My heart attack education continued the day after the I checked into the hospital. I was to learn all about the joy of the stress test. Given my condition, however, they weren’t going to make me run on a treadmill. Instead I was to undergo a chemically induced stress test with a nuclear component for imaging. This is about as much fun as it sounds. (more…)

I’ve made it to the emergency room. It took me five days, a few hundred miles of motorcycle riding and some encouragement from family members to get me here, but I’m in the hospital now. I check in with the emergency room nurse and tell her I’m having chest pains. She takes my information and has me sit down. Sitting is good at this point because the pain and burning in my chest, a result of my walk to my car from my apartment and later from my car to the emergency room, is not fading. This kind of pain had been coming on after walks to stairs all weekend, but it would fade if I sat down. Now the pain just sits in my chest and doesn’t let go. Still, sitting feels better than walking. (more…)

Having a heart attack was nothing like what I expected. Yes, I had thought about it prior to actually experiencing it and, much as one would assume, it was nothing like in the movies. I was lucky (a theme you’ll note I’ll repeat many times through these posts) in that my heart attack wasn’t a “lights out” attack. I was also stupid (another theme you’ll see again) in that I didn’t recognize the symptoms. I was even dumber when I suspected what the symptoms were pointing to and I continued to ignore them, and luckier that my lights didn’t go out before I got to the hospital. So what was having a heart attack like? That’s what I’m going to be writing about in this post - part two of the “Heart Attack Chronicles”. (more…)

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”. (more…)