.

Of course, I've been doing my part, too. I've been exercising regularly for the last forty years, and I haven't missed a day in almost three years of doing my 45-minute walking and stair climbing routine. That's in addition to the exercise I get in the welding shop six hours a day four days a week. On days that I don't get much other exercise, I'll do the walking/climbing routine twice.

None of that is a guarantee that I won't kick off today, but I'm hoping my luck holds out.