Tuesday, June 12, 2018
All Systems Go
Update from today’s followup with my cardiologist: All systems go. Coffee in the morning? OK. Beer or wine with dinner? OK. Yoga tonight? Yes. In short, life is returning to normal.
Monday, June 4, 2018
What a Weekend
I woke up at 5 a.m. Friday with what felt to me like maybe heartburn. Never had that, though. Pain got bad enough that I nearly threw up.
Went to ER around 7. EKG ... chest X-ray ... blood work ... everything looked normal. But by then the pain was coming in waves. I could feel it coming on, intensifying, then vanishing. All in the absence of any doctor or nurse in the room at the time.
Finally a nurse and then a doctor saw what I was going through. But they still could not be sure: was it cardio or gastro?
My body didn’t respond to morphine or nitro. It should have. But everyone is different. Lucky for me someone decided to try a drug usually prescribed for anxiety. No more pain.
Subsequent blood tests began to show more and more of an enzyme associated with heart attacks. So they admitted me to the hospital for overnight observation.
Imaging test the next day showed several severe blockages, and the doctor was ready with stents—four in all—which he immediately inserted, going up through my wrist to my heart.
Took a long time, though, and I was getting claustrophobic toward the end.
So glad it’s over now. Back home, feeling very good. Very blessed.
Could use a beer, though that may not go well with all my new medications.
Went to ER around 7. EKG ... chest X-ray ... blood work ... everything looked normal. But by then the pain was coming in waves. I could feel it coming on, intensifying, then vanishing. All in the absence of any doctor or nurse in the room at the time.
Finally a nurse and then a doctor saw what I was going through. But they still could not be sure: was it cardio or gastro?
My body didn’t respond to morphine or nitro. It should have. But everyone is different. Lucky for me someone decided to try a drug usually prescribed for anxiety. No more pain.
Subsequent blood tests began to show more and more of an enzyme associated with heart attacks. So they admitted me to the hospital for overnight observation.
Imaging test the next day showed several severe blockages, and the doctor was ready with stents—four in all—which he immediately inserted, going up through my wrist to my heart.
Took a long time, though, and I was getting claustrophobic toward the end.
So glad it’s over now. Back home, feeling very good. Very blessed.
Could use a beer, though that may not go well with all my new medications.
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