Heart Attack Update

Having a heart attack at 43 is a revelation in many ways. I am not supposed to be 'working' yet but I cannot sit idle for much longer. I am a writer therefore, I must write. This one is to thank my online coworkers and to provide a general update to everyone here about the heart attack.

For those who may not know, October 1^st I felt the symptoms of a heart attack and 911 was called to my home. October 4 I had those same symptoms again and was rushed to the hospital where I had another episode in the waiting room. One of those episodes on Sunday tripped those negative numbers positive and it was called a mild heart attack. Mild, well it hurt like nothing I had experienced before and I have been through three c-sections.

Whenever you have a heart attack they admit you, no questions asked. Let me tell you, spending time in the hospital when you still got kids at home is not good. My youngest will be 18 in three months so my children are not little by any means. They are self sufficient except when they have to get up for school in the mornings. I had to rely on other people to do my parenting responsibilities.

The ultrasound of my heart also showed no damage that the tech could see. I watched the monitor as the tech did that ultrasound and I could plainly see my heart beating. It brought a sense of peace to me, knowing something was going right. The tech was a year behind me when we both attended Athens Area Schools many years ago so it was comforting.

While I was in the local hospital and I underwent a heart cath. The transporter who took me down to the lab was a friend of my mom's so I felt at ease. The heart cath showed no signs of blockages, which was great. The catheter did not hurt going inside or traveling through my veins but it hurt when it was removed.

The two pics included here are from the heart cath procedure I underwent. I think this proves that I have a 'good heart'; all kidding aside it appears to be a healthy heart that was on exhaustion mode.

There was no damage to my heart or blockages, which is awesome. It leads me to wonder why someone has a heart attack like this. I am over weight, had high blood pressure, I was a smoker, I do not exercise much as I should have been. My idea of exercise was to write for half an hour, get up, do housework for a while, and sit again to write.

Wrong idea, you need to get outside and walk for an hour or so. I admit I am not up to walking an hour, at this point my lower tummy hurts when I walk more than 15 minutes but I can sit upright for an hour now, which is good. My stomach hurts because the doctor in the cath lab went up in the main vein where my body connected to my leg. The bruise there is about the size of a fifty-cent piece.

My stomach hurts because of the bruises on it, which were caused by blood thinning shots. These bruises are softball size and are on the left hip and to the right of my belly button.

I am getting better slowly here. Each day I can sit or stand a bit longer, and I am taking it very slowly. I am getting help with housework when I ask for it, which is good. Before this all hit you may wonder what I was doing, and I will share that,

I came down with the flu bug in mid September. After the vomiting left, a head cold remained with a nasty sore throat. The only thing that made my throat feel better was chicken broth, so I was dissolving a bouillon cube into a coffee cup and drinking it.

I was doing this 3 or 4 times a day, and alternated with Pepsi, juice and little else. I figured if I kept drinking, that I would be fine.

Then the migraines began, or so I thought they were. I now realize the headaches which last 4 days were a result of high blood pressure. Tylenol, hot showers, or cold packs would bring no comfort and lying down was pure agony. I was napping when I could, trying to remain up, and moving as I could write wise.

By Thursday October 1^st, I was feeling better and was up moving a bit. I was still drinking the bouillon, but went up and down the cellar steps numerous times, as I did laundry. I was also doing housework and the writing as usual.

My body was ill, and instead of getting it healthy before I over worked it I pushed it to the limit. Little sleep, recouping, overdosing on sodium levels, not eating properly, and not exercising had taken its toll on my body.

I wish to thank everyone here on Associated Content for reading my work and promoting it so help me as a donation. It is greatly appreciated. I am overwhelmed with emails here on AC, and will be reading them shortly here. My email notifications were off for a while but I see them and will respond.

I thank everyone for the kind donations I have received, as many of you may realize we do not have insurance. I do have a mortgage here and well we all know what happens when you get behind there so thanks.

I have behaved and taken it easy for almost a week, but it is very hard to be idle here when my brain is telling me to get out there and write. I am learning a lot here, and have made some life style changes, which will be the focus of future articles.