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« on: June 03, 2016, 11:19:11 am »
Well, we've mentioned things about health throughout the site, we've not made a thread.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time.
First... I'm OK... No, I'm good. It wasn't that way 24 hours ago.
I'm not trying to bring drama, but I'm slowly realizing how serious my health got and just give others a heads up to take your health seriously. I do and always have. Somehow this snuck up on me.
Admittedly I'm pretty sedate during winter, but become active at the first signs of tolerable weather. That being said, my activities has picked up. Walk a lot with my wife. The garden is major work. Regular yard and house stuff. 2 weeks ago, I started a project that involved concrete. Simple 2x2 and 2x4 concrete slabs. I'm convinced it was this hard effort that broke loose the blockage in my heart. Since then my walks become painful in the chest and more so down my left arm. Climbing 2 flights of stairs with a backpack was dreadful. More pain. I made an appointment with my doctor Tuesday. We talked and set up a stress test... Immediately. I took the stress test yesterday and they saw some significant abnormalities. It was suggested I go to cardiac center then or the next day. I went then and was in the operating room 2 hours later.
So I had 90% blockage in the front artery and 80% in the back artery. The 3rd was clear. I was hoping I had strained some muscles. Not thinking blockage. I have a history of cholesterol. My doc and I have made efforts to address it. I've been taking cholesterol medicine for about 3 years now and it's been working. My numbers are looking far better. But, obviously I still have plaque build up, so my doc, cardiologist and I need to re-evaluate.
The procedure is amazing. It's about an hour and I'm wide awake. Today, the preferred method is to go through the wrist. They put a small straw in the major wrist vein. They snake the catheter through the wrist, up the arm and into the heart. Watching on a monitor, they check all the openings. Once they see where the blockage is forming, they snake a small metal laced stint into position. They apply air and the area balloons large spreading the stint outward and pushing the fatty material about and thinned out. They don't scrape the material due to high risk of material floating into areas it should never go. Now the artery is open to original size. Flow to the heart and I'm back to normal.
I'm watching all this happen. I slightly feel the catheter in my arm.
Textbook blockage and strint repair. I'm back in recovery. I'm fine and theoretically could be good enough to go home. But they wanted a night of observation.
Got home hours ago.
I need to be inactive for about 3 days. No lifting or major use of my right hand. That vein is repairing itself and don't want to pop it open.
Expect to go back to work Monday. Do yard work and play drums in about 10 days... Because of my wrist vein.
My lesson learned... is to listen to your body. Pay attention to everything you put into it.
My concrete project was a blessing in disguise. I believe if I did not do it, my blockage would have continued to worsen and the possibility of something far less, like shoveling snow could have triggered a heart attack. Possibly death. Heart attacks is devastating to the heart and other parts of the body. My heart is very healthy and the blockage needed attention.
I've been slowly tackling my eating habits. Now it's going to be full time attention. I'm not to far removed from eating right. Just need minor adjustments. I should step up my heart pumping with activities 24/7. Not just summer. I sincerely feel sitting at my cubicle 40 hours a week is contributing to my health issues. Work seems very supportive of all thing health. I intend to find out what more they can provide me. For myself I need to get away from desk, far more.
As the doc said, some times it's just bad luck. I do not have family history of heart disease. My mom has always had high cholesterol. I'm the only one in the family, besides her.
He told me, I just did everything right addressing the symptoms. I do feel lucky. I did think I was smart about it. But I can be smarter.
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