AWB had a Heart Attack - Part 1

Halfway down the trail... I fell ....  first thing I'm aware of is flipping forward and landing squarely between my spine and shoulders all while tumbling.  How my head didn't get split or bones broken is beyond me cuz the fall took me off the path and rolling over cantaloupe size round rocks. As the tumbling stops there is a true millennial girl asking if I'm alright.  You know the really fit kind with clothes too tight and half her body covered in tattoos?  Of course she didn't come any closer to see how I was either.  Somehow, ants were all over my body, but they weren't biting and stinging.  Weird!

         Next thing you know Kev is there asking what happened and if I were hurt.  Told him then as I'll tell you now, I have no idea how I fell.  Other than disoriented, a little sore, a little embarrassed and still feeling "off" everything seemed back to normal.  So what do you think I did?  Yep, went on down to the lake and started fishing.  Was moving pretty gingerly but climbed in the water to cool down and get ants off of me.  Kev was getting bit but my heart for some reason just wasn't in it.  So we decided to move to Antero.  I was feeling worse now and as unfair as it was, I gave Kev a 30 minute window and then we headed home.

       Sunday was exactly what was expected... sore all over.  Sore bones, sore muscles, wounded pride.  Monday, again was as expected, all the same soreness but less so.  Then came Tuesday.  What an absolutely miserable day.  I had splotches all over my body with raised bumps.  No itching or pain but it covered me in my entirety. My hands and feet were swollen beyond recognition.  To say I felt bad was an understatement. So off to the Dr we went. Something had set her off course and we were seen well over an 1.5 hours late and she completely misdiagnosed me.  Said it was from my fall and stay home for the week and it'll be ok.  It was NOT ok, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday simply exacerbated the issue.  

My hands and feet had swollen so bad I couldn't even think about closing my hands.  Urgent Care here we come!  As soon as the Urgent care Dr saw me she was ordering me to go to the emergency room.  Of course that's when the fight began because I was going home DAMNIT!  You can't tell me what to do! She matched my being obstinate page for page.  She told me I WAS GOING to ER if she had to subdue me and call the ambulance herself.  Between her and The Boss I agreed to go to ER.  The Doc thought I might have Sepsis and called St Francis to prepare them for our arrival.

They were ready for me and got me in ASAP.  Of course first thing they did was draw blood and guess what? My Troponin levels were high!  Troponin levels are what tells them you had a heart attack. Thus began my journey into a double bypass and some seriously cool and scary shit!  I know I know, not supposed to curse.. but it's highly accurate.

Oh!! My fall?  That was my heart attack.  If you think back, I couldn't remember WHY or HOW I fell.  That's how a large team of doctors concluded it was a "silent" heart attack.  ZERO chest pain, no sore jaw or numb left arm.  In part 2 we'll talk about how it took a week for them to find the problem and everything the hospital did to finally get there.