The Heart Attack Story

 So, here I am, sitting in my living room, watching tv when a very familiar story starts playing out in front of me on the ole telly. One of you knows this story for sure, the rest, I'm not so sure.

On Nick's birthday (Sept 5) in 2020, I started feeling this weird pain in my neck. It wasn't muscle pain, it was something else entirely. Then, I began having trouble catching my breath. It was like I had half the lung volume or something, I would take long deep breaths and nothing would change. There was no pain in my chest or arm. Just my neck.

Me, being me, kept trying to ignore it. It was Nick's birthday, this was probably just a panic attack for some weird reason. (I didn't have a logical answer to the trigger of said panic attack, but hey...I was trying to keep Nick from having to take me to the ER.) I actually told him nothing, at first.

Then, I got a little more concerned as I became more lightheaded.

So, I thought I had Covid.

Look, I was 51, not the most healthy person in the world with a long history of heart disease in the family, but I wasn't on cholesterol medication or blood pressure medication. And, it's not like I didn't go to the doctor, ya know? I really had no clue.

I finally told Nick I needed to go to the ER. Nick, knowing me as he does, took me seriously. All the way to the hospital, I kept saying I was sorry. I was just really worried because I couldn't catch my breath and thought I could have Covid.

I could barely breathe through that damn mask while I waited in the waiting room to be seen. 

It, actually, didn't take them long before they were giving me oxygen and hooking me up to an EKG.

The doctor came in and said, we'll test you but this isn't Covid. It's your heart. It looks like you're having a heart attack. We will run tests to confirm, but you're being admitted. They gave me Nitroglycerin which made me jittery as hell. Took a bunch of blood, started an IV, had a CT of my heart, and I kept apologizing to Nick.

Look, it may seem, to many of you, that I'm apologizing to Nick when I didn't have to, but Nick lost his wife on Valentine's Day. I was having a heart attack on his birthday. I was concerned about his mental health. Please also note, that Nick and I, while not legally married, are legally joined through medical powers of attorney; living wills; etc. So, yes, they considered him family and allowed him to stay with me. Under their Covid guidelines, I was allowed only one family member for visits. No one else could come to see me.

Then came the ride to the hospital, in another city. Look, I wasn't in charge of which hospital they sent me to, I just went where the ambulance took me. It turns out the ER Nick took me to was connected to a hospital in a different county. It was a stand-alone ER, not in the same building as the hospital. 

They got me into that ER where I was told I definitely had a heart attack, and I definitely needed to have a cardiac catheterization in the morning. And, they admitted me into their cardiac wing. Nick went home, and I spent the night being poked prodded, and monitored every two hours. 

After the cardiac catheterization, the cardiologist came to me and said, I see an 80% blockage in one of your arteries. I'm going to consult with a vascular surgeon and decide what we should do. A vascular surgeon came to see me and said, we're going to put in a stent. We will be doing another cardiac catheterization tomorrow to place the stent.

If you never had one, they place a thingamabob doohickey in your femoral artery. Then, they put a camera up there and have a look see what's going on in your heart. They can also use a tool to place the stent. When the procedure is done, you have to lie on your back, flat, and a nurse will come remove the doohickey. Then, they will put pressure on it for hours to get your blood clotting, and mend the artery the doohickey was in. With me? This is important information for later. I'll be quizzing you. LMFAO. Just kidding.

Nick came to visit, yada yada, I wrote a blog post explaining I needed another cardiac catheterization and sent my phone and computer home with Nick because I was supposed to go home that next day after the stent was placed. And, I didn't want to leave electronics alone in my room.

The stent got placed, and I woke up, the nurse came in to remove doohickey thingamabob from my artery. She sat there putting pressure on my artery, and when she released the pressure...

My artery burst.

I won't go into graphic detail, I'm sure your mind can imagine what I saw when I was lying flat on the bed after having just had a heart attack and surgery on my heart. Being told not to move, not to get up, a code being called...

Chaos.

Pandemonium.

I could feel the life draining out of me, friends. Like, felt it.

I kept telling doctors I felt weird.

They kept trying to reassure me.

I kept being insistent I did not feel okay.

I could feel myself fading.

They told me I was in shock. 

They started transfusing blood, and I became more aware of my surroundings again.

Then, the vascular surgeon came in and told me they were taking me to the ICU. And, that, they needed to repair my artery.

Nick was on his way to pick me up from the hospital, by the way. We really thought I was going home.

He arrived in the ICU, panicked, as I lay there not knowing what was going to happen next. 

They repaired the artery that afternoon. And, I stayed in the ICU for three days, lying in bed, not allowed to get up with a nurses assistant sitting by my bed the entire time. By the fourth day, they let me get up with a walker, then with nurses' help, then I showed them I could walk on my own and they sent me back to the cardiac floor.

They were happy to see me alive and wellish.

I had a HUGE bruise on my left inner thigh and was weak but I knew I was going to be okay.

I went home, got settled into my room, and thought it would be fine. 

Until I tried to make my bed (I am one stubbornly independent woman) and started bleeding again.

Back to the ER, only this time, we went to the hospital close to us. They admitted me to ICU, where I had to lie in bed for three days waiting for things to settle down again. But, I never felt like I was in any real danger while I was there.

They moved me to their cardiac wing for a day. Then, I went home. 

And, that, my friends, is the Heart Attack Story.

How's that for wordy, prof? 😂