A Little Detour in Life

In case you've been wondering where my posts have been, there's an explanation.   Got up Tuesday morning to prepare to visit my dear cousin Marian and her husband Mark in Scottsdale, but instead had to detour to Abrozo ("The Embrace") West, the hospital just around the corner from our hotel.

I've been having angina for the past two or three weeks and had been, in fact, scheduled for a cardiac cath at Riverside Hospital.  This followed me having a positive nuclear medicine stress test a week or so ago at Grant Medical Center.  For the most part, the angina was controllable with nitrogylcerine that my sage wife had me get from my cardiologist before leaving Columbus.  Tuesday morning was different.

Once again, Cheryl proved to be the smarter one of the two of us.  She insisted that we head for the hospital and we were happy that it indicated in big bold letters, right under its Emergency Department sign, "Chest Pain Center"; I was having plenty of it.  We got there at a good time that morning before the crowds, thankfully.  I was informed pretty quickly that my bloodwork showed I'd had a heart attack, and would need a heart catheterization that day.  One good omen was that our ED doc was an OSU College of Medicine graduate!

My cousin Marian and husband Mark came to the ED so I got to see them, albeit in unusual
circumstances, for a few hours.  It was a great relief to Cheryl and I to have blood with us . . .comforting.  Haven't seen them since 1998 but it was as if no time had passed and the stories were flying.

Finally got into the cath lab about 5 p.m. on Tuesday and learned that I had three blockages - 99% blocked in the LAD (left anterior descending artery and nicknamed "the widowmaker"), and 95% blocked in the right coronary artery.  Uh oh.  I could've easily dropped dead on the sidewalk outside the hospital and no wonder I was having chest pain!  The cardiologist could only stent the first two blockages in the LAD because of the high load of contrast media and how my kidneys would or wouldn't handle it.  So, I was scheduled for Round 2 on Thursday.

We were supposed to go to the Reds game on Wednesday but those plans were dashed.  My college classmate, Jeff Kirk and his wife Debbie, were going to meet us for lunch and then the game.  They detoured, instead, to the hospital and we had a really nice afternoon talking over old times.  I was actually feeling better since my heart was getting full blood flow from my left anterior descending artery (instead of the 1%), so we had a nice visit.  They went to the game without us and darned if the Reds didn't win again, including a steal of home plate (which almost never happens).  

Thursday came and I went back to the cath lab for Round 2 in early afternoon.  As it turns out, the cardiologist encountered coronary vasculature that, as he described it, "belongs to an 80 year old".  He had a brief struggle with trying to balloon angioplasty the plaque in my right coronary artery, including a dissection of it that he quickly patched with my third stent.  Back to my room for recovery and I got discharged about noon on Friday (today) feeling weak but better overall.

I'm seeing my cardiologist in Columbus upon our return, and the interventional cardiologist here in Arizona indicated that I should be able to manage this and "prolong" my life by following his directions and the proper medicine.  As I learned with pancreatic cancer, nothing is guaranteed so I intend to live my life every day to the fullest.  That's the best I can do so that's the game plan.

Flying home tomorrow (Saturday) and looking forward to seeing Columbus and not the inside of the hospital.  We can, hopefully, make up this trip next year and, in the meantime, cheer on the Reds for 2023 based on their promising spring training results, even if I only got to see one game.  Let's go Reds!