Take care of yourself, capisce?

It’s been a bit of an absence from the site for me, and it feels good to get back. I didn’t get around to making the KC Coffee Morning iCal or any of that stuff… I had something unexpected come up.

You see, the minor surgery that I referred to in my last coffee post was a cardiac catheterization with the possibility of angioplasty. The reason I was even going in for this procedure is that a couple of weeks ago I was feeling abnormally short of breath whenever I would engage in any sort of physical exertion. On rare occasion, I would also feel slight tightness and pain in my chest. With my family history of heart problems, this was immediately concerning. I was referred to a cardiologist, who ran a treadmill stress test on me which came up abnormal. They wanted to do the catheter to look around a little more.

I checked in early on Thursday, and if no angioplasty was necessary, I’d have been home on Thursday night. As it stood, the procedure only took 15 minutes. They found small but complete blockages in 3 of my coronary arteries. It was their decision to send me in for triple coronary bypass surgery first thing on Friday morning… incidentally the second day of American Heart Month.

Now, for those of you keeping track, I’m 34 years old.

Triple bypass surgery is not the kind of thing that someone my age really goes through all that often. But, luckily for me, I was able to have this surgery done before I ended up having a heart attack… or worse. I’m still sitting at home recuperating. Yesterday was the first day that I really felt like spending any time getting back into the groove of normal life. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been feeling pretty great… better at this point than any average aged heart patient. Right now, I don’t feel limited by pain or weakness or any of that stuff. Really, I only have one arch enemy… the cold.

They’ve got me on beta blockers at the moment which help lower my blood pressure and my heart rate. As a side effect, I tend to be pretty susceptible to cold temperatures, and with it being only 15-19 degrees outside for the next few days, I can get pretty miserable stepping outside for only a few seconds.

My wife Robin has been instrumental and has gone far beyond the call of duty throughout this whole thing. I’m incredibly grateful to my parents who drove up from Oklahoma and my sister who flew up from Mississippi to be here while I was in the hospital. While I’ve been in the hospital and over the past few days at home, I’ve had tons of calls, letters, and visits from friends and family. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and well wishes.

I had one friend visit from Oklahoma City and we were talking about how he tries to run and keep healthy but that he has a family history of diabetes that he doesn’t keep a medical eye on. I said to him, just like I’ll say to any of you who are in similar situations… GET IT CHECKED OUT.

If you know that you have any family history of any sort of disease, whether it’s heart disease, diabetes, etc. and you haven’t taken the time and effort to take responsibility for monitoring your health, I want you to use me as an example as to why you should.

Other than the shortness of breath a couple of weeks ago, I have been in great health for as long as I can remember. My diet is not that bad in general, and even though I’m a little overweight and out of shape, I’ve been OK.

Had it not been for the shortness of breath and more importantly, my concern about my shortness of breath, I very well could have suddenly dropped dead at any point this year. That, my friends, is no exaggeration. But, since I was able to be as proactive as I could in this situation, I can now look forward to many, many years before I even think about keeling over.

Take time to take care of yourself. You hear it all the time, I know I have. But, only now do I understand how important it actually can be.

[tags]anigoplasty, bypass surgery, heart, health[/tags]