Bad news.....

[ffuries]

Received the following message late yesterday from my brother, he's 52 years old. Quit smoking over 20 years ago, and eats pretty healthy etc. So I'm sitting here going nuts and jumping everytime the phone rings.

"Mild heart attack last night. 7 of my arteries are 70% to 95% blocked.  There are too many blockages for stents. 

I'm having quadruple heart bypass surgery tomorrow.  Diane will let you know if there are complications.  Otherwise I'll talk to you soon. 

Being xfered to new hospital....."

[ffuries]

No news so far........Going frigging nuts here!

[Junk Yard Dog]

Fuckin shit! He's lucky it wasn't a widowmaker with that many blockages! I hope he's doing well, and I know guys who were health nuts from day one who had the big one before their 50's so clean living or smoke four packs a day, it's still a crapshoot.

[tjtM38]

I hate that for your brother. Hope he recovers from surgery and gets back to a semi-normal life. Posts like this make me feel fortunate; my older brother is 76 and in pretty good shape, but at his age anything can happen. I'm starting to feel old at 72. Who knows what tomorrow brings. Every good day is a gift from now on.

[ffuries]

Fuckin shit! He's lucky it wasn't a widowmaker with that many blockages! I hope he's doing well, and I know guys who were health nuts from day one who had the big one before their 50's so clean living or smoke four packs a day, it's still a crapshoot.

I had my Widow Maker on Sunday 24 Nov 2002 at age 35, a week after a full blown pre-deployment physical, which I passed with flying colors. I coded/flat lined on them 7 times before they were able to stabilize me and get me prepped for the Cath-Lab.

I had a blockage in the main artery, which one document said was 98% and another said 100% blocked. I was 30 minutes into my heart attack when I arrived at the ER and it was 15 minutes after that I was found on the floor in the examination room unresponsive by a nurse coming in to do an EKG.

Ironic his heart attack was on Sunday 26 Nov 2023 and mine was Sunday 24 Nov 2002, 21 years 2 days apart.

[SA1911a1]

Mike, when is the surgery?

The good thing is that now the operations are highly successful in restoring full function to the heart.

Let us know when he is back in recovery. Prayers are out and fingers are crossed.

[ffuries]

Mike, when is the surgery?

The good thing is that now the operations are highly successful in restoring full function to the heart.

Let us know when he is back in recovery. Prayers are out and fingers are crossed.

Steve, it was scheduled for yesterday, which is why I'm going bat shit crazy here, waiting for updates.

[ffuries]

His surgery went well, and he's out of Cardiac ICU and in a regular room. They are anticipating him going home early. Will follow up when I hear more.

[SA1911a1]

Good deal, Mike, I am glad to hear it.

[Junk Yard Dog]

[ffuries]

So what happened.....

Sunday night around 2300 he woke up with what he thought was heartburn at first, then decided it was a heart attack. Told his wife and she called 911, they showed up ran an EKG and one EMT said it might be heartburn as he wasn't seeing anything abnormal. The other EMT said run another EKG, as this one looks off to me. Second EKG showed another minor heart attack starting, and at that point they transported him.

At the ER they did the Enzyme test and it was slightly elevated, did another and it was higher, a third one was even higher, they told him another heart attack was inbound. They put him on a blood thinner and got him stabilized and sent him to the Cath-Lab and discovered the 7 blockages.

By now it's Monday morning and he's on a blood thinner, his condition has been stabilized and he's being transported to another hospital with an awesome Cardiac Program. Meets with the Cardiac Surgeon, they go over his results and schedule him for a Quadruple Bipass procedure on Tuesday. His procedure was pretty uneventful, and they were able to do the Bipasses with no issues.

Today they moved him out of the Cardiac ICU wing to a regular room, and are talking about possibly releasing him before the weekend as long as there aren't any issues.

That is jest of what I know so far. Talked to him on the phone a little while ago, and he sounds in good spirits.

Now I can breathe easier and relax, plus stop jumping out of my skin everytime the damn phone rings. Been a long day, I'm worn out, so I'm going to crash early, so I can be bright eye and somewhat tolerable for my labs and immunizations tomorrow.