The story of my heart attack

So here’s the “gory” details. My fault, I hadn’t been paying attention to my blood sugar, so it gummed up my heart. Anyway, I basically felt fine the previous weekend. I went to the Goddess Fest, which is a big psychic fair. Alwas fun. I had a psychic reading, the woman doing the reading warned me to be careful of the left side of my body (cue to the theme to XFiles). Looking back, other than I think I was a little more tired than usual, there was nothing going on.


Monday morning I woke up with a really bad case of indigestion (very localized, right between my boobies) and I was exhausted, I barely had the energy to get out of bed to let the dog outside. So that was Monday. Called in sick to work and slept.

Tuesday morning, I woke up still felling exhausted and the indigestion was spreading a little. I figured I either had very bad indigestion and the flu or I was having a heart attack. So I had a neighbor drive me to the emergency room.

ER was a blur. I was signing in and I think I was pretty well out of it, because the next thing I knew I was being taken for an EKG. Oviously the reading sucked, because then I was on my way to the Cath Lab, wheeeeeeeeee.

The doctors/nurses/technicians in the Lab were very apologetic that they were going to have to remove my pants. I told them by then I really didn’t care. Side point—everyone asks me about the pain with the heart attack. There was no pain. Seriously, bad indigestion. When the doctors asked me what the pain was on a scale of 0 to 10. I said 2. That was it. Now numbing the groinal area for the angioplasty hurt. Not a “Oh my God, I’m going to die” hurt, but numbing a tooth ache hurt (I’m a weeny when It comes to needles).

So when the area was numb, they made a small incision in my femoral artery (that’s the big artery that runs from the heart to the leg) and began snaking a small line up the artery to my heart. Sounds horribly painful. I DIDN’T FEEL A THING. I thought they were still getting ready to start, and wham, it’s in my heart. On the end of the link was a little balloon that inflated and roto rotered out the artery. Then they left a couple of pieces of chicken wire called stents to hold open the artery.

I got to the ER about 8 am and was in my room about 9:30 am, that’s how fast it all was. My poor cousin Sue was calling trying to get information and she said everytime she called I was some where else on my tour of St Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Now the fun began, I had to remain still for two hours with the line still in my artery until it could be removed. THEN I had to stay still for six hours to make sure that the incision closed up. I had been given blood thinners and they didn’t want me to bleed out (neither did I). So I laid there for 8 boring hours. Didn’t do anything but watch TV. Thank God for the House and NCIS marathons on USA. (Yes, I watched House while in the hospital, doesn’t everyone?)

For the next three days, I basically laid there with IV’s in my arms, reading Brad Thor’s new book (Thank you Brandon for picking it up for me) and watched TV.

My cousin Beth babysat Bijou, so Bijou got to visit with Beth’s doggies and kitties. Thank you Beth! Went and stayed at Sue’s house for a couple of days, thank you Sue! Then I went home.

I have to have a doctor’s appointment within the next couple of weeks (yes, I’m putting it off for as long as possible because I hate doctor appointments). I’ve been warned I might have to go on insulin (I was on it in the hospital and the first week home). I thought the idea of giving myself a shot would be horrible, but it’s really no big deal. My eye sight keeps shifting. First week out of the hospital I couldn’t see a thing with my glasses. I guess when your blood sugar is high the body gloms onto fluids and it builds up. That plumps up the lens in your eyes. So when you reduce your blood sugar (with particularly high dosages of insulin) you dry out your body and your lens change. So then when your body begins to equalize the lens change again. Right now, I can see far away with my old glasses and close up with my new ones. I’m waiting until after my doctor’s appointment to go get a new pair.

So that’s the story. No pain, just indigestion and very very tired. No real medical drama (outside the first hour and a half) other than on House.

I'm Baaaack (with some random thoughts)

After about three years, I'm back online.  It's been an interesting last six months (I won't whine about the whole 3 years), I got a dog (the one and only Bijou who is a ten year old Lasha Apso), got a new job (Provider Service Rep at Molina Medicaid Solutions), and had a heart attack.  Two out of three isn't bad.

Anyway, I am here.  Happily heading toward sixty (two months, ten days).  I'm also on facebook (who isn't?) as Sandy Oakes and on twitter (I haven't a clue what I'm doing) as IdahoAcorn.  So I'll be back later when I really have something intelligent to say, but re editting this has drained my brain.