February 21, 2019
It was a very busy day. Just as I like it!
It was a Thursday and a typical Thursday it was until that evening. I played my usual 9 holes of golf(walking) and then went to my local gym for my noon HIIT one hour “afterburn” workout. That afternoon my wife and I went shopping and returned home around 7 that evening and found a message from our pastor that she was having a problem with her washing machine. So off to the parsonage to fix the problem. While there I moved an old cast iron sink in the cellar about 20 feet(I mention this because my wife believes moving the sink may have caused the dissection).
Around 9 pm the evening of April 20, 2018, I felt a pain in my chest, probable a 7 on a scale of 10. It dissipated rather quickly, and then remained around a 3 until my wife and I went to the emergency room around 6:00 am that next morning. I felt no other symptoms other than the chest pain.
After blood work and an EKG, I was diagnosed as having a heart attack. I was transferred to Robert Packer Hospital, had a catherization at 1:00 pm that Friday, and learned that I had had a SCAD. TIMI II flow in left anterior descending artery and in left circumflex artery was the etiology. I began the conservative approach to healing(no stent or bypass) and within a month I was back playing golf and after a month of cardiac rehap was feeling quite well and back to normal. I returned to playing pickleball in the fall and continue to attend my local gym but am no longer participating in the HIIT.
My medication includes an 81mg baby aspirin, 90mg Brilinta twice a day and 500mg of Renexa twice a day. My treatment in the hospital was “spot on” and I am forever grateful to the doctors and nurses for their expert care.
At present, I feel quite well. I visit my local gym 3 times a week and play pickleball 3 times a week and going on with life!