...funny as a heart attack

So last Thursday Amy and I are roaring all over southern Wisconsin on the bike with our friends Mike and Diane. Weather was good, scenery was nice, the company was excellent. Life is good.

Thursday evening we pick the girls up from Grammy's house and head for the border. Taco Bell that is. The kids want tacos, I have some mild heartburn so I pass and go with the Raisen Bran for dinner.

Friday morning I get up and go to work and the heartburn is still there. Bummer. I take a handful of Tums, grab a cup of coffee and out the door at 4:40 am. Just another day in the life. I go to a couple of calls with the guys down on the southend of the county and start heading back toward the office around 1030. Heartburn kind of comes and goes. I head for home for lunch break and decide to lay on the couch and let whatever this is pass.

While Im lying there, it occurs to me that I cant think of any reason why I should have any pain. I hadn't eaten anything weird, I hadn't injured myself and for heartburn, the pain was a slightly incorrect place. Hmm...I thought to myself. It would be rather irresponsible, and impolite of me to have a heart attack and leave my lifeless carcus on the couch for my family to find. Particularly since I had now had this weirdness for over 12 hours. So I picked myself up and headed off to Central DuPage Hospital to get myself checked out.

What I learned is that I was having a heart attack. Holy Crap! 42 years old. That's not right. So they did an angiogram and inserted 3 stents into an artery that was over 90% blocked. Check this out.

See that little skinny line that Im pointing to? That is one of the blockages. Now, after the surgery - look at the improvement.

So the awesome cardiac staff at Central DuPage fixed me. They did their job, now it's my turn to do mine. I need to go through rehab and learn about diet. Now Im like a regulation heart disease patient. Here's my new stash.

So that's how I spent my weekend. My spectacular wife was with me the whole time. She slept in her clothes on a chair in my room and made sure I was comfortable and well cared for. She managed the three phones that rang nearly non stop and greeted the nearly 60 guests that came to see me. Pretty amazing.

I know that God has a plan for me, and I had a talk with Him to let him know that any which way he wanted me to go was OK, but I would sure appreciate the chance to lead my girls for awhile longer.

So it's all good now. I have a week or so to recouperate and start rehab. It will be 12 days or so until I can go back to work. What an awesome experience to have and to learn from.

I can't even say how much I appreciate everything my friends and family did to make this easier, you guys are loved and appreciated more than I can express here.

Life is good.

Jim