Heavy Heart

i think the worst is over. hopefuly it is. i had a heart attack 7 days ago on december 21st. i know, i can't believe it either. a week ago tonite i, a previously-in-good-health 26 year-old male suffered a myocardial infarction. i spent 3 lovely days in some dump hospital worthy of a third world country and returned home the day before christmas, only to go to a different hospital two days later....this time for periocarditis.

i'm now a walking pill box, but don't confuse this statement with a complaint. i'm happy and lucky to be alive. it was a pretty harrowing ordeal that has changed my life (read: diet, exercise, alcohol, tobacco, etc). ordinarily, i'd be loathe to give a blow-by-blow description of what happened, but given the circumstances, i think everyone would be better off hearing what exactly happened so they can look for signs of similar goings on in their lives. so.........

for a few days leading up to the heart attack (hereafter referred to as the "attack" or "event") i had been experiencing some tension just below my collar bone and some tightness in the windpipe. i thought maybe it was either a cold coming on or just some mild inflammation of my ribcage, which i'd had before. i started popping ibuprofen left and right and using a heating pad, which made it feel a little better.

through the weekend and into the beginning of the week, the pain got worse and worse. tuesday rolled around at work and i was in some serious pain at this point. i lost my breath by standing and the pain in my chest was damn near unbearable at times. i went home sick after visiting my GP (general practitioner for you healthy people that don't go to doctors) earlier in the afternoon. he checked me out, gave me an ekg, and surmised that the lining between my lungs and chest cavity had flared up for any number of reasons. solution: take 2000 mg of ibuprofen and call him 3 days if not better.

by that night, the pain grew greater, becoming a complete constriction of every muscle in my chest (think of how you feel when you pull a muscle. now multiply by every muscle in your body. yeah, it hurt that badly). my roommate took me to the ER where, after some testing, determined i was suffering an anxiety or stress attack--because there's no way a 26 year-old could possibly be having a heart attack.

i ate the anxiety pills given to me by the ER staff like candy, but with no results. figuring they'd take some time to work, i skipped work on wednesday to relax (since i got home from the ER at 4am). by wednesday night, there was no relief and i was getting worse. i became delirious, completely unaware of my surroundings. i vaguely remember laying on the couch and seeing double, but have no recollection of what i was seeing, who was there, or any conversations i may have been having. my ex was visiting (i think?) and took me back to the ER, whose staff FINALLY put the simple math together..... i was in fact having a heart attack.

i woke up in the hospital the next day with tubes and lines coming out of my arms, hooked up to every machine imagineable. oh, there was also a little matter of a significant pain in my groin (yes, the groin. not to be confused with the member). to circumvent the clogged artery, the cardiac surgeon inserted what's called a stent, which is a mesh titanium tube, in the artery.....through. my. fucking. groin.

after a couple of days recuperating, i was discharged and sent home, only to return to the hospital because of an inability to control my body temperature (severe night sweats, chills, etc.), which i found out to be caused by periocarditis, and inflammation of fluid around the heart.

so, i'm home now relaxing. i'm forbidden to drive, work, eat good food, or do, well, anything. my focus during this time is, naturally, to get better but also to re-learn how to eat properly. i'll be ok when all is said and done. i'm lucky.

it's cliche for someone suffering an affliction to become a champion of the cause when he or she recovers. cliches are "cliche" because they are true. so, as i continue to recover, i urge anyone reading this to visit their doctor in the near future and get checked out. if you smoke, stop. if you drink a lot, stop that too. and if you're a good, ole-fashioned pig that eats everything in sight with little apprehension, perhaps my ordeal will give you a little pause.

thanks to everyone for their prayers and support. it's really been helpful in getting through all this. to all good health, and to all a happy heart.

learn more here: http://www.americanheart.org