And no, this wasn’t hyperbole.
Sunday, I went for a walk with my oldest son.
We were 2 miles into our 4 mile walk.
Ironically enough, the paid started while we were outside of a hospital.
If he wasn’t with me, I might have pressed on.
Anyway, we had started the turn towards home and my chest felt tight.
My left are started to hurt.
I felt a weirdness I’d never felt before.
Every step got worse.
Before the walk I told my son we werne’t going to call Shannon if he was tired.
I was determined to get my 10,000 steps for Sunday.
With every step I weighted the thought of keep going to calling for help.
I saw two ambulances drive by.
I thought to myself, this is a sign to call.
We kep walking about 500 steps.
Finally, we made it to a bus stop and I asked my son if we could take a break.
I immediately thought of my dad and when I told him to see a Cubs vs Sox game and he had to stop frequently to take breaks.
I thought to myself this isn’t me and I said let’s go
We made it another 200 feet before I thought I should make the call.
Lucky, Shannon was able to tick us up with 5 minutes.
Those minutes felt like hours.
Once back home, I took my customary Sunday afternoon nap.
I woke up and felt “fine.”
My chest wasn’t huring but my arm felt weird.
Little by little, I started feeling back to normal.
Shannon decided that we should book a appointment with the doctor just in case.
I chalked it up to having spicy chicken and waffles for breakfast.
Sheck suggested we go to the doctor just to make sure
The appointment was scheduled for Tuesday at 9:45 am
The doctor runs an EKG test and everything comes back normal.
The doctor tells me to go have bllod drawn for other heart reaalted tests
About 1 hour later, Shannon calls and says GO TO THE ER NOW
I go to the ER and learn I had a heart attack.
At 39
The only thing I could think about was how I let me family down.
The only thing I could thing about was my dad having a triple bypass surgery at about the same age.
The only thing I could think about was how my dad walked into a hospital and never walked on his own again
He walked in because his pacemaker kept firing, and when they went in to figure it out, he had a stroke
He could speak, just mumbles
I kept thinking about how I should be getting in parent pickup line to get the kids
Tomorrow (Wednesday) was their last day of school
Shannon was supposed to take boards on Wednsday (she passed) and I’ve let them all down.
Any way the doctor eventually comes in and says that the LED is 100 precent blocked and we need to put in stents to have it unblocked
The entire time I wondered how is this possible.
I left 5 days a week
I bench 275
I skip leg days
I play basketball 3 days a week
I don’t smoke
I drink once or twice a month
I am the coach for my sons’ basketball and baseball teams
Chances are, I’m in better shape that most
Anyway, they place the stents and 24 hours later I’m back at home
But I feel different
I feel the same as I did the day before the heart attack
I feel hyper aware of everything.
I just stare at my family
I don’t really want to go to sleep
I’m on a whole bunch of pills.
I would like to thank my Wife for being the selfless person that has always been.
Me putting additional strain when she was already stressed about boards and many other things
I would like to thank my other in law for being flexible and being able to change in a moments notice
I would like to thank my sister who also able to change her schedule and be flexible
I would like to thank the doctors and nurses that took care of me during my stay.
And I’d like to thank you for reading.
Oh and I’m not fix the grammar, spelling or punctuation