May 12: Written on May 15/16. Just to let everyone know: I AM OK. No riding. Traveled by van from Eureka to Elko.
“PETER, YOU JUST WON THE LOTTERY!”
Never slept a wink that night, and I was tired, weak, and felt the irregular HR just as I had the evening before. Shoulders and chest were still tight and aching. So we roust, and head straight over to the Eureka med center for it’s 8 AM opening time. This real nice, cowboy kind of doc brings me in and I immediately show him the email from my sis about the procedures she thinks should be do to check me out. He could do the EKG and provide fluids - electrolytes - but the rest he said should be done at an emergency facility. My EKG showed I indeed had A-fib going on, sometimes up to 180 bmp. He didn’t like that at all, nor the tightness in the shoulders and the chest. Told me flat out, this after I discussed with him what I’d been doing, that I was done…do not pass GO, do not collect 200. He also hooked me up to O2 in addition to the bag of electrolyte. The he suggested that I go to Reno or Elko to see a cardiologist, and upon further thought, he settled on Elko, this because the cardiologist up there is one of the best in the west. “Go NOW,” he insisted, “it’s just under two hours from here to Elko, and go straight to the emergency room!” With that we loaded me, my O2 tank, and my IV into the van, with me in the front passenger seat so we could hang the IV from the sun visor. Actually felt better on the way up to Elko, seeing that I had a couple liters of electrolyte draining into my body.
The cowboy doc had a few hypothesis on my situation: could be severe dehydration (as I believed all along) or it could be cardiac issues, or it could be some kind of muscle wasting thing going on that my sis was asking him to check for, but he hadn’t the capacity to do there what with no lab. Whatever the case I had to get checked out by a cardiologist to rule out any potential cardiac issues. If it was dehydration, ok, I’d loose a day and have to really refine my electrolyte consumpion…along with eliminating caffeine and alcohol. I was cool either way.
Got to Elko in no time, got in emergency, and had people doing EKG’s and drawing blood asap. Stayed on O2, and had more and more bags of fluids plugged into my arms. So we wait and wait and wait, and then I meet a hierarchy of Docs, culminating with the Dude, the Man, Dr. Badger, the head Cardiologist in Elko and Salt Lake City. Doc didn’t seem alarmed, but did tell me that I had just one marker in my blood test, Troponin, that made him want to probe further in the cardiac direction. “SHIT,” I thought to myself, more testing. Doc wanted to do a Heart Cath on me to make sure the heart is ok. He also wanted a Echo done on my heart.
Well, the heart cath was the one that kind of rang alarm bells with me, not for what it is, a way to shoot dyes into the heart to watch the flow through the coronary arteries, but for it’s invasiveness: you have to insert a catheter up into the Femoral artery and tease it all the way up into the heart. I just kind of cringe at getting a catheter inserted into my groin! So the did the echo, and not long thereafter it was time for the heart cath.
Got wheeled into this this big room, with a bed in it and giant square box cameras above me. The bed was able to turn and rotate as was the cameras above. The prep work took a good 30-40 min. in that they had to check veins, get the equipment up and running etc. But the good news was that they were doing a new procedure where they were hoping to go in via the arm…IF that artery will accept the catheter. So just to be safe they had to prep both my right arm and my groin for the catheter - which meant “manscaping” my pubic region next to both Femoral Arteries.
The three techs got me prepped and in popped Doc Badger ready to roll. They gave me this super mild sedative, which I really didn’t even feel and then they were off and running. Now the initial entry into the artery in my wrist was a good sharp jab, but then the tech/assistant Greg told me that I wouldn’t feel the catheter going up the artery and into the heart because there are no nerves in arteries. That made me feel way better about this “snake” moving up my artery highway. AND they were good to go with the Radial Artery- so no groin entry.
So they’re doing they’re thing, and I say to the doc, “ok doc I guess this is where you give me the thumbs up or thumbs down to continue this trip.” He laughed, and continued with the test. So we’re just kind of moving along and suddenly he looks at me and says, “Peter, you just won the lottery!”. And I’m thinking, “golden, I’m good to go.” And I said to him, “then I’m ok?” That’s when I’m hit with the head punch. “No,” he says, “you’ve got some blockages, your trip is over!” Just kind of laid there quiet as they wrapped up the test, unhooked me and wheeled me into a smaller room while Doc Badger went over the results. That’s when they bring this 2-D schematic of my coronary arteries out for me to see…and it’s filled with blockages, like 6-7, 4 of which are in the 90% range. This was the GUT punch. My coronary arteries were a mess, and not only that he said I was operating on 55% coronary artery efficiency.
Cannot tell you how much my mind was spinning. WTF was my thought to about everything. How, when, why? I mean I know I haven’t been a choir boy with respect to my diet etc., but to have that much blockage, after 40 years of trying to live a fit life….How?
So the wheel me back to a waiting area and Judy comes in with Vic, and she looks at me and asks how it went. All I did was hand her the piece of 8x10 letter paper with the 2-D drawing of my coronary artery network and the blockages penned in. She began to cry. I was just stunned, and didn’t know what the heck to say. Well, the next step was for my to either go to Salt Lake City where Doc Badger could do open heart surgery, or to facilitate a process whereby I could return to Ohio to have docs back home continue with whatever needed to be done. Well, with the prospect of open heart starring at me, my thought was to be close to home and family, especially with the recovery process. What’s more the Cleveland Clinic is one of the best Heart Care facilities in the world. And thats not to discredit Salt Lake City one iota. But I just believed that being close to home through this whole journey would be way easier for all involved.
Doc Badger was good with that decision, and he talked to my sis almost immediately after the heart cath. Kim really got the ball rolling for me on so many fronts it would make your head spin. Now I wanted to drive home with the ladies, yet doc Badger and Kim would have no part of that one. Nope, I was flying back to Clev, asap as soon as I was stabilized and cleared for travel by the staff at Elko. But they couldn’t determine when I’d be stable enough to make the trip, so I was to spend at least one night in ICU at Elko before returning to Clev. So there it was, not only was my trip over, but I was about to embark on another journey pronto, this one medical, and big-time medical at that. We’re not talking stints, we’re talking open heart surgery!
And I have to say right here, right now, that there was a part of me that felt so very disappointed in myself. It’s like, “how in the hell did I get myself into this situation?” I mean, I’ve always taken pride in the fact that I live fitness, and to end up as that 60-year-old guy with the zipper down his chest….really…that’s me? Big discussion then was addressing the how. Turns out my lipids were awesome, my cholesterol was awesome, yet my coronary arteries are a mess. Genetics, seemed to be the answer. We can fight through a lot, but genetics, that’s the one I’d brushed aside like a pesky mosquito for the totality of my life. I always thought that what I did, and what I would do, from an athletic standpoint, I thought that would push genetics aside. I thought that would be the great equalizer, if not the victor in the battle against my genetics - which is a family history of cardiac death and cardiovascular problems.
Man was I wrong! Genetics had not only prevailed, but genetics had made this decisive statement!