This last weekend was definitely one to blog about.
Saturday morning I worked with Courtney, and gave her the shirt that Matt and I bought her in China town. It looked great!
We had a yummy lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Ken, and then I headed home to pick up Matt to attend Malcolm's 7th birthday party. We bought him a few things such as a whoopee cushion and a "fart maker" that all the boys thoroughly enjoyed. They played football and ate hot dogs. It was a lot of fun.
That night, Matt and I were going to go see my dad play in a band, but I fell asleep early. The next morning I received a phone call from my mom telling me that my dad had had a heart attack last night, and that I needed to call home. I did so, and luckily everything was fine. Here is an email he sent out to friends and family describing the attack.
"I arrived home safely after the gig, grabbed some vegetable chips (healthy), and sat down in front of MASH to unwind and let my ears "ring down" a bit. All of the sudden, I had a tightening in my left shoulder similar to some muscle cramping. Of course, at 46 with a Chol. level of 310 the left shoulder is never where you want to have some muscle cramping. So, I waited a bit as the pain seemed to start to fill my entire chest. I put the chips away and turned off MASH and decided that I should at least go upstairs and wake up the wife, just in case something was really happening, which to this point, I was still unsure. It was just before 1:00 AM. She awoke and I told her what I was experiencing which now could be described as extremely uncomfortable with the great symptom of shortness of breath coming on fast. I decided I was going to knell down by the bed to see if a different position could yield better results....boy was I wrong. The pain and discomfort shot from about a 4 on the pain scale to a definite 6+ but now added cold and clammy....that's about 3 out of 5 on the heart attack wish list. Needless to say, Jackie at this point was already on the phone with 911 telling them that she thought her husband was having a heart attack. So far, way better than veggie chips and MASH. I got up off my knees and tried to find a comfortable position but to no avail. I decided to walk back down stairs while I still had the power (just to be nice for the firemen). Jackie joined me shortly thereafter and suggested I sit down. "That's how this whole thing started!" I said and decided to remain standing.
For those of you already wondering if this had ever happened to me before, the answer is no. "No" on the family history of heart conditions too. Just went running Thursday and other than feeling out of shape, no issues there. But, for whatever reason, I suppose at this time I needed to be careful sitting in a lounge chair eating veggie chips and watching TV. Man, you're out of shape when that's too much for you to handle.
Anyway, about 2 minutes before EMS arrived I suddenly felt a pretty swift relief from the pain. Like whatever muscle was cramping, decided to relax. The horde (is that the right word for a group of firemen?) showed up, hooked me up to all kinds of devices, and although could find nothing wrong, decided to put me in the back of an aid car (drat, no helicopter), and wheel me to Overlake ER. My first ride in an ambulance! Yeehaw!
3.5 hours in the ER and them finding more places to poke things into me, I was released simply because they couldn't find anything "really" wrong with me. In medical cases, this is a good thing and a bad thing. If they could find it, they can treat it. If not, what the heck do they do? Well, they keep trying things until they figure it out....so, I see a cardiologist on Friday to see what the deal is. I hope they find something. I hope it has nothing to do with cardiology.
In summary, I'm OK. Feel fine now just a little weird for all the to-do and a little nervous about the tests the cardiologist will run on me."
So thats the story. Luckily everything seems fine and hopefully his test results will tell us what we need. We have been very blessed in our family to have very few "emergencies" so it was a little nerve racking to hear about this this weekend.
Saturday morning I worked with Courtney, and gave her the shirt that Matt and I bought her in China town. It looked great!
We had a yummy lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Ken, and then I headed home to pick up Matt to attend Malcolm's 7th birthday party. We bought him a few things such as a whoopee cushion and a "fart maker" that all the boys thoroughly enjoyed. They played football and ate hot dogs. It was a lot of fun.That night, Matt and I were going to go see my dad play in a band, but I fell asleep early. The next morning I received a phone call from my mom telling me that my dad had had a heart attack last night, and that I needed to call home. I did so, and luckily everything was fine. Here is an email he sent out to friends and family describing the attack.
"I arrived home safely after the gig, grabbed some vegetable chips (healthy), and sat down in front of MASH to unwind and let my ears "ring down" a bit. All of the sudden, I had a tightening in my left shoulder similar to some muscle cramping. Of course, at 46 with a Chol. level of 310 the left shoulder is never where you want to have some muscle cramping. So, I waited a bit as the pain seemed to start to fill my entire chest. I put the chips away and turned off MASH and decided that I should at least go upstairs and wake up the wife, just in case something was really happening, which to this point, I was still unsure. It was just before 1:00 AM. She awoke and I told her what I was experiencing which now could be described as extremely uncomfortable with the great symptom of shortness of breath coming on fast. I decided I was going to knell down by the bed to see if a different position could yield better results....boy was I wrong. The pain and discomfort shot from about a 4 on the pain scale to a definite 6+ but now added cold and clammy....that's about 3 out of 5 on the heart attack wish list. Needless to say, Jackie at this point was already on the phone with 911 telling them that she thought her husband was having a heart attack. So far, way better than veggie chips and MASH. I got up off my knees and tried to find a comfortable position but to no avail. I decided to walk back down stairs while I still had the power (just to be nice for the firemen). Jackie joined me shortly thereafter and suggested I sit down. "That's how this whole thing started!" I said and decided to remain standing.
For those of you already wondering if this had ever happened to me before, the answer is no. "No" on the family history of heart conditions too. Just went running Thursday and other than feeling out of shape, no issues there. But, for whatever reason, I suppose at this time I needed to be careful sitting in a lounge chair eating veggie chips and watching TV. Man, you're out of shape when that's too much for you to handle.
Anyway, about 2 minutes before EMS arrived I suddenly felt a pretty swift relief from the pain. Like whatever muscle was cramping, decided to relax. The horde (is that the right word for a group of firemen?) showed up, hooked me up to all kinds of devices, and although could find nothing wrong, decided to put me in the back of an aid car (drat, no helicopter), and wheel me to Overlake ER. My first ride in an ambulance! Yeehaw!
3.5 hours in the ER and them finding more places to poke things into me, I was released simply because they couldn't find anything "really" wrong with me. In medical cases, this is a good thing and a bad thing. If they could find it, they can treat it. If not, what the heck do they do? Well, they keep trying things until they figure it out....so, I see a cardiologist on Friday to see what the deal is. I hope they find something. I hope it has nothing to do with cardiology.
In summary, I'm OK. Feel fine now just a little weird for all the to-do and a little nervous about the tests the cardiologist will run on me."
So thats the story. Luckily everything seems fine and hopefully his test results will tell us what we need. We have been very blessed in our family to have very few "emergencies" so it was a little nerve racking to hear about this this weekend.
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