This is very lengthy!
I'm 67 years old and retired. I have three wonderful children and six awesome grandchildren. Most of my time is balanced between helping my oldest daughter with her geneology and my crafting. I love any kind of crafting and am learning how to needle felt. It's been a challenge and I love it. In the past, I've made light bulb ornaments, albums, both diaper and towel cakes (non-edible cakes), edible cakes, and sewing. At times, my craft room looks like something exploded in it because there is so much wool, glitter, or other items scattered everywhere.
Following is the story of my heart journey. Warning....... VERY long, but to know where I am today, you have to know where I was then.
I was 61 years old and was trying to get healthier by exercising, eating right, and quit smoking. May 13, 2011 was the last time I smoked. I was really proud of myself because I did it without any medications or patches, and I’d lost close to 40 pounds. Things were looking up.
On May 18, 2011, I started having pain in my right shoulders and arms and they were "tingling". There was a faint “pull and tightness” in between my shoulder blades. I had been doubling up on my exercises because I’d missed a couple days, and really thought I’d pulled a muscle. I figured if I rested up and took it easy for a couple days that it would straighten out. Over the next couple of days, the pain intensified and progressed to my left arm and neck. The night of May 20th, I took a muscle relaxer, thinking that would help like it did before. It was a very restless night. Although I was sleepy, I couldn’t get the pain to ease up or stop. If anything, it continued to worsen.
On Saturday, May 21, 2011 (the day of my granddaughters 4th birthday party), I finished up my grand daughters cake and sent my oldest daughter to my other daughters’ house with the cake. I told her I would go later. Almost immediately, after she left, my jaw began to tighten and very sharp pains escalated from my arm to my neck and jaw, then across my back to my left arm. I began to sweat and got nauseous (two new symptoms). I knew something was terribly wrong. I sent a text to my daughter and asked her if she could come home. She called me back and asked if she needed to call 911 and I said no, just come home ‘cause I needed to go somewhere. The pain was worse than it was the night before, but I had no chest pain. It seemed like an eternity, between the call and the time she got to the house with my other daughter. Although the pain was intense, I was able to walk to the car on my own.
We were at Med Direct (the non-emergency part of the hospital) about 25-30 minutes after we left the house. My daughter told the receptionist that she thought I was having a heart attack. I was immediately taken to an exam room. I heard one of the nurses say that she thought they had “the real deal”. They gave me an aspirin, put nitro paste on me, hooked me up to an EKG, gave me oxygen and rushed me by ambulance to the hospital emergency room. By this time, I had just started having a “pinch” in my chest but it wasn’t often.
The Cardiac doctor told me I was having a heart attack. Besides what MedDirect did, I ended up with a nitro drip, nitro patch and three sprays of liquid nitro before the pain eased. When the doctor told the nurse to give me another spray of nitro, I told him it was nasty and that he could take it for me. He said no way, it would drop him on the floor in an instant because his heart was okay. I then said "you aren't going to cut my clothes off of me, are you?" and he said "probably" 'cause they loved cutting clothes off of people. I told him no he wasn't. I had a brand new pair of jeans on and they weren't going to cut them. I'll take them off myself. I then began taking my own clothes off. The next thing I remember is being taken to the Cath lab and having a stent placement. When I woke in my room, the Cardiologist told me that I was very lucky to be talking to him right then. He said I was knocking on “the other door when I went in”. They said if I’d had been just a few seconds longer it would have been a much different ending. I had a 100% blockage of my right coronary artery. They said I had a STEMI - ST segment elevation myocardial infarction.
It upset me to no end, and still does, that I messed up my granddaughters’ birthday party. I don’t think I’ll ever get over that, but my daughters tell me that I gave my grand-baby the best birthday present of all…. her grandma! I know they’re right. I didn’t plan to have a heart attack on that exact day, at the exact hour, or to “ruin her party”.
I thought I was getting past everything, and was back into my exercises and yard work, then July 8, 2011, I was having trouble breathing. My daughter called my Primary doctor and, after examining me, sent me to the hospital. After a CT Scan and x-rays, I was told I have Emphysema/COPD, and given an appointment to see a Pulmonary doctor. (I, eventually, was put on a CPAP machine and night time oxygen).
On September 13, 2011, I was getting checked in for a sleep study. About 8:35 pm, they took my BP and it was 163/96. The girl checking me in said they usually send patients to the hospital when the BP is that high. I asked her to let me just sit a bit and take it again because it goes up when I’m moving around and goes back down when I rest a bit. It wasn't going down, but I convinced her to let me stay because it had already been rescheduled once and I didn't want to have to reschedule it again. Last check was 170/100, but I explained I had an appointment with my Cardiologist the following day and I'd be sure to tell him about my BP. I noticed some "pulling" in the middle of my shoulder blades for several days prior to my sleep study, but there wasn't actually a pain there. It would tighten and release all during the day and night, but still no actual pain, but the Nitro helped.
The next morning, I wasn't feeling very good, but I knew I was seeing my Cardiologist and he might be able to figure out what was happening.
On September 14, 2011, I had my appointment with my Cardiologist and took him my journal entries of when I had to take the Nitro, my pulse and BP readings. He first said he would send me to the hospital, as an outpatient, tomorrow for a cath to see if anything was going on with my stent. He took an ECG and, after reading it, told me to go to the hospital right then and he would fit me in tomorrow, for the cath, to check my stent.
September 15, 2011 At the hospital, x-rays and other tests were done. My BP stayed high, as did my pulse. It was hard to keep them down where they should be.
My Cardiologist did a cath and he had to implant two more stents. My daughters said he told them that he really needed to do a bypass but he was afraid my system wouldn’t be able to handle it so he was going to try the stents.
I had another cath May 11, 2012, and the last two stents were holding like a set of brand new ones, but I needed a re-stent of the first one. Because of some other issues, I was sent for an MRI with and without contrast, EEG and EMG. According to the Neurologist, I have several swollen blood vessels and a 1/4" cyst on my brain. He also said I have several "white spots" that he isn't sure what they are. We're now watching the swollen blood vessels and the cyst, which he says isn't anything to worry about right now. To me, it IS something to worry about, but I'll continue living my life and thank the higher power for the days I do have with my family and friends.
In 2013, I had to have another heart stent. My cardiologist said if anything happened to any of the stents, I would have to have bypass surgery. We were, all, cautious of any little pinch or pain I would have.
2014, was a year we wish we could erase. November 10, 2014, my 38 year old son-in-law lost his 2 year battle with cancer. Eight days later, November 18, 2014, I went into the hospital for testing. I hadn't been feeling well and thought it might have been stress related. The nurse said I was in full blown AFib and a heart cath was scheduled for the next day. It was discovered that one of the stents in my RCA was 80% occluded and there was a 50% blockage just under it. With four stents already in my RCA, a surgeon was called in and on November 24, 2014, I had a single CABG on my RCA.
It was not an easy surgery. My surgeon said what should have taken around 2 1/2 - 3 hours to complete, took nearly 10 hours. The artery he wanted to use, in my left arm, was too small. He tried the mammary artery but it peeled apart when he tried using it. When he tried to use the one in my left leg, it collapsed and was no good. The surgeon finally found one in my right leg, but it was too short and he had to piece it together in order to do the bypass. He was not happy about the work he did. He told me that he'd done over 3000 of these surgeries and has never had this happen before. He said my veins and arteries are the worse he'd ever seen and that it had to be genetic.
After the surgery, I went into AFib again. It took several hours to pull me out of it. While in AFib, my oxygen level dropped critically low and they had to increase the flow of oxygen from 3L to 10L over three days. I also had, what appeared to be, seizures. My doctor had no clue what caused them, but felt it may have been the anesthesia. Just as we thought I was out of the woods, my blood pressure spiked then went to a critically low reading and my blood sugar went high. As they were trying to bring my blood pressure back up, I was given insulin shots (ended up 2 a day for six days). It was not an easy journey. I should have been in the hospital just 5 days but it ended up 12.
My doctor said he wasn't sure if I was going to make it or not. Not only because of all the problems that arose during and after surgery, but because I lost so much blood that they weren't sure what to expect. The one thing that surprised everyone was, I had no pain at all. Never needed pain medication and was up and about, doing what they thought I wouldn't be able to do, without needing help. I told them "I'm the come back kid. You won't keep me down long and don't tell me what I can't do because I'll prove you wrong. ;) ".
On April 1, 2016, I had excruciating chest pains and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. After many tests, and an overnight stay, I was told I had overdone it and caused a problem with my sternum and the muscles around my heart. When I was released, my doctor gave strict orders of no more yard work, no more gym and no activities that would put any kind of strain on my chest.
Today, I'm on oxygen during the day, when I'm active or napping, and at night, through my CPAP. I still have the dizziness and shortness of breath, and sometimes pressure in my chest, but that's the part of my journey with this heart disease. I've also learned that one of my valves is regurgitating. It's not enough that surgery can be done to fix it, but enough to warrant watching it closely. We're still trying to find out why my oxygen drops as quickly as it does and why I'm still having dizziness and shortness of breath so much worse than I was. Until we find out, many restrictions remain in place and the mystery continues.
Every day holds something new for me and I get excited when I accomplish something I hadn't been able to do in a long time. This journey isn't an easy one. If it hadn't of been for my wonderful family, friends, heart sisters and heart brothers, I don't know if I could have made it this far.