It has been a 5 week whirlwind since we left Oso Blanco in Brisbane and headed back to a land life in Park City, Utah. Since then, we have visited my Mother and friends in Minneapolis, Ann's Mom and the gang in Northern WI, and hung out with Elizabeth and Margaret and the beautiful Grand Girls in Asheville, NC. After all that, Bear and I did a 'boy's road trip' and drove our car from Minneapolis to Park City.
The last two weeks we have been trying to get settled in our new town with Bear adjusting to 5th grade in a 'real' school, getting the house set up, and finding our way around. Both Ann and I have been working hard at getting into ski shape as we look ahead to the approaching winter. I treated myself to a wonderful new bicycle and have been enjoying the beautiful fall weather riding the back roads and many trails around our area. Life is good.
Tuesday was "Get your self to school Day" so Bear bypassed the bus stop and we headed out on our bikes for his school. We were less than a mile from home when I felt strong chest pains, had trouble breathing, and had to get off the bike. Oh shit", I thought. "It's the big one". I told Bear that I didn't feel good and we needed to go home so Mom could take him to school. The pain lessened and we limped home and immediately headed for the ER, dropping Bear off on the way.
Chest pain is a sure way to get attention when wandering into an ER. Park City's hospital is a brand new facility with all the latest gadgets and gizmos and little traffic at this time of year. I was given exceptional care and every imaginable test. With the initial fear and urgency diminished, little was showing up in the diagnostics. EKG and blood tests were normal, but they persisted. Stress test, pulmonary CAT scans, MRI, and more blood tests showed little. We had arrived at the ER at 8 am and by 2 pm they had run every possible test but were not willing to give up. The ER Doc had been working with the Cardiologist in Salt Lake and got a call around 2:30. "We are going to transfer you to the hospital in Salt Lake", she informed me. "OK, we'll go home and get our stuff. When should we go down there?" She shook her head. "Now. We have already called the ambulance. There is no need to change back to your clothes. They have already scheduled your surgery." Huh? We were just about to get dressed and go home to relax. All of a sudden we had to figure out how to get Bear home from school, make other arrangements, and get wheeled into the 'limo'.
There was no delay for paper work or other admitting details. I was wheeled to a room and a nurse started explaining what they had planned. The intercom barked "Prepare 328 for immediate surgery"and the action started. Luckily Katherine works nearby and she was there shortly. Ann was on her way down from Park City, but we were rolling down the hall and into the elevator before she got there. The surgeon explained that even though little was showing up on their tests, they were suspicious of blockage and were going in to check. If there was a problem, they would fix it.
An hour later, I was back in the room with Ann and Kat and dinner was on the way. The Dr. brought us copies of the pictures showing over 97% blockage of the left anterior descending artery or LAD. He had installed a stent to open it up and said to take it easy for 2 –3 days before resuming normal activity. 24 hrs after setting off to school with Bear, I was getting dressed in the hospital to go home. Obviously there is more to taking care of this in the long term, including a row of bottles of meds, but we have once again proven that it is better to be lucky than smart! Had we been somewhere in the South Pacific this week, this would have been a more interesting story.
During my discharge briefing, the nurse told us that if we wanted more information on what I had gone through, just google 'widow maker'. Check it out. Yep, it could have been the big one.
Back on the bike next week. Ski season is coming. Take nothing for granted.
Eric
