Things that make you go... damn.
Well, as very few of you know (most and a lot still don't) I had an episode on October 10 while i was a work, hadn't been there maybe and hour and I started feeling really strange almost like I was super anxious and then I started sweating like mad and the pressure in my chest began and got very light headed and thankfully one of my guys I work with for had enough sense about him to help me. (for those unaware I work with mentally and physically handicap adults in their home with meds and etc) he wasn't fully aware what was going on but I asked him to bring me the phone and I made my calls, fast foward a bit and the ambulance arrived and I remember talking to them and answering questions and the trip to local ER and even inside the ER in one of the rooms and everyone doing their thing hooking up up to this and that and I hear something about morphine and the er dr saying it seemed I had a heart attack and asking where i wanted to be transported to and the last thing I remember saying was I needed to get a hold of my oldest son then what seemed like seconds I feel this strange rush come over me and ALL HELL broke loose (which I learned several hours (5-6hrs?) later when I woke up in ICU in the next town over)
I "wake" up and I cannot move, I can hear, but cannot move anything not even open my eyes, and I can feel something in my throat and air entering every so often so naturally I am like what the hell?! then first thing that entered my mind as everything rushed in was I was in surgery and here I am waking up right before they start anything sooo i panicked a little I guess as I still cannot move but I hear a female voice saying my name and where I was and a quick rundown of what had happened then as I am coming to I find both of my hands were gently bound to the rails and I had a breathing tube down my gullet so I began rapping the side rails with my right hand as I want this damn thing out and they talked to me again to calm down and held my eyes open and asked if I was "ok" and I shot a look sharply to my left and she explained what it was (which I kinda had figured out already) and I gave her a look like take it out and she said give it a minute or so and they would remove it and didn't seem like may be 5mins (I'm unware of time passage might had been longer?) they unbounded my hands and removed it and as I came more and more awake I lerned I had coded, clinicly dead for 20+ seconds I believe they said, got blasted with a defibrillator and they installed a stint and went though my crotch to do so, I was bound mainly for my own safety (I had thought I must had put up a hell of a fight lol) so I wouldn't remove the breathing tube on my own.
Of course I feel like I had been in a train wreck after a few hours and days following, had to hang out in the hospital for about 3 days and during had another small scare as I was ordered a CT scan as there seemed to be a shadow in one of my lungs, which turned out to be mucus (yes I do/did smoke and have cut down a lot since but still fighting cravings off and on) but as I hung out I learned what all had happened and how I scared the hell out of everyone in the local ER as it was totally unexpected as it's not often a 44yr old had a heart attack. Then I am getting praises as had I not acted as quick as I had I would not be here to share this, NOW I am not posting all this for any sympathy or the like I just got the ideal as I had a lot of people ask me the experence, which at first I thought was and odd thing, but as time went it is a curious thing and what better way to get an ideal than ask someone that went through such first hand, which I fully can understand those that don't or won't and really don't blame them but reguardless I thought I would share with you all. (at least to the best of my remembrance.)
Bit over 2 weeks later and all in all I am doing good and on a rather long road to recovery, I am off work for the time being and no ideal when or if I will return, making a lot of changes in my life such as foods and habits and the like. Also learning the hard way when Dr's tell you to take it easy and don't do anything for a while that you are to do just that, it's not a suggestion. My sleep pattern is all over the place and I still get bouts of feeling fine to ok to completely drained depending on how the day goes still have some emotional bouts here and there. Really have no full on ambition to play my games or the like but i have messed about with a few but my hand/eye coordination still seems a bit off. So I spend my time trolling NA or Discord (Hai guise!) and looking at shit online I don't need or sleeping, a lot.
SO there you have it. Quota +1, potato.
UPDATE 2/27/19
I'm a bit early but come March 10th will be 6 months since my heartattack, Been doing fairly well aside the occasional panic attack seems things are almost back to the norm once again, i've gained a little weight back but not a whole lot, still struggling with cigs (did stop the weed as it was making freak out more than I should to the point I cannot enjoy it at all) but I have stuck to my diet for the most part no salt way less caffiene no red meat no drinking (which I will admit I miss). I still have my temper but seemed I can get it under control a whole lot better than I used to be able to before the attack thus a hell of a lot calmer than I was even if I still mouth off at times. Still have some flashbacks but seems to go as quick as it comes up but the paranoia is lingering some which I presume will leave in time as well.
I "wake" up and I cannot move, I can hear, but cannot move anything not even open my eyes, and I can feel something in my throat and air entering every so often so naturally I am like what the hell?! then first thing that entered my mind as everything rushed in was I was in surgery and here I am waking up right before they start anything sooo i panicked a little I guess as I still cannot move but I hear a female voice saying my name and where I was and a quick rundown of what had happened then as I am coming to I find both of my hands were gently bound to the rails and I had a breathing tube down my gullet so I began rapping the side rails with my right hand as I want this damn thing out and they talked to me again to calm down and held my eyes open and asked if I was "ok" and I shot a look sharply to my left and she explained what it was (which I kinda had figured out already) and I gave her a look like take it out and she said give it a minute or so and they would remove it and didn't seem like may be 5mins (I'm unware of time passage might had been longer?) they unbounded my hands and removed it and as I came more and more awake I lerned I had coded, clinicly dead for 20+ seconds I believe they said, got blasted with a defibrillator and they installed a stint and went though my crotch to do so, I was bound mainly for my own safety (I had thought I must had put up a hell of a fight lol) so I wouldn't remove the breathing tube on my own.
Of course I feel like I had been in a train wreck after a few hours and days following, had to hang out in the hospital for about 3 days and during had another small scare as I was ordered a CT scan as there seemed to be a shadow in one of my lungs, which turned out to be mucus (yes I do/did smoke and have cut down a lot since but still fighting cravings off and on) but as I hung out I learned what all had happened and how I scared the hell out of everyone in the local ER as it was totally unexpected as it's not often a 44yr old had a heart attack. Then I am getting praises as had I not acted as quick as I had I would not be here to share this, NOW I am not posting all this for any sympathy or the like I just got the ideal as I had a lot of people ask me the experence, which at first I thought was and odd thing, but as time went it is a curious thing and what better way to get an ideal than ask someone that went through such first hand, which I fully can understand those that don't or won't and really don't blame them but reguardless I thought I would share with you all. (at least to the best of my remembrance.)
Bit over 2 weeks later and all in all I am doing good and on a rather long road to recovery, I am off work for the time being and no ideal when or if I will return, making a lot of changes in my life such as foods and habits and the like. Also learning the hard way when Dr's tell you to take it easy and don't do anything for a while that you are to do just that, it's not a suggestion. My sleep pattern is all over the place and I still get bouts of feeling fine to ok to completely drained depending on how the day goes still have some emotional bouts here and there. Really have no full on ambition to play my games or the like but i have messed about with a few but my hand/eye coordination still seems a bit off. So I spend my time trolling NA or Discord (Hai guise!) and looking at shit online I don't need or sleeping, a lot.
SO there you have it. Quota +1, potato.
UPDATE 2/27/19
I'm a bit early but come March 10th will be 6 months since my heartattack, Been doing fairly well aside the occasional panic attack seems things are almost back to the norm once again, i've gained a little weight back but not a whole lot, still struggling with cigs (did stop the weed as it was making freak out more than I should to the point I cannot enjoy it at all) but I have stuck to my diet for the most part no salt way less caffiene no red meat no drinking (which I will admit I miss). I still have my temper but seemed I can get it under control a whole lot better than I used to be able to before the attack thus a hell of a lot calmer than I was even if I still mouth off at times. Still have some flashbacks but seems to go as quick as it comes up but the paranoia is lingering some which I presume will leave in time as well.
Comments
I can be your diet and lifestyle buddy.
Glad you are doing okay.
Glad to hear you are at least getting better and made it through all of that. Heart attacks run in my family as well, my grandfather had 1 at 45 and had to have open heart surgery.
My dad is 54 now and has a very stressful life living with crohns disease so i am always worried about him.
Definitely try and eat healthy and get proper exercise so you can keep your body in the best condition you can, and we are always here for you.
This makes Raphael go damn!
Cricket?!?! You gotta know what a crumpet is before you understand cricket!
Sorry, I didn't realize the message was a serious sort of situation (I just saw the topic and posted the raph video)...I didn't mean to look like I was making light of it.
Can't believe you.
Glad you had the wherewithal to get yourself help.
Damn, that is like my nightmare health scenario (heart disease runs in my family.)
Glad you are doing okay.
Yep, same
A month or two ago I had heart palpitations for 4 straight days. I don't smoke, am reasonably fit, no history of health problems, etc., but I figured I owed it to my kids to make sure there was absolutely nothing wrong. I mean, you hear about athletes dropping dead because of previously unknown heart defects, and I'm still pretty active, so it was better safe than sorry. Had to wear shit for 3 straight days, and dropped $1000 which was not optimal. Still, no regrets at all.
(everything was perfectly fine, I just overdosed on caffeine or something)
Thanks to all the well wishers and things I really appreciate it more than you all realize.
My first follow up with the Dr is this Friday (11/2) and I guess see where I go from there.
Good luck!
And once again told how extremely lucky I was that I am still around and praised for acting as quick as I did. I'm like. ooookay, umm cool?
Keep up the great work man!
Interesting point you make about the weed increasing your paranoia. I used to get a bit of heightened anxiety sometimes when I would smoke, although as an OCD sufferer I am well used to managing bouts of anxiety. However, during 2011 I was going through a lot of additional stress, I was getting married and attempting to complete an MA degree, and also separated long-distance from my fiance at the same time. Anyway, I continued to smoke like usual and I started to get these episodes where I felt like I couldn't breathe, like I would be breathing normally, but I would feel like the air wasn't going in my lungs enough, really weird! Sometimes it would happen while I was smoking and sometimes in the daytime! Turns out it was panic attacks, which I had never suffered from before! I've since learned that smoking weed can induce or increase the likelihood of panic attacks, even without necessarily increasing other forms of paranoia or anxiety.
I also cut down on my usage, and I never had a panic attack linked to weed again, even when I would subsequently light up every now and then. However, I have had a couple non-weed related minor panic attacks in the years since, due to work or family stress, so I totally know what you're going through on that side of it dude!
Anyway, sorry for rambling on a bit there, stay strong!
More well wishes flowing from this direction too!
Interesting point you make about the weed increasing your paranoia. I used to get a bit of heightened anxiety sometimes when I would smoke, although as an OCD sufferer I am well used to managing bouts of anxiety. However, during 2011 I was going through a lot of additional stress, I was getting married and attempting to complete an MA degree, and also separated long-distance from my fiance at the same time. Anyway, I continued to smoke like usual and I started to get these episodes where I felt like I couldn't breathe, like I would be breathing normally, but I would feel like the air wasn't going in my lungs enough, really weird! Sometimes it would happen while I was smoking and sometimes in the daytime! Turns out it was panic attacks, which I had never suffered from before! I've since learned that smoking weed can induce or increase the likelihood of panic attacks, even without necessarily increasing other forms of paranoia or anxiety.
I also cut down on my usage, and I never had a panic attack linked to weed again, even when I would subsequently light up every now and then. However, I have had a couple non-weed related minor panic attacks in the years since, due to work or family stress, so I totally know what you're going through on that side of it dude!
Anyway, sorry for rambling on a bit there, stay strong!
Odd thing was before I never had a panic attack smoking and I had stopped for like 2yrs, and after my attack around christmas I was gifted some, first try I was feeling awesome just like the good ole days, after about a week later, HOLY SHIT...full on panic attack and it was bad enough and lasted well over 45mins I had to make a total ass out of myself and go to the ER as I just KNEW I was on the onset of another heart attack, wich of course didn't happen nor was my stint nor heart in any jeporady so they shot me with something to calm my ass back down, done and done...(which I am able to laugh it off now but damn I was scared at the time) SO a day later thought i'd try a little hit thinking just maybe it was all in my head, well NOPE, with in what seemed like a flash of lightening I get panicy but this time I knew what was going on so I kept myself busy until I calmed back down which wasn't all that long like 20mins as I only took a little hit. So decided to stop for a while like a couple weeks and tried it one more time, lighter hit than the last one, same shit happened again but lesser than before, So I blamed the strain I had and got a tiny sample of something diffrent that I had used many times in the past with no problems, ...same shit happened. So I gave it up as its no longer enjoyable for me.
what kind of substitutes do you use besides eating red meat or any meat by products ... ?
Pretty much just cut red meat out it totally out I get my protein from turkey, chicken, fish, beans, tree nuts and such I'll eat pork on occasions but no bacon sausage or the like as i have to watch my sodium intake as well. I do miss my red meat at times especally when some one is grilling out and I smell it or see the shit on TV lol.