Heart Attack
Well, once again, its been a bit since I last wrote anything here. One difference is that I do have something to say.
First let me say that I am getting sick and tired of all this snow. We received another big storm in Utah last week and it caused a lot of problems all over. And, even though I didn't know it, it helped me to find out something about myself that was a necessary thing for me. It was Wednesday evening, and I was shoveling a bunch of snow out of my driveway. There had been some drifts once again, and it was pretty darn heavy. While I was shoveling it, I felt a pain in my chest that was uncomfortable, but I wouldn't really call it extremely painful. I stopped shoveling for a minute and then thought I imagined my left arm going numb. Standing there getting rid of what I thought was gas, I tried to feel how my right arm felt in comparison to my left arm, and decided that it was my imagination. I continued to shovel, stopping periodically with what I thought to be gas. Well, that was the start of it.
The next day was Valentines Day. I went to work as is usual (the weather made driving a bit difficult) and spent a regular day at work. I actually told one of my co-workers that I had wondered about a heart attack the previous night, and if that is what it was, it wasn't near as painful as kidney stones. I went through the work day and then on the way home stopped at a couple of places to get the regular Valentines Day type of stuff. This included some chocolate covered strawberries and raspberries at V-Chocolate, a grater, a card and a heart shaped mylar balloon. The grater was because I had heard my wife complaining about our current grater when she had been cooking during the week. Of course I said something sappy about it in the card about her being a grater Valentine than any other (she didn't catch the pun without me pointing it out to her). Well, I arrived home and handed over the goods, and got some goods in return. My card was a lion singing "Wild Thing". It was quite cute, and then of course I got some candy as well. It's all good.
Off and on, I was getting those same "gas" pains. I also kept on wondering about my left arm, but it wasn't very strong when it was going a bit numb. Having a "Y" chromosome, I did all I could do, and ignored it.
I had Friday off and we didn't do too much, but enjoyed spending the day together. Still that nagging heart burn. Saturday was much of the same. Finally, around 9:00 in the evening, I decided that heart burn wasn't going away. I went into the office and googled "Heart Burn or Heart Attack". Opening the first site, I read my symptoms which basically said I had an Angina attack and that I should call 911 to get into the hospital. I wanted a second opinion that would go more with my way of thinking which was, don't worry, stay home and take some Tums. I looked at about 8 more websites and none of them said to do that. I finally came out of the office and told my wife we should go to the hospital. She took me there.
We didn't want to go to the Jordan Valley Hospital (the closest one to us and on my insurance plan) because we didn't trust them from horror stories that we had heard. We decided to head for St. Marks (which is a good cardio hospital as well as it's on our plan) instead. On the way, we stopped at a 7-11 so we could get some aspirin for me to chew on. This was frustrating as well. They only had one bottle of aspirin and my wife couldn't read the expiration date on it. She left her keys in the store so she could hurry out to her husband (me) and get him chewing that aspirin. In the meantime people were upset at her for being in the way of them buying slurpees. When she went back in to pay for it, they were butting in front of her in line (they knew of the problem) and she had to tell a guy its my turn!
On the way to the hospital, we dropped our kids off at grandmas house. We finally got to the hospital, and I really wasn't in pain. I walked into Emergency and told them that I had had some chest pains and some numbness to the left arm. They hurried me into the ER as all the people who have been there for hours glared at the person who was being taken right in right now. I was told that sometimes people actually lie about a heart attack to be looked at for a sore throat. This wasn't the case with me. I really didn't want to be there, but I was.
I got an EKG. They said that it was all over the place. They don't just take that one indicator. They sprayed some nitroglycerin under my tongue and asked how I felt. I told them that it felt better. He said, the good news is that we are pretty certain you were right, but that is also the bad news. I had another EKG after putting on a patch with nitroglycerin. It was normal which was another indicator that I was having a problem. Lined up outside of the room was an X-ray machine which was brought in to take some pictures. Blood pressure tests and other tests were also being performed. It was pretty certain I was about to be admitted. I told my wife that we hadn't brought my C-pap machine. She would have to run home for it.
While my wife was gone, the admittance to the hospital happened. I was whisked up to the third floor in room 3S10 (3rd floor South - room 10). By the time my wife got there, they were finishing up some questions. There was some question about me sleeping that night with the C-pap machine since they did not want me to be without oxygen. My wife stayed for a little while, but it was going to be 2:00 AM before she got home, so she left me there. I finally got them to agree that I should use the C-pap rather than the oxygen because then for sure I would be breathing. They had to talk to the doctor first, but finally made that same decision. Of course sleeping in the hospital is a misnomer. There is very little if any sleep to be had in a hospital room unless you are drugged up.
It was like I was in a psych ward. There was a lady with dimensia down the hall that kept on yelling out. There was also another guy up the other hall that I heard from all night (I was in a corner room). Then there was the guy that snored quite loud. Not to mention they left my light on all night. Of course they kept waking my up to take blood or blood pressure or some other thing. It was an awful night.
Around 7:00 in the morning I called my parents to let them know where I was, and my mom decided she wasn't going to go to church because of wondering about me. She also would call my whole family to let them know what is going on. My oldest brother she wasn't able to contact.
My parents came in at around 8:00 with Jay Richardson (the next door neighbor throughout my childhood and to this day) to give me a priesthood blessing. Of course, I was blessed and included in that was that the Doctors would also know the best things to do.
They left, and my wife came in. At around 11:00 I was taken down to the "Cath" room. I was all prepped for the operation to begin. I was told about all the drugs that I would be given and that one of them is a drug that makes it so you can be awake, but you will forget everything. I had had a drug like that before so I expected to remember nothing. As it is, I remember a lot, and there is only a little bit that I don't remember. I don't remember the start of the procedure and the doctor coming in, but I certainly remember the die being sent into my body for pictures. I also felt them at my groin pinching. They were talking about blowing up the balloons, and they talked about the stent that was being put in. While the balloons were going in I felt the worst. I actually felt that "gas" again, although it was more severe now and the numbing of the left arm. I was told that this was normal because in putting it in they were completely blocking the artery. All of this was done in about an hours time. My wife was in a waiting room and my mom came to be with her during that time.
Next, I had to lay straight on the bed for five hours. They didn't want my right leg to move at all. No moving of my neck either. I was able to eat a turkey sandwich lunch right after the surgery which my wife broke into bits for me to eat. There really would be no other way to eat it. I was hungry because this was the first food I would have this day. They did allow me to turn on my side (they actually turned me on my side) and then soon the five hours would be up.
I had a nice dinner of Roast Beef and potatoes. About the time that visitors started to come I had some real gas. It was hurting. I told them I was just going to release and hope they understood. Nobody really left the room. Scott and Anita came to visit, and then later, Pam, Anne, Zach, Meghan and Rod. My parents also came to visit for a bit. My little brother, Glen had called and talked to my wife. My mom couldn't get hold of my oldest brother, Larry and didn't know how to contact him. He called me tonight and told me that unbeknown to him, his phone was broken. I was able to walk with a nurse that night, but it was kind of painful.
I was able to talk to my daughter (Aubree) twice that night. Once because she needed to call me while she was at work and then she called when she was done with work. I had her a bit concerned.
Well, everybody left and then a little later, my wife left. I was in for another boring night with a lot of waking up for all kinds of crap to be done. I got a little more sleep than the previous night, but my groin was very tender. That woke my up quite a bit, as well as all the regular nurses coming in at all hours of the evening.
Early Monday morning, I got up and showered. The doctor came in while I was in the shower and said he would be back. He did come back and told me that I would be discharged shortly. It took a little while, but I finally got discharged around 10:00 in the morning. We went over to my in-laws where our son was staying and stayed there for a bit. We finally arrived home around 1:00 PM. I just rested for most of the day.
Pam and Anne showed up with our daughter Monday evening and gave me a get well gift of a cook book for better eating habits. We actually used it tonight for our meal, and it may not be too bad. It looks like my lifestyle will be changing.
This morning I woke up and decided to check on a couple of jobs at work. The whole system had gone down on the weekend, and I had to get it back up by calling Tom and then started up the jobs for Sunday. When a co-worker got into work, I called him and let him know what he needed to do to fix everything for me. I continued to do work until around 8:00 when I had to leave home so I could get to my pulmonary doctor. He told me he would've been OK if I had canceled seeing him, but I told him it wasn't a problem. On my way home from that, I stopped into work to make sure how things were going with the fixes, and gave some more information on what needed to be done. I talked to a few people about my experience and then went home. I then realized that I had to return some library books and then came home again. My wife and I then went out shopping for some healthful foods and got home for a little bit longer. We then went to our sons school to learn what we needed to know about his registering for school the next year.
Tonight, we had chicken fajitas for dinner, and then I did a bit of relaxing. The kids went to Young Men/Young Women and my wife and I watched a movie. I will probably be going to work tomorrow.
I got a call from Larry and it was a good call, although he called me onto the carpet a bit. He let me know what I needed to do from here on out. He's a good guy.
Well, that's about it. What a time. It was a wonderful Presidents Day huh?
First let me say that I am getting sick and tired of all this snow. We received another big storm in Utah last week and it caused a lot of problems all over. And, even though I didn't know it, it helped me to find out something about myself that was a necessary thing for me. It was Wednesday evening, and I was shoveling a bunch of snow out of my driveway. There had been some drifts once again, and it was pretty darn heavy. While I was shoveling it, I felt a pain in my chest that was uncomfortable, but I wouldn't really call it extremely painful. I stopped shoveling for a minute and then thought I imagined my left arm going numb. Standing there getting rid of what I thought was gas, I tried to feel how my right arm felt in comparison to my left arm, and decided that it was my imagination. I continued to shovel, stopping periodically with what I thought to be gas. Well, that was the start of it.
The next day was Valentines Day. I went to work as is usual (the weather made driving a bit difficult) and spent a regular day at work. I actually told one of my co-workers that I had wondered about a heart attack the previous night, and if that is what it was, it wasn't near as painful as kidney stones. I went through the work day and then on the way home stopped at a couple of places to get the regular Valentines Day type of stuff. This included some chocolate covered strawberries and raspberries at V-Chocolate, a grater, a card and a heart shaped mylar balloon. The grater was because I had heard my wife complaining about our current grater when she had been cooking during the week. Of course I said something sappy about it in the card about her being a grater Valentine than any other (she didn't catch the pun without me pointing it out to her). Well, I arrived home and handed over the goods, and got some goods in return. My card was a lion singing "Wild Thing". It was quite cute, and then of course I got some candy as well. It's all good.
Off and on, I was getting those same "gas" pains. I also kept on wondering about my left arm, but it wasn't very strong when it was going a bit numb. Having a "Y" chromosome, I did all I could do, and ignored it.
I had Friday off and we didn't do too much, but enjoyed spending the day together. Still that nagging heart burn. Saturday was much of the same. Finally, around 9:00 in the evening, I decided that heart burn wasn't going away. I went into the office and googled "Heart Burn or Heart Attack". Opening the first site, I read my symptoms which basically said I had an Angina attack and that I should call 911 to get into the hospital. I wanted a second opinion that would go more with my way of thinking which was, don't worry, stay home and take some Tums. I looked at about 8 more websites and none of them said to do that. I finally came out of the office and told my wife we should go to the hospital. She took me there.
We didn't want to go to the Jordan Valley Hospital (the closest one to us and on my insurance plan) because we didn't trust them from horror stories that we had heard. We decided to head for St. Marks (which is a good cardio hospital as well as it's on our plan) instead. On the way, we stopped at a 7-11 so we could get some aspirin for me to chew on. This was frustrating as well. They only had one bottle of aspirin and my wife couldn't read the expiration date on it. She left her keys in the store so she could hurry out to her husband (me) and get him chewing that aspirin. In the meantime people were upset at her for being in the way of them buying slurpees. When she went back in to pay for it, they were butting in front of her in line (they knew of the problem) and she had to tell a guy its my turn!
On the way to the hospital, we dropped our kids off at grandmas house. We finally got to the hospital, and I really wasn't in pain. I walked into Emergency and told them that I had had some chest pains and some numbness to the left arm. They hurried me into the ER as all the people who have been there for hours glared at the person who was being taken right in right now. I was told that sometimes people actually lie about a heart attack to be looked at for a sore throat. This wasn't the case with me. I really didn't want to be there, but I was.
I got an EKG. They said that it was all over the place. They don't just take that one indicator. They sprayed some nitroglycerin under my tongue and asked how I felt. I told them that it felt better. He said, the good news is that we are pretty certain you were right, but that is also the bad news. I had another EKG after putting on a patch with nitroglycerin. It was normal which was another indicator that I was having a problem. Lined up outside of the room was an X-ray machine which was brought in to take some pictures. Blood pressure tests and other tests were also being performed. It was pretty certain I was about to be admitted. I told my wife that we hadn't brought my C-pap machine. She would have to run home for it.
While my wife was gone, the admittance to the hospital happened. I was whisked up to the third floor in room 3S10 (3rd floor South - room 10). By the time my wife got there, they were finishing up some questions. There was some question about me sleeping that night with the C-pap machine since they did not want me to be without oxygen. My wife stayed for a little while, but it was going to be 2:00 AM before she got home, so she left me there. I finally got them to agree that I should use the C-pap rather than the oxygen because then for sure I would be breathing. They had to talk to the doctor first, but finally made that same decision. Of course sleeping in the hospital is a misnomer. There is very little if any sleep to be had in a hospital room unless you are drugged up.
It was like I was in a psych ward. There was a lady with dimensia down the hall that kept on yelling out. There was also another guy up the other hall that I heard from all night (I was in a corner room). Then there was the guy that snored quite loud. Not to mention they left my light on all night. Of course they kept waking my up to take blood or blood pressure or some other thing. It was an awful night.
Around 7:00 in the morning I called my parents to let them know where I was, and my mom decided she wasn't going to go to church because of wondering about me. She also would call my whole family to let them know what is going on. My oldest brother she wasn't able to contact.
My parents came in at around 8:00 with Jay Richardson (the next door neighbor throughout my childhood and to this day) to give me a priesthood blessing. Of course, I was blessed and included in that was that the Doctors would also know the best things to do.
They left, and my wife came in. At around 11:00 I was taken down to the "Cath" room. I was all prepped for the operation to begin. I was told about all the drugs that I would be given and that one of them is a drug that makes it so you can be awake, but you will forget everything. I had had a drug like that before so I expected to remember nothing. As it is, I remember a lot, and there is only a little bit that I don't remember. I don't remember the start of the procedure and the doctor coming in, but I certainly remember the die being sent into my body for pictures. I also felt them at my groin pinching. They were talking about blowing up the balloons, and they talked about the stent that was being put in. While the balloons were going in I felt the worst. I actually felt that "gas" again, although it was more severe now and the numbing of the left arm. I was told that this was normal because in putting it in they were completely blocking the artery. All of this was done in about an hours time. My wife was in a waiting room and my mom came to be with her during that time.
Next, I had to lay straight on the bed for five hours. They didn't want my right leg to move at all. No moving of my neck either. I was able to eat a turkey sandwich lunch right after the surgery which my wife broke into bits for me to eat. There really would be no other way to eat it. I was hungry because this was the first food I would have this day. They did allow me to turn on my side (they actually turned me on my side) and then soon the five hours would be up.
I had a nice dinner of Roast Beef and potatoes. About the time that visitors started to come I had some real gas. It was hurting. I told them I was just going to release and hope they understood. Nobody really left the room. Scott and Anita came to visit, and then later, Pam, Anne, Zach, Meghan and Rod. My parents also came to visit for a bit. My little brother, Glen had called and talked to my wife. My mom couldn't get hold of my oldest brother, Larry and didn't know how to contact him. He called me tonight and told me that unbeknown to him, his phone was broken. I was able to walk with a nurse that night, but it was kind of painful.
I was able to talk to my daughter (Aubree) twice that night. Once because she needed to call me while she was at work and then she called when she was done with work. I had her a bit concerned.
Well, everybody left and then a little later, my wife left. I was in for another boring night with a lot of waking up for all kinds of crap to be done. I got a little more sleep than the previous night, but my groin was very tender. That woke my up quite a bit, as well as all the regular nurses coming in at all hours of the evening.
Early Monday morning, I got up and showered. The doctor came in while I was in the shower and said he would be back. He did come back and told me that I would be discharged shortly. It took a little while, but I finally got discharged around 10:00 in the morning. We went over to my in-laws where our son was staying and stayed there for a bit. We finally arrived home around 1:00 PM. I just rested for most of the day.
Pam and Anne showed up with our daughter Monday evening and gave me a get well gift of a cook book for better eating habits. We actually used it tonight for our meal, and it may not be too bad. It looks like my lifestyle will be changing.
This morning I woke up and decided to check on a couple of jobs at work. The whole system had gone down on the weekend, and I had to get it back up by calling Tom and then started up the jobs for Sunday. When a co-worker got into work, I called him and let him know what he needed to do to fix everything for me. I continued to do work until around 8:00 when I had to leave home so I could get to my pulmonary doctor. He told me he would've been OK if I had canceled seeing him, but I told him it wasn't a problem. On my way home from that, I stopped into work to make sure how things were going with the fixes, and gave some more information on what needed to be done. I talked to a few people about my experience and then went home. I then realized that I had to return some library books and then came home again. My wife and I then went out shopping for some healthful foods and got home for a little bit longer. We then went to our sons school to learn what we needed to know about his registering for school the next year.
Tonight, we had chicken fajitas for dinner, and then I did a bit of relaxing. The kids went to Young Men/Young Women and my wife and I watched a movie. I will probably be going to work tomorrow.
I got a call from Larry and it was a good call, although he called me onto the carpet a bit. He let me know what I needed to do from here on out. He's a good guy.
Well, that's about it. What a time. It was a wonderful Presidents Day huh?
posted by Craig's Blog at 10:08 PM
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