The Heart Attack Chronicles - Introduction
It’s been another long break for me from the blog that few ever read. I’ve had plenty to write about, but the transition from my brain to the page has been problematic. The simple fact of the matter is that I don’t feel that I have all that much original to say. All the posts I’ve had tend to follow some kind of party line, even if the party in question is never really clear (especially to me). Still, there’s enough other people writing exactly the same sentiments out there that I don’t really feel that the addition of my two cents is all that worthwhile. So while there have been the regular frustrations, the occasional inspired experience and the constant annoyances with the politicians, I just haven’t felt the need to report on them here in my blog. However, I don’t want to stop posting, so I spent a few moments thinking about subjects where I could write something interesting and/or useful. It became obvious that my experience with a heart attack at a young age was something that fit the bill. Therefore, consider this post the first in a series of installments that I have taken to calling “The Heart Attack Chronicles”.
These posts will consist of my recollection of the events leading up to, during and after the heart attack. I hope to shed some light on the experience for those at risk out there so that they might dodge the bullet I caught. It’s also a chance for me to rehash what I went through to get all those memories out of my head and into some format where I can re-read them later on in life, however long that may be. Finally, I was inspired to start writing these posts by reading some writings of a man who also survived a heart attack and was suffering from depression. I found myself sharing a lot of opinions with this fellow survivor, though his story was infinitely worse than mine (he was a very fit individual who denied himself many of the guilty pleasures I’ve enjoyed so much during my life, and yet despite his efforts he still suffered a heart attack). I stumbled across his posts by accident searching for information on weight training after a heart attack (which I’ve started doing again with approval from my doctor, and which is making me feel like all my exercising is finally affecting my body image) and could identify with several of his comments about feeling as though I were stupid, my increased sense of hypochondria, and the sense of turmoil. Happily for me, I’ve not suffered the post-heart attack depression this man has (though he does talk about possible reasons for his depression beyond the heart attack on another page) and so many others experience, though I have noticed the odd blacker-than-usual thought crossing my mind here and there (more on that in later posts).
As a refresher, I’ve already posted once about my heart attack but, it was a semi-sarcastic bit that really didn’t get into details. Let me give you the basic story, one that I will expand upon in upcoming posts: I experienced my first symptoms on a Wednesday night during a vacation from work. I ignored the symptoms, which returned all the stronger on Thursday night, but which I ignored again. The symptoms concerned me enough that I did a bit of research on them Friday morning, still got on my motorcycle and rode to Vermont for the weekend to spend some time with my family instead of going to the hospital when the results of my research pointed to heart attack. The symptoms changed, but I was definitely “not right” the entire weekend. I rode home on Sunday and checked myself into the hospital where I was given confirmation of my suspicion that I’d had a heart attack. A week stay and two stents later, I was released from the hospital. I got lucky. I’m still here, more than six months later, and able to post about my experience.
Hopefully what I’m going to post will be of interest to others, as I know the writing of other heart attack survivors has been to me. Stay tuned for a more detailed explanation of the heart attack experience, as chronicled by moi.
