HE JUST GOT SPRUNG

[Golddollar]

Two days ago my younger brother up in northeast Ohio was feeling like he was having a bad case of heartburn. But he had a quintuple by-pass 20 years ago, so he didn't take this lightly and drove to the hospital. He got there in time, because each blood draw was showing the cardiac enzymes associated with a heart attack were increasing. My sister headed up to Ohio from southern Indiana and my nephew came down from Michigan, and I was getting ready to go up from here.

Yesterday the hospital got my brother into the catheterization lab and ended up putting in two stents because one of his 20 year old by-grafts collapsed. Last night my brother called me and said he was feeling great, and that with my sister and nephew around, I didn't need to make the trip up unless things went south after they left. He said that he was told that he was having a heart attack beginning, but they caught it in time.

I just got a call from my sister and she said they were all driving back to my brother's house. So we are relieved that my brother didn't delay getting treatment, and I am going to go over to the club and hoist a mug of Yuengling in celebration.

[CH4]

All is well that ends well.
Glad he’s home and upright.

[Rustyt1953]

Men often sweep heart attack symptoms under the gas/heartburn rug.

In June of 2004 I was on the 13th tee of my beer league. My partner (my brother) asked what wrong as my game had gone to hell. I told him that my left armpit hurt and my left jaw and ear ached.

He said to increase my beer flow. By the 19th hole my game had improved and my symptoms had gone away. We finished up the night by closing down the Old Engine House Inn.

At around 0400 I couldn't sleep as the symptoms had returned with a vengeance. Thinking it might be heartburn I dropped two tablespoons of baking soda in a short glass of water and waited.

Nothing.

I went upstairs, threw on a t-shirt, shorts and Crocs, woke Ruthie up and handed her my keys and wallet. I told her to call 911 as I believed I was having a heart attack. I told her to tell the paramedics that I knew they had to run with their lights on but ask them not to run the siren and not wake the neighbors. I said to tell them that I would be at the end of my driveway having my last cigarette.

Four sprays of nitro with no effect earned me an instant audience with a cardiac surgeon. I woke up in ICU with a brand new zipper.

Ruthie said I chose wisely.

"Alcohol, it thins out the mix."

~ Howard from Down Periscope

[Alk8944]

Golddollar,

Glad they caught things in time for your brother! Tell him he is just getting started! I have never had a heart attack yet, recognized the symptoms and got myself to the hospital in time too. This was 26 years ago. I had a quadruple bypass, two singles and one duplex graft. The duplex graft failed within a few weeks and it was stented. I have lost count of how many angiograms I have had since then.

Since then I have collected a total of nine stents including three in two separate procedures in April and May 2019 during a single hospitalization, as well as having a septic infection during the same hospitalization. At one time I was on a first-name basis with the staff in the cardiac cath. lab for quite a while!

Survived the Sepsis but wish I hadn't as my Wife died of sepsis just 4 months later. We had been married 58 years at the time. Sure miss her!