Well this sucks
- Thread starter Skypower
- Start date
Thank’s, I will.
42OhmsPA
Who likes Electrical Gremlins?
Good luck, get well soon.
teal95
Solar Wizard
I feel your pain.
About 5 years ago I started having pain in both shoulders when pulling the trash cans to the road. I had a routine physical soon after that and it was odd enough (and recent enough) that I discussed it with the doc and we both agreed it didn't fit for heart issues.
Last July work started sending me to Toluca Mexico every other week. Toluca is at 9000' so everyone has breathing issues for the first couple days but I could still feel it after 2 weeks down there. So, again at a regular physical, I brought it up. Doc said, let's send you for a cardiac stress test.
I had the last appointment for the day on Monday before Thanksgiving. I spent the morning framing a chicken coop before heading to the appointment. I stopped shortly into the third stage, so about 5 minutes in. But both guys were really watching me when I got off the treadmill. After a couple of minutes I felt fine again and one of them left with the EKG to call the cardiologist. He comes back after a few minutes and says it doesn't look normal so they're going to take me to the ER to do some blood work. There is a protein they can get out of the blood that the heart make when it's "unhappy". The threshold is 20. First draw I'm 9, so good. But no, they have to wait an hour and do another. That's 18, so not so good. They hold me for another hour and it's 38, so now they are going to admit me. Except I'm in the local little hospital with no cardiologist, so they're transporting me to the main hospital 20 miles away, and the ambulance is already on it's way to get me. At this point it's already 11 at night.
It takes a while to get processed so I bounce around between rooms all night before finally getting a room in the cardio wing late the next morning. Late Tuesday afternoon they do the dye test running a catheter up an artery in my arm to inject dye into my heart while watching it on an x-ray. 100% blockage in the 4 main feeds and the next 3 are at 90%. So too far gone for stents they're going to open me up.
They schedule me for bypass surgery first thing Friday morning. At this point it's Wednesday morning, I have surgery Friday but Thanksgiving is in between. But despite me feeling fine they won't let me go home for dinner.
Late Thursday (8 pm?) the doc comes in again, to tell me he's got another patient in ICU who's in really bad shape so I'm moved to second operation of the day.
Surgery all went good, they had me up and walking Friday afternoon, dragging an IV pole and a walker. Instructions said 5-7 days in the hospital. They were going to release me after 4 but my heart decided it wanted to run at 120 that morning instead of the 100 it has been running so I got kept for the fifth day. Walking laps and looking at the other patients I was the youngest one in the cardiac wing by at least 10 years, so it didn't surprise me that I was at the short end.
6 weeks off work covering the holidays and then back to work. Evidently my boss also had bypass surgery several years ago but had a heart attack before and issues after so he was off work for 6 months, so he was really surprised I was back already.
Stamina is still down a bit but it's getting better. In general I'm feeling better than I have for years. Coughing is only uncomfortable now but sneezing still hurts.
About 5 years ago I started having pain in both shoulders when pulling the trash cans to the road. I had a routine physical soon after that and it was odd enough (and recent enough) that I discussed it with the doc and we both agreed it didn't fit for heart issues.
Last July work started sending me to Toluca Mexico every other week. Toluca is at 9000' so everyone has breathing issues for the first couple days but I could still feel it after 2 weeks down there. So, again at a regular physical, I brought it up. Doc said, let's send you for a cardiac stress test.
I had the last appointment for the day on Monday before Thanksgiving. I spent the morning framing a chicken coop before heading to the appointment. I stopped shortly into the third stage, so about 5 minutes in. But both guys were really watching me when I got off the treadmill. After a couple of minutes I felt fine again and one of them left with the EKG to call the cardiologist. He comes back after a few minutes and says it doesn't look normal so they're going to take me to the ER to do some blood work. There is a protein they can get out of the blood that the heart make when it's "unhappy". The threshold is 20. First draw I'm 9, so good. But no, they have to wait an hour and do another. That's 18, so not so good. They hold me for another hour and it's 38, so now they are going to admit me. Except I'm in the local little hospital with no cardiologist, so they're transporting me to the main hospital 20 miles away, and the ambulance is already on it's way to get me. At this point it's already 11 at night.
It takes a while to get processed so I bounce around between rooms all night before finally getting a room in the cardio wing late the next morning. Late Tuesday afternoon they do the dye test running a catheter up an artery in my arm to inject dye into my heart while watching it on an x-ray. 100% blockage in the 4 main feeds and the next 3 are at 90%. So too far gone for stents they're going to open me up.
They schedule me for bypass surgery first thing Friday morning. At this point it's Wednesday morning, I have surgery Friday but Thanksgiving is in between. But despite me feeling fine they won't let me go home for dinner.
Late Thursday (8 pm?) the doc comes in again, to tell me he's got another patient in ICU who's in really bad shape so I'm moved to second operation of the day.
Surgery all went good, they had me up and walking Friday afternoon, dragging an IV pole and a walker. Instructions said 5-7 days in the hospital. They were going to release me after 4 but my heart decided it wanted to run at 120 that morning instead of the 100 it has been running so I got kept for the fifth day. Walking laps and looking at the other patients I was the youngest one in the cardiac wing by at least 10 years, so it didn't surprise me that I was at the short end.
6 weeks off work covering the holidays and then back to work. Evidently my boss also had bypass surgery several years ago but had a heart attack before and issues after so he was off work for 6 months, so he was really surprised I was back already.
Stamina is still down a bit but it's getting better. In general I'm feeling better than I have for years. Coughing is only uncomfortable now but sneezing still hurts.
Dagoth Ur Does Solar
Solar Addict
Glad you were able to get help. Having the surgery and living to tell the tale is obviously better than croaking from it!
Scary how if this type of thing happens when you're NOT close enough to an ER it can just all be over.
Knew a lady who's husband had a heart attack, he was alone at the time and managed to call the hospital. He then called his wife. She was standing there talking my friends and I when she got the call. She obviously ran out the door as soon as she got it.
She later told us that when he realized what was going on, before he called anyone he immediately took a bunch of aspirin. Doctors credited that with saving his life. I looked it up later, and while I knew they did stuff like low-dose aspirin for heart disease, but I had no idea that aspirin does make a huge difference with acute heart attacks if you take it early enough.
Anyways, hang in there!
teal95
Solar Wizard
How are they replumbing you?
I had 4x bypass. They detached arteries from under my chest muscles on both sides for 2 of them. For the other 2 they took a vein out of my leg. They were planning on using the left leg but evidently something didn't look right after they cut my leg open so they then took it out of my right leg.
I had 4x bypass. They detached arteries from under my chest muscles on both sides for 2 of them. For the other 2 they took a vein out of my leg. They were planning on using the left leg but evidently something didn't look right after they cut my leg open so they then took it out of my right leg.
TommySr
Solar Addict
just got to get use to cold feet, farm&fleet have 9v heated socks
they use this type battery
but these last longer and are rechargeable
the socks are very tall so room to sew a pocket for the bigger battery
they use this type battery
but these last longer and are rechargeable
the socks are very tall so room to sew a pocket for the bigger battery
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As it stands now it looks like I’ll need a a triple bypass. The original attack must have been a long time ago because the heart had been rerouting but that obviously not enough. If I had known and came in then it would have been a simple procedure. My legs have poor circulation (cold) and don’t heal well so I’m hoping that they can get the veins from another part of me. This will be my third major medical event in my life. In 2013 I had a brain tumor removed that was 9 1/2 hour procedure and I’m considered free of return. Shortly after that surgery I had a complication with a pulmonary embolism. Present day needing a bypass. A friend said god loves me to which I responded, I sure hate see if he didn’t
To those that just want to tough it out, I suggest that you pay attention to the signs. Mine was after a brisk walk of about 75 yards I started feeling like I’m being squeezed like 100 lb person standing on the center of my chest. Not intolerable but an attention getter. Stand still and within a minute or so it went away. It better and went away as the day progressed. Chocked it off to acid reflux disease and was similar but different from other times I went to the ER. Not wanting to waste a day or so for a false alarm I decided to tough it out. It totally went way for several days then it came back with vengeance with less exertion and knowing that I had eaten a bland meal I decided to go to the ER even though virtually no pain or discomfort at rest. They drew blood and a short time later the enzyme levels showed that my heart was in distress. Three days into this and it looks like it’ll be a lot more. The good news is I’m at one of the top rated hospitals in the Country for bypass surgery. The bad news is they are backed up. There was some mention of they medically treat me for a few days and let me go home to get my affairs in order, get some rest at home because there are people who are worse. But that’s entirely up to the surgeon whom I’ve yet to meet.
DPC
Canada, Great already
That chest opening must have been something huh? It’s ok if you tell me a lie
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teal95
Solar Wizard
They put me under before they even started shaving me. (They shaved more than half my body.) So I don't remember anything of the cutting. It was pretty sore the first couple of days. They had me on oxycodone and morphine injections when I needed it. I never had to have the morphine hand trigger. I think I quit needing the morphine after 3 or 4 days and was down to just Tylenol after a week. I think I only took the Tylenol for a week after that. Coughing was very painful at first, hugging the pillow or just hugging yourself helps a lot more than I expected. Sneezing was really painful. 3 months out coughing is still uncomfortable and sneezing hurts but otherwise I'm good.
TommySr
Solar Addict
if they put you on Lisinopril be aware it can cause a hacking cough that doesn't stop in some people.
Man, thanks for that info. Pillow trick will come in handy. Seems like some say it was unbearable. I had a left then a right then bellybutton hernia operations and everyone said how bad they were. Yeah they hurt but very manageable. No big deal .
The brain tumor was like a 24/7 ice headache. The embolism was like a knife in the ribs every inhale. Every one has a different pain threshold. Luckily OxyContin or morphine works well for me. Vicodin and its cousins put me in a bad trip of 200mph vertigo.
Yeah I got away from that stuff many years ago just for that reason. That stuff and heart surgery… Just shoot me now. Irbesartan works for me.
TommySr
Solar Addict
11yrs after open heart(ventricular aneurysm) and can still hang panels 
but they did need to install pacemaker/defibrillator 4yrs ago
but it does give a person a warm&fussy, having a auto defibrillator is kind of like a get out of jail free card .
but they did need to install pacemaker/defibrillator 4yrs agobut it does give a person a warm&fussy, having a auto defibrillator is kind of like a get out of jail free card .
You are really lucky to catch that one. They tell me I may need a ticker timer in the future as my resting heart rate is under 50 and I ain’t no athlete. It’s a little slow to ramp up under load but never dizzy yet.11yrs after open heart(ventricular aneurysm) and can still hang panels
but it does give a person a warm&fussy, having a auto defibrillator is kind of like a get out of jail free card .
teal95
Solar Wizard
I've got that one also. Not slow to ramp up but low pulse and pressure when resting. I've always been that way. Prior to the surgery while in the hospital they'd put me on beta blockers one day (because everyone in the cardiac ward gets them) and then take me back off them the next, because I was too low. My brother had bypass surgery 2 months before me and also ended up with a pacemaker due to fainting a couple of times. His wife (nurse) told me it was set to keep him above 60 bpm. I was at 62 (by my watch) while I was talking to her. I brought it up to the cardiologist and he said it's not a problem as long as I'm not ever getting light headed. But with the caveat that if it got into the 40's again (been a couple of years since it's done that) we needed to talk about it again.
LOL years ago one doctor put me on beta blockers for weeks and I ended up in the ER. I was really weak. They were gobsmacked that I was standing with that low of heart rate. I had a normal heart rate before that medication and the heart rate never came all the way back to normal after that. Must have permanently tweaked something. I always tell the anesthesiologist that I have mild bradycardia and sleep apnea so that they know my normal and wake up again.
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2022
- Messages
- 25,338
Sorry to hear that. At least you caught it in time.
DPC
Canada, Great already
Take it easy
Recover soon
Recover soon
DPC
Canada, Great already
It’s a stroke and of good luck your in treatment
Life is beautiful and sometimes it’s these shake ups that remind you of it
I’m reminded of a song by the English comic Benny hill
Please let me go around again
It’s about him reflecting on his life and there is a line that State you give dam short rides on your merry go round lord please let me go round again….
Your getting another go around chum….
Life is beautiful and sometimes it’s these shake ups that remind you of it
I’m reminded of a song by the English comic Benny hill
Please let me go around again
It’s about him reflecting on his life and there is a line that State you give dam short rides on your merry go round lord please let me go round again….
Your getting another go around chum….
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