I got the OK from Husband to tell you all what happened. I'm glad he said yes, because people there is a lesson here...
Around August Husband announced that he would like to run the Big Sur Marathon. Great...I had trained all summer for my Marathon. He has run about four of his own. I figure he could train all winter. Fair is fair (thank you Billie Jean...anyone get that one?) Anyway...
Husband goes for a run. Feels bad after about 2 minutes of running...pressure on the chest, not really comfortable, he figures he must just be out of shape. He goes out the next day and tries again...same thing. Maybe around September, he is walking The Little Man in the stroller. He starts feeling chest pressure again, sweating, and a sharp pain in the arm. He comes home immediately and tells me something is wrong. I (as any good wife would do) say "go to the doctor".
Husband makes an appointment to see the doctor. Doctor says "it could be allergies, or any number of things...go have a stress test done to see how the heart reacts under pressure". Husband did that...all is OK. Doctor says to see a cardiologist next. True to form, Husband looses the info on who to call to schedule the test, and never quite gets around to it...
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. Husband is still complaining about feeling sick. I tell him to call another friend who is a doctor and get another opinion...he does. She makes the appointment for a cardiac catheteritization test. "Let's rule out the one thing that can kill you." Good idea.
This test is done by injecting a dye into your heart to see if any of your arteries are blocked. I did not for one second believe this was the problem (like a sap, I was worried he was allergic to my cat) We are fairly healthy eaters, not a lot of junk. Husband is only about 10 pounds overweight, nothing major. He's a really active guy. Wednesday morning rolls around, he heads off for his test...kiss/kiss..."I'll call you when I'm done and you can come pick me up."
I really wasn't worried about this at all. At about 1:00, I get a call...
Husband: "I'm going to be spending the night in the hospital."
Me: "Why, is everything OK?"
Husband: "I had an artery that was 100% blocked...they put in two stents."
Me: "OMG! Are you OK? OMG!"
Husband: "I am OK now. As the doctor was fixing it, he referred to it as a widowmaker."
Holy moly! How can it be that Husand was walking around with a blocked artery?!? Had his second doctor not made this appiointment, he was looking at a heart attack this year! Crazy!
The weirdest part was...there was no time to worry. The time to worry would have been all the time he spent not having the test. Now that we knew about it...it was fixed. It's crazy how organized they are about the whole thing...blockage=fix it now. So they did.
According to the doctor, he is "going to feel like a million bucks" OK, we'll see. Right now, he is sitting next to me in bed reading The New Yorker. I just feel so lucky that we caught this one. The moral of the story here...Listen to your body, listen to your doctor. If you don't like what they say...go get another opinion. I just can't stress how lucky I feel that we/they headed this one off at the pass.
Even though we eat fairly healthy, it's gonna be a little less cheese, and a little more fish in this house...now you know.
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Around August Husband announced that he would like to run the Big Sur Marathon. Great...I had trained all summer for my Marathon. He has run about four of his own. I figure he could train all winter. Fair is fair (thank you Billie Jean...anyone get that one?) Anyway...
Husband goes for a run. Feels bad after about 2 minutes of running...pressure on the chest, not really comfortable, he figures he must just be out of shape. He goes out the next day and tries again...same thing. Maybe around September, he is walking The Little Man in the stroller. He starts feeling chest pressure again, sweating, and a sharp pain in the arm. He comes home immediately and tells me something is wrong. I (as any good wife would do) say "go to the doctor".
Husband makes an appointment to see the doctor. Doctor says "it could be allergies, or any number of things...go have a stress test done to see how the heart reacts under pressure". Husband did that...all is OK. Doctor says to see a cardiologist next. True to form, Husband looses the info on who to call to schedule the test, and never quite gets around to it...
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. Husband is still complaining about feeling sick. I tell him to call another friend who is a doctor and get another opinion...he does. She makes the appointment for a cardiac catheteritization test. "Let's rule out the one thing that can kill you." Good idea.
This test is done by injecting a dye into your heart to see if any of your arteries are blocked. I did not for one second believe this was the problem (like a sap, I was worried he was allergic to my cat) We are fairly healthy eaters, not a lot of junk. Husband is only about 10 pounds overweight, nothing major. He's a really active guy. Wednesday morning rolls around, he heads off for his test...kiss/kiss..."I'll call you when I'm done and you can come pick me up."
I really wasn't worried about this at all. At about 1:00, I get a call...
Husband: "I'm going to be spending the night in the hospital."
Me: "Why, is everything OK?"
Husband: "I had an artery that was 100% blocked...they put in two stents."
Me: "OMG! Are you OK? OMG!"
Husband: "I am OK now. As the doctor was fixing it, he referred to it as a widowmaker."
Holy moly! How can it be that Husand was walking around with a blocked artery?!? Had his second doctor not made this appiointment, he was looking at a heart attack this year! Crazy!
The weirdest part was...there was no time to worry. The time to worry would have been all the time he spent not having the test. Now that we knew about it...it was fixed. It's crazy how organized they are about the whole thing...blockage=fix it now. So they did.
According to the doctor, he is "going to feel like a million bucks" OK, we'll see. Right now, he is sitting next to me in bed reading The New Yorker. I just feel so lucky that we caught this one. The moral of the story here...Listen to your body, listen to your doctor. If you don't like what they say...go get another opinion. I just can't stress how lucky I feel that we/they headed this one off at the pass.
Even though we eat fairly healthy, it's gonna be a little less cheese, and a little more fish in this house...now you know.
