View Full Version : Well I'm in the hospital with a heart attack
ghostman1960
05-23-10, 06:03
I am typing this from room D411 in the ICU unit of my local hospital.
Last night at about 2330 I started having a hard time breathing with pain in my chest, lower jaw and left arm. The pain got progressively worse as each minute passed.
I said to myself yeah, this is probably a heart attack. Like an idiot I decided to drive myself to the hospital. That was a mistake.
On the way there I thought I was going to pass out and then when I got there I found out it was the wrong hospital.
They did not have a cath lab and I needed a catherization and a stent according to the docs there. They said a life flight was coming to get me and take me to the right place.
In the mean time they did what they could to stabilize me. I really thought I was going to die. The pain was intense. I couldn't breath and I was having a hard time staying consious.
Finally the life flight helicopter got there and took me to the place I needed to be. I got my stent in my 95 % blocked artery. and things are feeling better. I'm sore from where they put the Cath thing on my groin and I'm still a little scared.
I learned a couple of things last night. If you are having chest pains call 911. They know exactly what hospital you need to go to.
If you smoke, quit. Now. Throw them away. Eat more fruits and veggies and less red meat.
It's scary facing your mortality like that. I came very close to dying. Very close. I'm too young for this to happen. I'm only 49. But it did.
If any of you guys get unexplained shortness on breath, don't ignore it like I did. It's your body telling you somethng. See a doctor. Don't wait for a heart attack like I did.
Oh yeah. Nitro glyseron gives you one he'll of a head ache.
Damn I almost died last night. I hope my iPhone holds a charge until my wife gets here with the charger before it dies.
Get well. Godspeed. I think I see P90X in your future. :D
Im glad you're okay. do you have any children ?
Im glad you see the error of your ways, dont try to do too much to soon.
Eat right, start walking, get bicycles for you and the misses, this is your second chance that many never get.
Use it, start living life now.
Ghost, I do heart attacks for living. Two things: first, it is time to learn a lot now. Not only about mistakes you made yesterday, but about your disease, about preventing this from happening again, about stent they put in etc. I tell my patients that they have one disease to learn about, while I need to know about many - therefore I expect them to know about their own same or more than I know.
Second, generally speaking, if the blockage is less than 100% as in your case, the damage is not as extensive as it might be and prognosis is better.
Good luck.
Wow man, we'll be praying for you and your family. Get well soon.
My good wishes and prayer to you, brother.
May I suggest vitamins A, C, E and Coenzyme Q10; at least research them for future usage and gradual exercise.
Keep us posted with your progress, please.
Prayers sent on your behalf.
Arctic Sloth
05-23-10, 09:34
Prayers sent. Good luck and I hope you have a speedy recovery.
I'm glad to hear you got where you needed to be and that they were able to take care of you. I'm a paramedic and I've seen it plenty of times where people should have called an ambulance but they decided to (try to) drive themselves to the hospital instead. There's a myriad of things that can go wrong when taking this course of action. Even having someone else drive you is (usually) not a good idea. Anyway I'm glad you're doing better and you'll be in my prayers for a complete recovery.
lethal dose
05-23-10, 09:46
God is in control, here. Already prayed for you. Thanks for sharing your story... kind of a wake up call. I work at a local hospital and see this all too much. Give God thanks for another shot and use it.
Sounds like a rough time, and I hope you will have a successful recovery. This sort of thing is very common in my family, so I am proactively scared.
condition 1
05-23-10, 10:08
you will be OK, in a day or two you'll be reaching for boots, and ready to get out of there, I know, the same thing happened to me the end of February, I had two stints put in on the right side, it will sure knock the wind out of your sails, I'm 51 6'2 215 and very active, I could have done better with my diet, (you are what you eat)... With me it didn't stop there, the past 6 weeks I have been recovering from, By-pass surgery, Ghostman, you don't want any part of that, keep a positive out look and don't let it get you down, you are better than you were before, you will probably feel better than you did prior to your heart attack, get up and get moving around ASAP, and do what you Cardiologist tells ya, he will keep you alive. we are not as "indivincible" as we were when we were yonger, at 50 its time to start watching our health. This is was a wake up call for me that almost cost me my life also. Ghostman i'm right there with ya, I know exactly what you are going tru, you'll be fine. Get well soon, and prayers to you and your family.
SpookyPistolero
05-23-10, 10:09
Very sorry to hear it! I'm glad you did get what you needed though. If it's of any comfort, my father in law also recently had an MI. Never had a cardiac health issue before, and the ln he had two stents placed. Roughly two months later, by adherence to the meds, rehab, and diet, they can hardly see any bruising and his ejection fraction is at 60%.
tracker722
05-23-10, 10:15
*********************
I am glad you are doing better and in good hands at the hospital.
Just wanted to correct a common misconception. Red meat is not the problem. The problem is processed red meat such as bacon, lunch meat, hot dogs, etc. Believe it or not, steaks, roast, and other unprocessed red meat are fine in moderation.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/dont-bring-home-the-bacon/?src=mv
Glad to hear you are doing better. I wish you a speedy recovery.
Hey ghostman, God bless you and your family. There is a bright side to this! You will enjoy those great little everyday things people take for granted much more than before bud. Prayers already inbound!
I'll be praying for you, keep us up to date.
Quiet-Matt
05-23-10, 13:44
Scary stuff Ghostman, I hope your recovery goes well. You might think about changing your screen name, ghostman1960 seems a little too real at this point ;)
Get better soon man.
Learn from it, spend the next 49 years having fun doing all the right things for your health and you'll be fine. Here is to a speedy and full recovery and a long life of doing good things for your body mind and soul.
I wish you all the best, and hope you have a speedy recovery. God bless!
ghostman1960
05-23-10, 17:38
Thanks for all of the encouragement guys. It is helping for sure. I get to leave the icu in the morning.
The bummer is that the doc says I will be off work for a month.
Cagemonkey
05-23-10, 20:10
Glad to hear your OK. Get well soon and good luck with the challenges that lay ahead.
NinjaMedic
05-23-10, 20:27
Have they figured out your ejection fraction yet? Hopefully you didnt lose much function. Glad to hear you are out of the worst of it.
Thanks for all of the encouragement guys. It is helping for sure. I get to leave the icu in the morning.
The bummer is that the doc says I will be off work for a month.
You're still here because you chose to be. Good on you for putting up the fight and leaving it up to something greater to decide when its time.
Drop me a line when this is behind you and I'll get you out of a plane if the docs say its ok... =)
:eek: WOW! Glad you were finally able to get the care you needed but that had to be scary as all get out. Get better.
Good luck, sir. Do what it takes to avoid a recurrence.
Prayers out.
I am wishing you a speedy and full recovery. I just had a stress test and will be going in for a follow-up appointment in a couple of weeks.
Rightful Liberty
05-24-10, 00:55
Another get well soon.
Get well soon! glad to hear they got you there in time!
QuickStrike
05-24-10, 04:26
Sounds terrifying. I hope you get well soon!
variablebinary
05-24-10, 04:38
Consider it a learning experience you can walk away from. Not everyone is so lucky.
Like Captain Miller said: "Earn it"
ghostman1960
05-24-10, 07:19
http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/ghostman1960/1274702994.jpg
tracker722
05-24-10, 09:03
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SpookyPistolero
05-24-10, 10:15
Haha, lifes good, eh? Beats being in a coffin though...
ghostman1960
05-24-10, 10:23
Haha, lifes good, eh? Beats being in a coffin though...
Yes slightly better.
http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/ghostman1960/1274713798.jpg
God Bless and take care of yourself.
They got you wired for sound!
Hope ya feel better and get the hell out of there soonest.
Now a nice salad and some fruit for lunch.
Where is your concealed carry at? Must be wearing that new inside the hospital gown holster from Galco! Get well soon bud.
LegalAlien
05-24-10, 11:38
Hope you get better real soon and glad that you are still with us!!
Next time, go see Shrek instead of doing the fleamarket and TGIF afterwards . . . . . . . or . . .
was the cause of the heart attack, your wife showing off one of the long t-shirts you got her at the fleamarket?????? :D
I'm glad you posted this. I'm sorry to hear about your issues though. Get well quick.
I'm a bit over weight (mid 300's) and we just had a baby girl about two months. I'm 32 and I put on about another 40 pounds while my wife was preg.
Just picked up a new bike the other day, going to try to get out and ride even if its just for 10 or 15 minutes in the evenings and cut back the crap I eat to just maybe a day on the weekends instead of fast food every day for lunch etc like I've been doing at work.
Anyway I'm glad you posted this because I was about just grab Mc Donalds for lunch since it's next door and I can walk the 400 feet over there. I think now I'm going to get a Turkey sub from Jimmy Johns with no mayo, no cheese which is about 334 calories unlike the 1500+ I would get from McDonalds.
CENTCOM_Survivor
05-24-10, 13:56
Get well soon!! I find posting here is pretty therapeutic also :D
The good news is that you have a second chance and a lot of your health issues are reversible. You are a very lucky man. Take advantage of this!
I am 40 and one of my best friends from high school had a heart attack last week. He is a heavy guy. His young daughter called 911 to say that daddy wasn't feeling well. The doctor told him that he was only minutes from dying when the ambulance arrived. He had to have quadruple bypass surgery. I would imagine he has some weight loss programs in his future. I am not overweight, but it was still a wake-up call for me to get as healthy as I can.
ghostman1960
05-24-10, 14:07
Sounds terrifying. I hope you get well soon!
It was terrifying. I literally felt the life slipping out of my body. At one time I was more dead than alive. Those emergency room workers are my heros from now and ever after. God bless them.
Glad you are doing well. Keep us posted and enjoy the month off you need it and can use it to start following the list of stuff the docs will have for you to do. I have some serious work to do myself. Stress Echo scheduled for Friday.
http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/ghostman1960/1274702994.jpg
WTF no bacon and butter! :mad:
Was it an omelet and bran muffin? Reminds me of the "diet tray" at boot camp, I think it was typically a hardboiled egg and a piece of wheat toast.
I predict you M4carbine knowledge and posts will increase this month!
http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt45/ghostman1960/1274702994.jpg
You know, I got that Turkey sandwich I was talking about in the other thread, no mayo, no cheese and a Diet Coke. I HATE Coke btw but it was the only diet pop Jimmy John's had. Anyway, I'm eating it now and I was just thinking damn this needs a little flavor.
Then I saw your breakfast from the ICU photo and it made my sandwich taste a LOT better!
:D
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Best wishes man, and get well soon. I know all to well how bad some hospital food can be.
SeriousStudent
05-24-10, 17:24
It beats an IV drip.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Get well soon and enjoy the food at your 5 star restaurant.
Ned Christiansen
05-24-10, 21:20
Hey pal, do what they tell ya and get well soon!
Robb Jensen
05-24-10, 21:49
Get well soon.
Cherish your loved ones, we're not here long.
Business_Casual
05-24-10, 22:14
Get well soon.
Quit smoking.
B_C
ghostman1960
05-25-10, 06:36
They did save my life on saturday night after all. I would like to show them my appreciation some how. So would sending flowers and a card be appropriate?
Thanks
ghostman1960
05-25-10, 06:55
I was just informed by the kind doctor that I will be going home today!!! Freedom!
John_Wayne777
05-25-10, 07:06
It would be entirely appropriate...although I would generally suggest something edible, like some sort of sweet treat as a thank-you.
I was in the ER a couple weeks back. A few days after my visit I went and spoke with the ER director to let her know how great the care I received was. She called the nurse and tech in that treated me and gave them both American Express gift cards. I also found out from the director when the doc, nurse and tech would all be working together and sent pizza and soda!
Food is always a welcome thing in the hospital. If there is a Chinese Food place nearby that delivers, maybe a nice gift card for them to order from? (Doc's and nurses I've had always were getting various take outs).
It would be appreciated. Cards are nice since they get posted on the bulletin board. As for food, it depends on what shift helped you. An example would be bagels if you went in during the morning shift. Make sure that the appropriate staff gets them.
Three threads that could have been one thread, so I made them one. Not sure why it would be necessary to open ANOTHER thread about your hospital stay?
It's a rhetorical question...
ghostman1960
05-25-10, 09:40
I guess the rhetorical reply would be; dunno, heavy meds. Anxiety. Things of that nature.
Wow, a little late to chime in... Best wishes to a speedy recovery.. this is scary stuff.. I just turned 55 and need to make some changes.. I have a hard time turning down a good steak or burger.
Take care and get whole quick..
I guess the rhetorical reply would be; dunno, heavy meds. Anxiety. Things of that nature.
I suppose sound advice would probably be to stay off the internet until such time as both body, and mind, are clear.
ghostman1960
05-25-10, 12:53
I suppose sound advice would probably be to stay off the internet until such time as both body, and mind, are clear.
But it was so therapeutic communicating with like minded people regarding my experience.
ghostman1960
05-25-10, 12:57
Wow, a little late to chime in... Best wishes to a speedy recovery.. this is scary stuff.. I just turned 55 and need to make some changes.. I have a hard time turning down a good steak or burger.
Take care and get whole quick..Do what you can to prevent something like that happening to you. Believe me when I say it hurts and it is scary. I literally was dying. I felt the life draining out of my body by the second. Please man, take care of yourself. Im on the if it tastes good spit it out diet now. Not fun, but better than being dead.
arizonaranchman
05-25-10, 13:45
So glad to hear you got to the hospital in time and that you're doing better. Thanks for sharing, a wake-up call for many cuz these things can creep up on you and be over and done before you know it. Make the life changes you need to in order to reduce/eliminate future problems and be thankful for another shot at life. We're only 2 yrs apart in age so I read this with close attention.
Keep us posted on your progress and may you recover quickly!
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