A new year, a new you

    Don’t put off ’til tomorrow what you can do today.
    As I reflect on this past year, I think about how drastically my life has changed. It was just a little over a year ago that I was completely blindsided. I went in for a screening heart catheterization. As quickly as the procedure begins, it is over, and based on my experience, I knew the procedure was done way too fast. That meant something really bad or really good.
    The cardiologist told me that the blockages were too severe and I would require bypass surgery.  I begged him to try stents instead, but he just told me if he put stents in it would ruin the bypass.
    I was quickly transferred by ambulance from the cath lab to another hospital, and the next day I underwent a four vessel coronary bypass.
    Sitting in the hospital bed waiting for the bypass surgeon to speak to me, I was told the severity of the blockages — 100 percent blockage of my right coronary artery, 95 percent to my left anterior descending artery and 85-90 percent of the left circumflex artery. I was also told that I likely had a small heart attack three to four months prior. I was days away from sudden cardiac arrest and had no idea.  
    The most common question I am asked is, “Did you have any warning symptoms or clues that something was wrong?”
    The answer is yes and no. The day before the screening heart catheterization I was in the gym working out as my wife and I had done for years four to five times a week together. I didn’t have the classic symptoms that you see on TV, but I did have some vague nonspecific complaints.
    It was a few months before that I started feeling fatigued, my blood pressure that had previously been under good control was now becoming elevated, and after working out I would have chest pressure and unusual sweating.
 

The full article was published in the "Have the Time of Your Life" special section. Click here to read it online for FREE.