My Near Fatal Heart Attack of August 2, 2006

The following is an e-mail that my sister, Alicia, asked me to write describing my heart attack of August 2, 2006:


Alicia,

What I did get written up at your request concerning my 'close call', I e-mailed to myself and thought you'd be interested in what I wrote and decided NOT to mass mail to others.

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August 14, 2006

I am finally beginning to write my account of my heart attack that Alicia thought others would be interested in reading.

Holly had come up from Columbia on Tuesday, August 1st, and since she was leaving for New York City in only 10 days, we decided to go up to Fazoli's in Quincy ('our' place to go) and we had a good time, as usual, eating lasagna and spaghetti and, of course, the bread sticks that kept coming around. As is typical, when the young man offered us bread sticks, while Holly was still deciding, I told him, "She's kind of shy about asking for bread sticks. She really wants about 3 or 4 'cause she really likes to chow 'em down," causing Holly to laugh.

When we got back home in Hannibal, Holly and I stayed up pretty late, until 3 a.m. if I recall correctly. I was trying to find the video tape in which I recorded parts of the cult classic movie from the late 1960s, "Then Came Bronson" because I wanted to show Holly what was considered 'cool' in my day. I kept jumping up and down from the couch, changing tapes, but could not find it until after Holly had gone to bed. It was then when I noticed a 'nuisance' feeling in the center of my chest but thought it was only an air pocket trapped in my lungs which I had had many years ago.

When I woke up at about 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the 2nd, I noticed that the nuisance in my chest had become more of a nuisance and I stretched my upper torso and tried to 'belch' that air pocket out of my lungs but to no avail. Because my face was perspiring rather profusely, I stood in front of my air conditioner's breeze to feel better. At one point, I called the toll free number for Schwab to check on the prices of my stocks in my IRA during the new day of trading.

It crossed my mind at some point that it might be my heart that was in pain and I recalled my family doctor, a few years younger than I, had to have triple bypass surgery for his heart two years ago, despite the fact that he was fit and trim, exercised and did everything right---and I broke all the rules in that I ate junk food a lot and had done no real exercise in about three years. When I last saw my doctor a few months ago, I asked him if there were any warning signs for his heart problems.

He replied, "You are not allowed to ask me any questions about that!" because he was rather embarrassed that he had ignored what were obvious signs for several days before having his heart checked. I wondered, "If a doctor can ignore these signs, what chance do us non-doctors have?"

As it always seems to happen, whenever I have a medical urgency, it is my doctor's day off. I called the clinic and told the woman of my slight pain in my chest. She told me that they are told to tell the patient either to come into the clinic or go to the Hannibal hospital emergency room (ER).

I asked her, "Well, is it possible for me to be able to talk to you like this and be having a heart attack?"

She made the blunt, one word reply, "Yes," which really got my attention.

I went down the hall and stood in the doorway of Holly's bedroom and saw Holly sprawlled across her bed. By now, it was 10:30 a.m. and Holly had said she wanted to head back to Columbia by 1:00 p.m. and I thought if I were to go to the ER to check out this likely false alarm, I needed to do it soon so Holly can get back home in time to leave Hannibal by 1:00. I woke Holly up and told her of my chest pain and that I wanted to get it checked out at the ER, even though it was likely a false alarm. Holly went to the bathroom to get herself ready for what seemed to be a very long time and I yelled at her to hurry up. We got in Holly's car (with Holly driving) and all three traffic lights turned red when we got to them. By about 11:00 a.m., we drove up to the ER and I told the woman in the little window that I was having chest pains and she told me to come through the door on my right.

When the doctor (who I could tell was a good-natured person) saw me, he asked me, "Do you always look this pale?"

I asked him, "Do I look pale?!"

I took off my shirt and they placed on my chest electrodes for an EKG and within minutes, the doctor told me, "It looks like something serious is going on. You are having a heart attack."

In disbelief, I exclaimed, "I'M having a HEART ATTACK?!!"

The doctor rather nervously replied, "Yes, you're having a heart attack."

I asked for Holly at one point and was told that she was outside on her cell phone. They immediately gave me blood thinner to try to dissolve any clots. I gathered myself and came to grips with the reality that I could very well die in the next few hours, which surprised me as I assumed that I would remain alive in this world to continue my letter-writing effort to addressees of power and authority that I had begun in 1991 until we reached, to use a euphemism, the culmination of history, or, in other words, the day of Christ's return to earth, which, if I were to guess today, is several years from now, 2008-2018.

For a quick primer on my writing effort, go to my blog, "The Essence of the Olivet Discourse."

Click here to go to this blog


However, I also knew that there are never any guarantees in life and I had already done more than enough letter-writing that I had sufficiently gotten my point across since 1991 that it could very well be my time to die. But, like everyone, I had a very strong desire that I did not want to die. My mind began to wonder if I would soon 'see' those who have passed on before me, my father who passed away last November, my maternal grandfather who we called 'Poppie', my father-in-law, John King, who died in 1977, and the young woman who I met after my divorce and became very close to, Denise, who passed away in 1993 and, of course, God. Imagining this post-life 'experience' was very surreal and unsettling to me as it is an unknown and mysterious experience to everyone while still living. All during this time, however, several minutes that seemed to be an eternity, I did not feel any fear or panic, at least, not much that I noticed at the time. This is probably because I reasoned that I could not be in a better place at this time than a hospital emergency room.

I closed my eyes and said a brief but complete prayer, "I place my life in Your Hands."

By now, Holly had come into the ER and the image that I will never forget is seeing Holly sitting about six feet from me, her head turned slightly away from me, and her face very distraught as she wiped away the large streams of tears down both sides of her face with her small hands. And then seeing the ER staff trying to console her.

The doctor told me that I would be flown by helicopter to either St. Louis or Columbia (I chose Columbia). And then I had to choose between Boone Hospital or University Hospital. Since I was a patient four different times in the psychiatric ward in Boone Hospital during 1989-1990 and I was extremely happy with the outcome of my treatment there, I chose Boone Hospital. (I would later learn from others that Boone is well-known for its excellent cardiac unit.)

I instructed Holly to go home to pack my suitcase full of clothes, toothpaste, toothbrush, etc. to take down to the hospital for me and to stop my mail. My doctor would later tell me that my EKG was looking better and, later, I heard someone say that my color was looking better.

The helicopter arrived about 11:45 a.m. and, besides the pilot, I was now being cared for by a woman named Angie, attractive, with her yellow blonde hair tied in the back of her head and a man who went by his initials that I cannot recall for sure, so I'll call him C.J.; both of them in their early 30s, I'd guess. I was wheeled out to the helicopter in the hot, bright sunlight and I asked if there was an upper limit in the temperature in which they could fly. The pilot told me, "Yes, about 100 degrees," and it was probably in the low 90s at this time.

I was lifted inside the helicopter on the left side, with my feet pointed towards the front and the engine eventually revved up and the top of the Hannibal hospital off to my left slowly disappeared and we were on our way. It was a very uneventful trip, the only things that I saw were white clouds, blue sky, and a bright sun. I felt like I was on my back on a flat surf board and I felt rolling ocean waves of a few feet in height, undulating underneath me every 2-3 seconds. I think that I was asked how I was doing and C.J. moved the mike to my mouth and I said, "Okay." I asked for the time a couple of times and near the end of the flight, I turned my head and saw Angie's left hand with a rather gaudy wide gold band with many small diamonds. I asked for my billifold and it was handed to me. Before I knew it, after a 40 minute flight, at about 12:20 p.m., I heard the pilot say, "Landing at Boone Hospital."

Soon after I was placed on the gurney, I looked up and I asked Angie, "Are you married?"

Angie smiled and said, "Yes."

I replied, "Well, that takes care of the other 20 questions that I had for you," causing Angie and C.J. to laugh.

I was wheeled inside Boone Hospital and I gave C.J. two of my Matthew 24:29-30a prophecy cards and I asked him to give one to Angie and told him, "You will probably need to explain this to Angie 'cause I have found that women have trouble getting their minds around this." I gave him the guidelines that I used at the age of 10 when I solved these instructions by Christ to His apostles:

1) Just rule out the impossible

2) Rule in the plausible and possible

and this (the three 1999 celestial events on the back of the card) is the only explanation that ever shakes out.

C.J. smiled, probably at the cavalierness on my part at a time like this.

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Shown below is the front and back sides of what I call my Fourth and Final Version of my prophecy cards:


February, 2001 (Fourth and Final Version)

Front Side

ST. JEROME EDITION
1985

The Coming of the Son of Man

Luke 21:25a
"There will be strange things happening to the sun, the moon, and the stars."

Matthew 24:29-30a
"Soon after the trouble of those days, the sun will grow dark, the moon will no longer shine, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers in space will be driven from their courses. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky."

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Back Side


August 11, 1999 (11:43 UT to 12:23 UT) -- Total solar eclipse in Iraq and Iran. (Occurs approximately once every 35 years.)

November 18, 1999 (1:00 UT to 3:00 UT) -- Leonid 33-year periodic meteor storm over Europe and the Middle East.
Peak rate = 1,688 meteors/hour.
(Jesus was 33 when He died.)

February 11, 1999 -- Pluto overtakes Neptune as Planet Number 9 from the sun. (Occurs once every 248 years.)

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The next hour is a blur to me with my signing a release or two and asked many questions. My treating doctor, Dr. Woods, told me that I should have come in the previous night when my chest pain started because now I likely had permanent damage to my heart. A few minutes later, he told me, "I have some good news for you. After looking at your blood tests at the Hannibal ER, your heart may not have as much damage as I had previously thought."

For some reason, I dug out two prophecy cards from my billifold and asked a nurse to give them to Dr. Woods and, perhaps, when he had time to read them, he would surmise, "Now, this is something that you don't run across every day."

I believe at this time my sister, Angela, reached me by phone and asked me how I was doing and I think I told her, "I don't know," and a nurse took the phone from me to talk to Angela.

By about 2:00 p.m., I was in the 'cath lab' where the balloon catheritization was done. I was semi-conscious and was amazingly alert during the procedure. To my left, I could see flat blue computer screens and could clearly see an image of my heart beating, though I could not look at it more than a second or two at a time. A machine that was radiating me to produce the image occasionally was moved by remote control in a herky jerky fashion, I am sure to follow the lead of the catheter through my body. Off to my left, about 20 feet away from me, I could see through a glass window about three people watching the procedure on monitors.

Twice, I asked what they were doing, the second time, my doctor said he was getting ready to insert the stent.

I asked them, "Are you giving me a 'Dick..Cheney..Special'?, leading to a few laughs from the medical team. My doctor replied, "Yes, I guess that we are."

The procedure was done at 2:50 p.m., taking less than an hour and I was taken to ICU where nurses were frequently asking me to rate my pain in my chest between 1-10 (10 being the most painful). I think it ranged between 4-6 and they adjusted the morphine and other painkillers accordingly. I was hooked up to a monitor that had alarms going off often but I think that was normal as the nurses just ignored them. It was a challenge urinating into a container while laying on my back but I found a way to. Being wired up to a monitor made it very difficult to get any sleep.

I had many visitors in the ICU, two at a time, and a nurse once again asked me a series of questions, including, "Have you ever had any other heart problems?"

I feigned hurt when I answered, "Only a broken heart," in which she told me to be more serious but I can recall Holly laughing.

While talking to Chris and Brett, I recall telling them that I was planning to get on the floor later that night to do 40 pushups to get started with my physical therapy, causing Brett to laugh.

I was very fatigued and had trouble talking much. When Chris's wife, Kay, came in, she looked down at me and told me, in no uncertain terms, "You..are..lucky."

I smiled at Kay and told her, "I've been known to write somewhere (on my blog page), "When I look back on my life, I see that I've had a charmed life, with a few stresses." Chris and Kay responded with silence, which is typical whenever I possibly hint at what I call 'My Second Vocation In Life'.

Before Kay left, she kissed me on my forehead and I whispered to her, "Thank you."

I tried watching the Cardinals game that night but when I learned that they were getting beaten badly, I turned to something else. The 24 hours that I was in the ICU seemed to drag on VERY slowly and I was placed in a regular room the next day, Thursday, the 3rd. I learned that Johnathan had considered flying in from Washington state but was told by my mother that I was responding well to treatment and there really was no need to. Alicia and Brooke came up to visit me which I really appreciated and Holly also came by to see me. I was surprised that no nurses 'made me' do any walking, they just told me that I could walk if I wanted to---and I criticized two of the nurses for that. I walked through the hallways with Holly that evening. I was told that I would likely be released from the hospital in one or two days, and I made my strong wishes known at the front desk that I wanted to leave the next day and told them that I'll just be laying around if kept another day.

A woman came by to instruct me on how I was to eat on a low fat, low cholesterol diet. It was so difficult for me to understand and her voice was so gentle that she nearly put me to sleep.

After another long and restless night, on Friday, Holly came by to see me and also, perhaps, Alicia (I can't recall for sure). When Dr. Woods came by to examine me, he told me that I was responding well to treatment. He also told me that the artery of my heart that was treated was 90% blocked but that the other arteries looked 'okay' to him. While using his stethoscope to listen to my breathing through my back, I asked him, "Have you gotten the word that I want to go home today?" He laughed and said, "Yes," and he told me that I would be discharged that day. I called Mother and told her I was being released that day and she said she'd be down in the afternoon to pick me up.

A physical therapist came by and told me that I should walk 2-3 times a day, 5-10 minutes at a time at first and then, after a few days, build it up to 10-15 minutes. He suggested that I check with the physical therapy programs at the Hannibal hospital after I got back home.

I think I walked once more through the hallways but layed down most of the time, watching the clock slowly drag its hands waiting for Mother to get there. When she peeked her head through the door opening at 3:00 p.m., I jumped out of bed and, as quickly as I could, we got my things together. When a man with a wheelchair got there and I sat in the wheelchair, I gave one of the nurses a Matthew 24:29-30a prophecy card and asked her to share this with all of the nurses who helped me. Mother asked me, a bit scoldingly, "Why don't you thank her?"

I replied, "That is my 'thank you'," and Mother replied, "Oh."

Our first stop was at Walgreens to pick up some meds which took a long 40 minutes, even though they were called in from the hospital and I was definately feeling weak during the wait. We then went to Walmart to pick up some 'healthy food' and I sat down, feeling weak, while Mother shopped, which took a while.

We finally got to the farm and I promptly layed down. I got up for supper and in a sign of the resumption of normalcy, Mother and I discussed the pros and cons of having gnats in the house on the dining table while eating.

The next day, Saturday, I began my walking, 5 minutes at first around the house and it was a typically hot August day. I walked four times, 10 minutes with the last walk. While I was walking, I was keenly aware that my days of seeing these wonderfully familar horizons nearly came to an end three days earlier. Alicia was kind enough to come up and we had a good visit. I told her, "This may sound morbid but earlier today I was thinking that if something had happened to me, around today would have been my visitation."

Alicia raised her hands and covered her face with them and began to laugh, which is what I hoped that she would do.

Emily also came up and we had a good visit. I also received calls from all of my siblings which were much appreciated.

As my stay at the farm progressed, I slept less and stayed up more, my walks increased in length, up to 14 minutes with some walks in the intense heat of 95 degrees and high humidity with my always carrying a water bottle.

Mother took me back to Hannibal on Tuesday, the 8th, at about 3:30 p.m., six days after my heart attack and I even voted in the primary elections. We went by the post office to collect my mail and then to Walmart to get a few more food items. When we got home, Mother unloaded the car and then emptied the water from the dehumidifier downstairs. She made a delicious meal of scrambled eggs and sliced tomatoes and then we watched one of my favorites episiodes of 'The Practice' that I had taped. I also showed her the clips from 'Then Came Bronson' that I had tried to find for Holly.

When Mother left to go home at about 8:30 p.m., I followed her as she backed out of my driveway and told her, "I'm really glad that I have a mother who can still take care of her children," which caused her to wipe a tear from her eye.

Here it is seven days later, Tuesday, the 15th, and I am doing well, still walking and even mowed my yard last night for the first time in two months (I rested after doing 2/3rds of it).

Even though the preceding account has some humor, indicative of me, I am keenly aware that were it not for modern medicine, I would likely not be alive today. It is, of course, an experience that I often reflect on now as everything that I have experienced since 8/2/2006 was nearly not experienced by me. And one lesson to be learned by everyone reading this is that even with all of the best medical technology in the world, none of it would have helped me at all had I not checked out that 'chest nuisance' that I assumed was a false alarm. I have told a few that instead of feeling the 'elephant sitting on my chest' that you often hear of, it was more like a heavy puppy dog resting on my chest.

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This is as far as I got, Alicia, and after mulling it all over, I just had the attitude that this is just too ridiculous to send out to others---I think my brief summary in my Christmas letter was much better, don't you?

I'll miss your Christmas card this year! :( I think I'll leave a gap on my 'Card Door' representing yours! :)

Love,
Greg

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As I post this today, July 2, 2007, on the 11 month anniversary of my heart attack, I am doing reasonably well---very well, actually, but ever mindful more now than I was before of my mortality. I would learn that I do have a small amount of permanent damage to my heart. But when I saw my cardiologist in March, 2007, he told me, "You are very lucky."

I exercise three times a week on a treadmill at the Y for 35 minutes each time (3.2 mph on a 6 degree slope) and I have been very good at taking a moment nearly every day thanking God for another day and asking Him to take good care of my heart.