I tried to "walk off" a heart attack
71Well here I was 41 and stressing over a woman that I thought I couldn't live without. I woke up one morning at my then usual 4AM and got into my truck to go get coffee and a pack of cigarettes, I took my coffee and cigarettes and went and parked my truck to think about this woman. I drank and smoked until I was out of both and went and bought some more and started the process over again.
About 8AM I felt something a little strange in my chest, it wasn't pain exactly but it was uncomfortable. I drove home where I decided to shave and get ready for a Texas hold em tournament that I had qualified to play in that day. I shaved and the feeling in my chest became a little more intense, I showered and felt as if I might throw up, I got out and took some baking soda in lieu of alka-seltzer thinking I had heart burn something that I had never had before so wasn't real sure what it felt like.
I then went into my room to change and began feeling nauseated again so I decided to lay down. It was then that I noticed my left arm was completely white and the pain started to become worse. Thats when I decided to walk it off, having played football for many years as a young man I knew from every coach that the way to deal with pain is to walk it off! Now some of you reading this may think "what is exactly wrong with you?" Nothing is wrong with me! I am the quintessential Texan we do not go to the doctor unless we are dying, problem was I was dying and didn't know it or maybe didn't want to think it could happen to me.
So I kept walking around the room determined to feel better, problem was I wasn't feeling better I was feeling a hell of a lot worse! Finally I decided something was wrong and went to the emergency room where the admitting nurse took one look at me and said "You are having a heart attack, lay down right where you are." So I did, they took me to the emergency room where I was given Nitro pills and aspirin and a morphine drip to stop the pain. A nurse every 5 minutes would ask me "on a scale of one to 10 how would you rate your pain?" I started with about an 8, then I was asked again and it was about an 11 she said "I don't understand the pain should be getting better!"
A cardiologist came in and said Mr. A Texan you are having an episode with your heart, and we are going to send you to a Heart hospital to find out exactly what the problem is. He then asked "on a scale of one to 10 how would you rate your pain?" Its a 20 now Doc, you think you could get me the hell out of here now?? So off I went to the Heart hospital in an ambulance, now this is a first for me I have never been in an ambulance and was amazed to see that the Technicians running this were a lot better than the hospital staff that I had just dealt with. About 2 minutes before we arrived at the new hospital the Tech found out why I had never felt any relief from the morphine, it seems that the line had been kincked and I had never recieved a drop of morphine.
They got me out of the ambulance and immediately took me to the O.R. where an angioplasty was performed, you have no idea what a great feeling is until you have had blood flow restored to your heart! From the initial onset of discomfort until the blood started flowing again was about one and a half hours, I survived but the damage had been done and was irreversable. Three years later I had a pacemaker and defibrulator implanted in my chest and now have to live with it for the rest of my life! If you feel pain in your chest don't be stupid like I was, you can't walk off a heart attack even if you are a Texan! By the way that woman I couldn't live without? Well, I was wrong I could live without her and I have the love of my life now because I could.
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
Comments
Thanks Staci-Barbo for that whole empathy thing, qualifies you to sit on the Supreme court! I don't know why men tend to wait or drive ourselves to the hospital. I did it because I didn't really think I was having a heart attack. I can assure you now I would be calling an ambulance after the first onset of pain! Actually I will probably just get shocked real hard with the Defib I have implanted they say its like getting kicked by a mule in the chest. I have been kicked by a horse so I don't look forward to that at all.
I would advise anyone not to wait but get help fast! I do not recommend heart attacks at all they HURT REAL BAD! I am glad I could give someone a laugh over the story, there is a little more I didn't add. I was in the hospital for 2 days and I was a smoker I was jonesing bad for a cigarette, so I went outside the hospital to try and bum one from someone. I was standing outside when I saw my nurse come out and she did not look happy at all. She was a large black woman who did not play games with anyones health, she came running up to me and lit into me hard. It seems this little heart monitor i had connected to me went off about the time I hit the elevator and everyone was running around the hospital looking for a dead guy! I never left that floor again for the rest of my stay!
I wouldn't be looking forward to getting kicked in the chest by a mule, either. I guess that provides a little added incentive to look after yourself, especially that ticker. Oh, congratulations on finding the love of your life!
Thank you, she is great, 10 years younger though, thats a little hard on the ticker!
I hope more people read this. My dad had a full blown heart attack Fall of 2004 and had a defribulator put in. Just like you the damage had been done...you can not reverse damage to the heart. He had open heart surgery Fall 2005. He survived the surgery but did not survive some complications while still recovering in the hospital.
The last year of his life he was still denying the fact that he ever had a heart attack. He still claimed it was heart burn and was popping Prilosec. We finally convinced him to go back to the doctor and that was when he was admitted for open heart surgery. He has been gone almost four years now. He was 61. I lost my dad when I was only 34. Older than some but younger than most. If you have kids or a spouse remember all that you went through and imagine what they would be going through the rest of their lives if you were not here. I still miss him everyday.
I'm sorry for your loss joy, even though I tried to make a joke out of what happened it really was an important thing I watch what I eat and do not stress myself out anymore, thats what caused mine I put way too much stress on myself over a woman who didn't deserve it. Once you hit 40 your chances rise dramatically for a heart attack so take care of that heart and live a little longer!
Interesting read - a story with a message -- Thanks!
Thanks for reading
See now this gives me inspiration that there might just be a good one out there for me. Hmm..maybe I need to move to Texas, lol.
Watch out for the walking heart attack, he may be the right one, but not for long.
Thank you for sharing your personal story!
Great hub! Funny and true. Glad you ended up with the one you were supposed to!
Staci-Barbo7 says:
5 months ago
Texan, I was bent double reading this! It's not that I don't have empathy for what you suffered - I do. And I'm glad to hear that you recovered after that experience. However, here's what I'm thinking.
1) You drove yourself to the emergency room - and
2) you didn't call 911 or a friend to drive you!!!
Okay, now. Can you tell me exactly why it is that men are so proud and stubborn? A woman with those same symptoms would have called 911 to get the paramedics as soon as her arm turned white (probably an hour before) and by the time the EMTs arrived, she would have been surrounded by her best friend, her sister, and her mom - all there to offer their loving support and man command central until she got back home (Assuming they live within a 30-mile radius, they would have broken every speed record to get there to be with her before she left for the hospital).
What accounts for the difference in the way we respond? Of course, I am assuming that a Texan man is probably more stubborn than most, but what about your average man and your average woman? If you could illuminate any theory as to the difference between the male and the female response to a life-or-death health crisis, the floor is yours!