July 24, 2004
This has been a hell of a month for me and my family. They say everything comes in threes, and I'm beginning to believe this. Two weeks ago I got a call from my brother-in-law telling me my sister was in the hosptial. Before he ended the call he said my niece was also in the hosptial...both of them in for unrelated things. By the end of the week they both were home and doing well. That's when the "three" came in to play I guess.
It was now my turn to go into the hospital. I'd been scheduled to have a stress test on Tuesday. However they couldn't find a vein to insert the IV into. After 6 tries by a total of three different people I said let's just call it a day. I left with them telling me to reschedule for another day. I'm thinking to myself..."you'll be able to find a vein THEN?!" Actually I was relieved when I left the testing lab. I'd been having mild chest pains for a few days, and I really didn't think slugging my guts out on a stress test would be that good for me.
Sure enough, the next day the chest pain got much worse. By 8 pm the next evening I'd already downed 3 nitro tabs with no effect. My poor Mother was practically bouncing off the walls she was so worried. I didn't want to freak her out any more by calling an ambulance, so I called my oldest brother. It took me a while to track him down but once I found him he was here within 15 mins. They got me in right away and started all the testing....EKG, blood labs, etc. I knew I was going to be admitted so I told my brother to take my Mom home and get some rest around 11 pm. At 6 am they got me into a room. I was able to get an hour of sleep before they took me into surgery. Everyone in the heart lab kept saying to me..."you look familiar, do I know you?" I'd chuckle and say, "yeah, you were here 9 months ago for my last heart surgery." I was able to come home 2 days later. Since then I've been trying to take it easy, even my scars are healing nicely.
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