Right now it is early Saturday afternoon. At 4pm on Tuesday it felt like Muhammad Ali was punching me smack in the middle of my thorax, rapid fire like, 8-10x. It hurt like hell. I crumpled over, and literally cried out, “Oh God, please, not now! Not now! Don’t take me now!” I thought I was buying the farm right then and there.
I was soooo close to dialing 9-1-1, but for some reason I thought it would pass. Probably not the smartest thing I ever did. Fortunately it did pass, and I laid down on my bed. It was tempting to stay there but told myself that I’d better get my ass over to the ER. I drove myself in — fortunately it’s only a 15 minute drive. As soon as I got in my Jeep I called my brother. He lives in the LA area area while I’m closer to San Francisco. I told him what was going on and that I thought I would make it. But I told him each street I was on, in case I passed out and he’d have to call 9–1-1 for me. We stayed on the phone during the drive, all the way in.
I made it to the ER and told them that I think I’m having a heart attack. They brought me in right away. Several tests later revealed I had an aortic aneurysm and tear. I don’t yet have the ICD-10 and the CPT codes. When I get those I will share those here. But basically they gave me a pig valve and a Dacron graft, if memory serves. Open heart surgery. My chest still hurts like hell.
I was so close to kicking the proverbial bucket. So very close. From what I’ve read this is how John Ritter and Alan Thicke died. What a shitty way to go. It hurt like hell and I was completely helpless. I was all alone. Not a good feeling.
I’m still in the CCU but they want to move me out once they find a bed. I am now officially living on borrowed time. I am one very fortunate guy.
Welcome back to the land of the living after a brief and awful peer over the edge into the abyss.
Rather than calling it “living on borrowed time”, my then- very ill but still very alive first wife called it “playing with the house’s money”. That put a much more hopeful spin on the situation.
Sadly her time finally came in turn and she is gone forever. But we did have a good long second and third run, all on the house’s money. Here’s hoping you can do the same.
IANAD, but not sure why you would characterize this as “living on borrowed time”. We tend to get fatalistic when stuff like this happens – I know I did when I had a mild but concerning heart attack. But in both our cases, we got fixed up, ready to face the world again!
So glad you pulled through – what a ghastly experience!
It may provide some comfort to hear that I know another person who was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm, sans tear, with a recommendation that it was too dangerous for them to do surgery. He was given a very limited amount of time to live. That was nearly 30 years ago. He’s still with us and doing fine.
I think @LSLGuy’s wife had the right way of looking at it. Very wise.
Thank goodness you made it to the ER. You are not on borrowed time. You have new stuff in your chest that will last a long time. My mom was one of the first patients to have an aortic valve replacement. She lived for more years 30 years. This was in 1988.
I’m glad you got away with it. But please do not do that again! It’s not only your own life that you’re risking; you might have run over somebody while unable to steer or brake properly, if you’d been incapacitated part way. Yes, even if you weren’t driving very fast – cars can do serious damage even at slow speeds.
I’m very glad you’re still alive; and, as others have said, you may well have a good long run yet. Aortic aneurysms are highly unpredictable and massively dangerous – until it’s known that they’re there. Once they’re found, presuming one lives through the repair the prognosis is now quite good.
I 'm so glad you’re okay. You’re a cautionary tale for the rest of us to take any chest pain seriously. Sometimes it’s a bad case of indigestion, and sometimes its a precursor to a massive heart attack. It’s not something you can diagnose yourself. Call 911 and let them decide if you need to go to the ER versus you deciding on your own.
Bullitt, I’m glad you didn’t wreck your car on the way to the hospital! File this away for future reference - First Responders would rather you call and not be needed than the other way around.
FTR, how tall are you? People who are taller than average for their families may have Marfan syndrome, which puts people at an increase risk for things like this.
Chalk me up as another person who is grateful you’re okay!!
Now, for the obligatory chiding. 50% of people with a ruptured aortic aneurysm die before reaching the hospital. @Bullitt, please call 911 if anything like this happens again!
I think that you’re now in pretty good shape, although you’ll be very sore for awhile. You are very, very lucky, and may never have another issue with it.
The positive news is that the stents used in these aortic repairs (if indeed you now have a stent) are not the kind that eventually become occluded, due to their very wide diameter.
My 65-year-old mother-in-law, 65-year-old father-in-law, 58-year-old brother-in-law (2 years ago), and my sister’s (elderly) partner died of this. They didn’t get to a hospital in time. (Although in John Ritter’s case, it was said that even if it had happened on the table, he might not have been saved, the dissection was so extensive.)
Hopefully, you’re not a smoker. If you are, I’m sure they’ll have told you that’s a risk factor.
Here’s wishing that your recovery is steady and smooth.
Thank you for all the well wishes! You guys are great. Yes, that wasn’t too smart of me placing others at risk while driving almost impaired. I’ll keep that in mind for hopefully the next time that’ll never come!
JFC for sure. I called it living on borrowed time because the surgeon told me how fortunate I was to have everything line up for me to be still on this side of the dirt line. But I like the outlook of playing with house money. That’s a better viewpoint.
About the food, @Beck, I never knew chicken broth could taste so damn good! And @NWH, I’m only 6’0” tall so I’m not all that tall. I’ve got 3 brothers all younger than I, and I’m the shortest of the 4 boys in the family.
And @JRD, good one. I certainly did dodge a bullet for Bullitt. I’ll be here for a few more days.