Our Battle with Heart Disease

Long before my family even existed, heart disease was laying the foundation for change in our lives. At the age of 33, my husband Jeff started having issues. Twinges, pain, discomfort...things that caught his attention. As a person who was always on the go, this was a difficult thing for him to admit but within a few weeks, he was under anesthesia and enduring a heart catheterization.

His heart stopped during the procedure.

Little did anyone know or suspect, he had major issues with his heart and with the help of balloon angioplasty and timely intervention he was able to recover from this incident. This was only the beginning.

His attention was on his health and any pain sent him to the ER. Over the last 2 decades he's had several procedures, including the induction of ELEVEN, yes ELEVEN stents placed in to various arteries to restore blood flow to his heart. Each time it was a sigh of relief as we staved off the heart attack that might have killed him. Some of the blockages were upwards to 90% percent each time. A very dangerous situation.

He tried diligently to take care of himself, seeing the best doctors, taking his medications and being as proactive as possible during his care...EXCEPT for nicotine.

His downfall was cigarette smoking. He smoked cigarettes from his early teen years and found it terribly difficult to quit. Even the motivation of watching his five children grow up wasn't enough. The nicotine addiction took a hold of him and sent him through the ringer. The constant emotional and physical turmoil of cigarette smoking took its toll on him. He tried every quitting mechanism available...patches, gums, pills, anti depressants, therapy...sometimes it worked for the interim but in the end he gave back in to the lure of the nicotine.

Doctors can't say for sure but it is suspected that this accelerated his heart disease. You and I both know that cigarette smoking is bad for you but it is doubly so for someone with heart disease.

Flash Forward to August 25th 2010

Jeff is 51 years old, relatively fit and very active. He is in Richmond Virginia on business when he starts to feel discomfort. He later likened it to heartburn which he never gets. The 'heartburn' was relentless and was gaining in strength when he called me at home in Arizona. He was out of town, eating rich foods for every meal so it sounded like it could very well be heartburn or "agita" as we liked to call it.

However, something in the back of my mind nagged him and me to the point where we were just not comfortable with this. I asked him to go down to the lobby of his hotel and get something like tums or pepto bismol hoping that if there was immediate relief we can rule out any heart issues. I would have so much rather have thought it was a tummy ache versus the worst.

He went to to the lobby but instead of reaching for the tums in the gift shop, he sat down and had the people behind the desk call 9-1-1

He was Having a Heart Attack

2000 miles from his family

2000 miles from home

2000 miles from his cardiologist

Alone.

He placed his fate in the doctors of the unfamiliar Bon Secours hospital and they took good care of him.

They stabilized him, placed yet another stent in one of his arteries and got him home.

THAT is when the nightmare truly began.

He was still in pain when his plane finally landed. His color was off and as his wife I knew he was not well. Still, we tried to blame it on many different things but we ended up back in his doctors office.

His cardiologist agreed. He did not look well, he did not sound well and his EKG just wasn't right. She immediately checked him into Mountain Vista Medical Center to have yet another heart catheterization in the morning.

The catheterization was conclusive, he needed immediate bypass surgery.

He was in danger of an immediate heart attack...the one they call "The Widow Maker"

Within moments he was in the ICU preparing for surgery. Now usually someone with stents is on a protocol of blood thinners to keep everything flowing nicely. Jeff was on a high dose of these daily blood thinners and they usually like to wait a few days to clear the thinners out of the patients system before a major surgery to help with blood loss.

His Cardiologist and Thorasic surgeon felt it wasn't safe to wait. He was to have surgery in the morning regardless.

September 2, 2010

The surgery was grueling on both ends. For him, he had his chest sawed open and his arteries rerouted.

For us, his family, we waited in the surgical waiting room, pulling our hair out wondering what was going on behind those closed doors. Information wasn't coming fast enough and it was an experience I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. His twin brother flew in during the surgery to be at his side when he awakened. Our family took over the waiting room, edging out all the other people waiting for their loved ones. Normally, I would care about these people but that day nothing else mattered.

One thing I am grateful for is that he doesn't remember too many details. He does remember some things but not all. Thank God. He doesn't truly know what he looked like in recovery. His daughter Samantha and I do, as we were the first ones to see him after he came out of the almost 6 hour surgery. He doesn't know what it was like to walk in to a room to see the one you love tethered to a dozen bleeping machines, breathing for you, giving you life saving medications and everything else you can imagine. He will never know what it was like to see him gasping for breath or crying in pain. He will never remember when the SWAN line in his neck came loose and started spouting arterial blood through the room.

To this day, when I hear a beep or a blip similar to the alarm on the respirator he was on, my heart stops.

This man is the strongest man I knew and I saw him reduced to something I never thought possible.

He was completely and utterly helpless.

It was the worst experience of my life.

Now I would like to say that was all and he convalesced nicely and healed and all is well

That is not the case.

He has endured several complications since the surgery that has delayed his full recovery...including 3 more procedures to fix occlusions and other damage done.

It is only February and he has been hospitalized and catheterized twice this year alone. In the past month and a half he had SIX MORE stents placed in him. This is all after he had the major surgery that was to fix all his problems. Sheesh. Add that to the bailing wire and countless titanium clips in his chest, he's on his way to becoming a bionic man. Is he a fully functioning bionic man though? That remains to be seen. It seems that way but....

Is this the end of our journey? I am not sure. I would love to say yes as he is now looking and feeling almost back to normal.

What I can't forget was the look on his face as he pleaded with me for help

I can't forget the countless nights of our 13 year old son crying in his sleep

I can't forget the anguish in our oldest daughters eyes when she saw her dad for the first time

I can't forget the pain in MY heart when our 3 year old questions 'is daddy going to die?'

I can't forget the suffering in my mother in law's face when she wished out loud that it was her enduring this and not her son.

I can't forget my own pain.

And I can't forget that God is Good and He stood by us throughout it all.

In this day and age, no one should suffer as we have. Maybe the not being able to forget will keep us stronger and more diligent in his health care. I don't know. All I know is that August 25th was the day of my husband's heart attack...August 25th was the day he quit smoking for good. And August 25th was the first day of the rest of our new lives. It surely could have been the last. Thank God it wasn't.

Thank God.