Round 2 and Cardiac Rehab?

June 29th, I went back to the hospital for round 2 of my journey into #stentlife. It pretty much went just like the first one. I went in at 6 AM, got prepped, got my Xanax and was feeling pretty good. I wish I could tell you more about the procedure, but honestly, I do not remember much. I do know that the doc had to install two stents due to the length of the blockage.

***Rewind: I was diagnosed with a blockage in my arteries. I had a 90% and a 70% blockage that was found after I passed out playing basketball***

The only surprising thing to me was that I later found out that all three stents are placed in the same artery, which kinda freaked me out a bit to be honest. I really have no idea if that is good or bad for me, but I have given up on researching this on the internet. There is some scary stuff there on the web.

So here I am 12 days later and I am feeling really good. I am not restricted from doing anything I want right now. I am , however, suppose to go to cardiac rehab tomorrow, and I am not sure about it.

I do not know anyone that has ever gone to cardiac rehab and have no idea what it requires. I have talk to the nurse and she said that is a way to ensure my heart is strong. The goal is to get me where I can exercise for 50 minutes at a time.  It is 3 times a week for 12 weeks!!! The first session's goal is to get my heart rate up 20 beats per minute over my resting heart rate. So basically get my heart rate up to 80.

I have already been back to the gym and been lifting weights again. I did 45 minutes this morning. I am really having mixed emotions about this cardio rehab, but I am going to go to the first session and just see what it is all about. I do not expect much out of this though. I will let you know what happens.

Basketball Saved my Life...

A couple of Thursdays ago, I was playing in a basketball game at our church. It's a rec league of old guys trying to "relive the glory days" as my wife puts it. The game was going on and I really wasn't "reliving" anything, except that I felt off. In the 2nd half of the game, I was really feeling winded, so I took myself out of the game and sat on the bench. The dizziness then hit me and the next thing I know I am waking up staring up at my team. I had passed out on the bench.

I was convinced to go to the ER by a guy on our team who is a paramedic and had a teammate drive me home so my wife could take me to the ER. Once there, I was run through a ton of tests, was told I was in AFIB and had a heart rate of 170! After a few hours and some medication, my heart rate converted back to a normal rhythm at just the right time before they admitted me. An Appointment was made with a cardiologist for Tuesday.

At the cardio doc, I was again run through a bunch of tests and it was decided I should do a stress test. So that wasn't as hard or as scary as I had thought in my mind and really did not think much of it. So after that, was the ultrasound of the heart. I left feeling pretty good.

Wednesday, while at work I receive a call asking me to come back tot he doctor's office because there were some "abnormalities" in my stress test results. They lady on the phone could not go further in the explanation, which is not good for a guys heart!

So the doctor states that there may be a blockage in my heart somewhere and suggested we do a heart cath procedure, where they run a catheter up my groin to my heart and poke around or something. The Dr. did say there was a chance that the test produce a "false-positive" but they would not know until they got in there. So we scheduled it form 5/25/17.

***First of all, I thought this was truly a false/positive. There was no way I could have blocked arteries! I am active, I eat fairly good, I am not overweight...this has to be a mistake.***

Fast forward to 5/25. I will not go into the prep of the procedure (but there is a story about a turkey sammich I will share at some point). I am on the table, awake and talking to the doctor as he is looking around my heart. He stops and states that I have two blockages! one is 90% blocked and the other is 70% blocked.

Unbelievable!

I had a stent placed in the 90% blocked artery and will have another one in a couple of weeks. The procedure was painless and seems to be working. I do feel better and I am actually looking forward to getting the second one done.

I am just stunned though. As active as I am, or thought I was, and as whatever I though I was, blocked arteries was the last thing on my mind. The DR did say my cholesterol is out of whack and I will work on it, but if I had not passed out in that basketball game, then I would have never known about my issues. In a weird way, basketball saved my life!