I don't wish the site, or feeling on anyone. I don't wish the thoughts of it, on anyone. What am I talking about? The site of a loved one having a heart attack. Seeing them being put in an ambulance, watching the doors close, and not knowing if you will see them alive again. Scared. That was me on Saturday, February 7,2009. Let me tell you what happened.
DH and I decided to go on a casual bike ride on the beach. We'd seen people riding nicely on the hard pack sand quite a bit, and decided we would give it a go. No biggie. Arriving at around 1130, we hopped on and started out. We were laughing because our legs were burning after the first 100 yards! We went about 3 blocks, and stopped to rest for a bit, then started on again. I knew I was ahead of the DH, but didn't think much about it until I looked back and he had stopped and was hunched over the handle bars. Obviously I turned around and went back.
He was pale, with red blotches on his face, and out of breath. So I held his bike while he sat on the sand. He said his chest was tight, but no problems in his left arm like you typically hear of. So we walked to a boardwalk and sat on a bench. It went downhill from there. He was sweating profusely, clammy, nausious, and still had a hard time breathing. His chest was tighter, and he just wasn't right. After about an hour, we walked to the street and he sat on the curb. I didn't know what to do...call the ambulance? Get the car? Sit? What? Finally, a man that had been cutting weeds in the yard next to us came over and said "You don't look good at all." and started taking his pulse. The guy started asking DH all kinds of questions, and finally I said "You must be a Dr."...he replied "I'm a surgeon." What luck! He asked our permission to call the rescue squad, to which we agreed. At that point his wife came out, and she was a nurse!
Anyway, the ambulance showed up and told me I could NOT ride to the hospital with them. I was sick! I thought I was fine, until I watched them load the DH into the back, and close the doors. ugh, so many thoughts run through your head! It was like a news ticker on the TV screen....so many questions continuously running. The nurse told me to get into her SUV, and she would take me to the hospital and figure out the rest later. Her DH, the surgeon, took our bikes and put them into the garage of his HUGE house. Everything was like a fog...I was bawling, couldn't talk, and had no idea what to do. Thank goodness for this nice couple!
The nurse gave me her phone number, and told me to call anytime and she would come back and get me, then take me to the car and to get our bikes. I was finally allowed to go back and see the DH, and there he was, with all the tubes hanging out of seemingly every orifice. What a site I don't care to ever see again.
Basically, he was admitted and kept there Saturday and Sunday night. On Monday morning, he was transported to a cardiac hospital, where he was given a heart catheterization, with the dye. He was scheduled to go in for this proceedure at 2pm, but it wasn't until 5pm before they took him back. Evidently they were really behind. Anyway, after 6pm he was finally taken to a room on the 3rd floor where I met him. It was then that I found out his right artery had been 99% blocked, and they had to put a stent in.
Today is Wednesday, 11 Feb 2009, and we are back to the hotel. DH feels great, and despite some bruising and all the sticky shit from the monitor stickies they had all over him, he is fine. We are discussing at length our diet and lifestyle change. Not to mention all the pills he has to take for the next 3 months. After that he will get re-evaluated and we'll know if he has to stay on some of them or not. We are realizing that the new diet won't be too difficult, mainly watching our sodium (which we were doing anyway), and getting more fruits and grains. Our intake of fried foods is down to almost none, which is ok. We had been planning a change in our diet before this, we were just slow getting it going, LOL. Now its been kick-started and its really not bad.
As I said, I don't wish it on anyone, and encourage everyone to watch what they eat, and take heed when you feel bad, 'cause you just never know.
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