11 years ago, today at 9:50 AM I was sitting at my desk in the R+L Carriers Technology Center in Wilmington Ohio when I suddenly broke into a full body sweat. Time was like slow motion. I can remember thinking, why am I sweating, the sun was on the other side of the building and not to my window yet, I was not physically doing anything strenuous. I was puzzled.
Then the chest pain hit. As an EMT we were always trained to ask, "Do you feel an impending sense of doom?" and I never quite understood that. But a heart attack must trigger something in your brain that really does make you feel like you are going to die. It is a disturbing feeling. You really get the feeling that you are about to die.
As an EMT I also recognized that it would be hours before I would be able to go to the bathroom and I had 2-3 cups of coffee that morning. I got out of my chair and headed for the bathroom. I could not make it that far. I made it to Tom Gibbons' office and asked him to call 911 that I was having a heart attack, The office next to his was vacant so I went in there and laid on the desk. I knew it would be a while now before I would see the bathroom.
After calling 911, I had him call Jeni but knew she was at work and would probably not have her phone. I also asked him to call mom, and she would know how to get a hold of Jeni. Both mom from Wilmington and Jeni from Xenia beat me to the hospital.
Since the office was at interstate 71 and 68 it is served by the Port William Volunteer Fire Department, and it took a while for them to go to the station and get the squad to respond. Since it was a cardiac call, Dispatch also sent a paramedic from Wilmington. The paramedic arrived first. He knew of my dad even though it had been a while since he had retired from the fire department.
The next to arrive was the Port William fire chief. Ron Stryker, I graduated high school with him. We discussed high school things and fire and EMS things.
Eventually the life squad arrived and placed me on the monitor. Paramedic conformed that I was having a heart attack, so they loaded me up and headed for Clinton Memorial Hospital. Most considered it a first aid station.
At the edge of Wilmington, 2 blocks from mom & dad's house on spring street, I told him the pain had stopped, they pulled over so he could run another strip on the monitor and confirmed that I was no longer having an active heart attack. We then continued to the hospital.
Mom & Jeni were standing outside the ER squad entrance when we arrived. I gave them a thumbs up as I was wheeled inside. I was at Clinton Memorial for maybe ten minutes. While moving from the squad cot over to the hospital bed, they took my clothes, give me some baby aspirin, and a handful, maybe 9, Plavix. Took a few vitals and my insurance information so they could bill me for ten minutes. I was then moved to another cot and taken out to an ICU transport squad.
The ICU Squad made good time getting to Christ Hospital in northern Cincinnati. I was wheeled into the hospital; they took a left turn down a hallway with windows along the left side. Went right into an OR and moved me to their bed. The nurse said she would be with me the entire time and they would briefly put me to sleep to get the procedure stated by inserting a large bore iv in my left groin, then I would wake up and could watch the surgery on a monitor over my bed.
I remember counting down from 100 and maybe got to 97. When I woke up a few minutes later, I saw an image of my heart on the monitor and could see the tools and manipulations the doctors were doing. I did not feel any of it, it was kind of surreal. I did have a "garden hose sized" hole in my right leg, in the groin area, that they would use to make entry to the heart for the procedure. Sounds like a long path to get to the heart. At some point my nose itched, I looked for the nurse who said she would be with me, nada, not here. She did show up closer to the end of the procedure, so I had to kid her about my nose itching and she was absent. At that point my nose no longer itched.
After the surgery I was taken to a recovery room and was introduced to the two nurses that would be with me in recovery. A male nurse and a young, maybe 20-year-old of woman. Because of the size of the opening in my vein, they needed to keep strong pressure on it so that it could close and not spring a very large leak.
Of course, it would be the female nurse who was the one to hold pressure, on my groin, for several hours. Me, only wearing a washcloth over the important parts. So, we laughed about it and talked about everyday things, nurse stuff, EMT stuff. After the prescribed amount of time they can change over to a mechanical device that will keep the pressure on the vein. Not sure if that was one or two hours later.
After releasing the female nurse to go hold pressure on someone else's groin I was finally able to get the male nurse to lower the feet and raise the head of the bed to the point that he could hold the urine bottle to me so that I was finally able to go to the bathroom. Remember back to 10:00 AM when I knew if I did not get to the bathroom then, it would be a while. Well, awhile is 3:30 PM. Stayed in the hospital the next day to recover then was sent home.
After deciding that we need to change our diet and lifestyle we ventured out to a bookstore in search of a heart healthy cookbook. We went to The Green in Beavercreek. The bookstore was on a corner intersection with the parking lot across the street. Jeni offered to drop me off at the door, I thought she was joking and I said no, go ahead and park, I can walk across the street. Well, I was not capable. I made it from the parking lot to a bench at the corner by the crosswalk, on the parking lot side of the street. After resting for several minutes, I was able to cross the street and make it into the bookstore. At that point we found a chair at a table and Jeni would bring the cookbooks to me to look at. We decided on purchasing two or three that looked like that had recipes that we would eat. I sat while Jeni checked out, then we walked across the street, back to the bench. At this point I allowed Jeni to go get the car and bring it to me.
It is surprising how much a surgery on your heart impacts your stamina and breathing capacity. After several weeks at home recovering where I started walking every day, small steps at first, while we also started eating healthier. I think it was 6 weeks before I could return to work. There was an insurance delay in getting into physical therapy, so it ended up going till the end of December. That started my walking habit that eventually turned into jogging. That then led to numerous 5Ks, 10Ks, 15k and a couple of half marathons. Jeni and I did several of the 5ks together.
Years later in October of 2016, I got a tattoo, on my right fore arm It contains my actual heart rhythm I had the squad print for me. The words live every beat are placed between the heart beats.
I am writing this now since other than me, the only two other people who know the story, mom and Jeni, have both passed. Maybe someone will read this someday and get a laugh out it like I did.
