Sunday, January 06, 2008

Heart to Heart

Thursday morning at 6:30 a.m. I took my 49 year old husband to the emergency room with chest pains radiating into his arm. I was in denial all day, but so were the doctors. Every time they ran a test they said "we don't think it's his heart but we are doing this just in case" and most of them came back okay. But they kept him for observation. I got home around 7:30 pm and was talking to him on the phone at 8:00 p.m. when he saw a cardiologist for the first time. He came to tell him the last set of enzyme tests was high and they thought he'd had a mild heart attack. I found this out at 8:30 pm, home alone, and of course my husband was alone in the hospital with all night to let it soak in. It was a shock to both of us.

On Friday evening he had a heart catheterization and Dr. Gharib found a small artery that was 99% blocked. They cleaned it out and inserted a stent. I got to bring him home today, which is Sunday.

It was stressful and scary and a huge wake up call for both of us. I guess these bodies aren't going to just take the abuse we have heaped on them over the last 40+ years. We were very lucky it was a minor heart attack and it caused only minor damage to the heart.

We are committed to living a healthier lifestyle. We don't want to go through anything like this again.

1 comment:

  1. Sending good heart thoughts to you and your husband. From what I can tell, you already have good hearts, regardless of what the doctor says. :-)

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