I had made some decisions when I turned 50 that I needed to make some life changes as Dad had a heart attack at 50 as well and I was likely prone to it. I definitely had excess weight and certainly not as fit as I wanted to be, I had been working crazy long hours pretty much my entire life and always being the person that plugs the holes when staff shortages occurred, etc.
All of 2023, I had been operating as the General Manager of the two stores, the Sales Manager in Langley and up until June, I was also the Finance Manager. The hours were daunting - I think I had clocked in for over 3000 hours in 2023 (normal work hours is 2000 hrs). In November, I had made staffing changes, fell back into just being the GM role and had weekly meetings with my Managers about them taking on various responsibilities to make the business profitable. This allowed me to go home at a regular hour and I was leaving the shop at 5 or soon thereafter, but when I got home, I found that I would eat dinner then crash and sleep/nap for a number of hours, waking and just screwing around for a few hours before returning to bed. This became a habit and it was hard to break. In the spring of 2024, I did commit to hiking on the weekends trying to get my energy levels and fitness back up.
July 1st I went on a hike with some friends near Squamish with some good elevation. Greg, Vessi, Jim and Alice attended the hike to the Sea to Sky Summit which starts at the Chief hiking trailhead. It’s straight up nearly 50% grade initially, then it decreases a little until you get to the junction for the Sea to Summit trail. I had never done this trail. Alice and I had been a bit slower going up and took our time. At the junction we rested for a few minutes and I actually found a spot to sit. My breathing and heart rate were not bad, I just wasn’t feeling like I had much energy.
The next stage was a traverse across the mountain with a bit of up and down. I stayed at the back and made my way, not pushing it. It started to climb again and I think this is where I started to feel a bit of chest pain right in the middle. It wasn’t horrible at first, thought it could be indigestion, but it was not a pain I had really felt before. It seemed to subside a bit after a short break, then I kept climbing. Greg, Jim and Vessi had gone up ahead on a big straight up slope, Alice held back with me. We reached the face of the slope and Alice began to climb but the pain in my chest grew, so I asked Alice to pause and I sat down. I got a dizzy spell for about 5 to 10 seconds then it went away. I told Alice I wasn’t doing well and she suggested I lay down which was on my mind already. There was a nice big flat rock close, so I laid down and Alice sat next to me.
The clenching of the chest was at a high level of pain and it spread to the left but as I laid down things subsided a bit. After a short time, the pain came back pretty bad and it cycled a bit. A guy on the trail that seemed to have some first aid experience googled and saw that I should get some aspirin. We asked most every hiker that went by and eventually (prob 40 mins in) a husband and wife came up who had Aspirin. He had a heart attack back in March! I rested a bit more and the pains subsided. I was going through hot and sweating moments followed by major chills and shivering. I had put my sweater on to help, but it wasn’t really enough as we were in the shade and the weather was a bit cooler as I laid on a flat cold rock. Much of the pain had stopped so I told my friend Alice let's give it a shot and start moving slowly. The first part was a rocky and rooty descent for maybe 100 m of distance. Once we got down to the level, the pain had grown back again and I asked Alice to stop. After maybe 5 mins or so the pain had subsided again and we began the traverse back to the main trail. We went slow and I took some breaks, the pain had pretty much left and all I had was some residual ghost like feeling in the chest. The only way I can really describe it was a bit of soreness like you would have from straining a muscle. We paused for probably 5 minutes at the junction, then we started to descend to the car slowly taking frequent stops. The pain never came back at this point.
Upon meeting up with the rest who continued to the top and took the gondola back down, we went back into Vancouver, dropped everyone off at St. David’s Church where we decided to carpool and my friend Vessi took me to the Lions Gate Hospital which is minutes from her place.
We went into emergency with not much in the way of any visible pain. At check in I told them about the chest pain and they hooked me up for BP and heart rate while they processed my information. Immediately, I was given a bed and they hooked me up. An ECG was done probably within the first 10 mins and they were monitoring my BP and other stats. Some meds were given to help curb the BP which was over 220/110, a blood sample was taken, and they came back around in about an hour to do another ECG. The nurse and emerg doctor clearly stated that things were off: the ECG clearly showed some concerns, and when a heart attack happens, the muscle releases a protein called Triponin T, minor injury to the heart (like a car accident) apparently rates at like 50 units in the blood sample and mine was over 5000!
While they were waiting for the cardiologist to come see me I just laid there in a bit of a meditative state, alarm bells went off and I had 5 emerg people including the doctor in my room as my heart went into ventricular fibrillation (the ventricles of the heart were fluttering at an incredible rate trying to pump blood to the body) and all of them stood there wondering why I wasn't vibrating on the bed in need of some serious care and attention. It stopped after a short bit, and I did feel the fluttering in my chest towards the end. They had given me some nitro as they asked if I had any residual pain. It may have helped but my pain level was already really low. They did it as a precaution, I’m sure. Things calmed a bit over the next few hours as they gave me different medications.
Vessi was an angel, went and got me a bit of food, a phone charger and got a friend of hers to drive my Jeep back to her place. She wanted to stay but there was really nothing she could do for me, I was in good hands and it was just a waiting game now as they sort through the next steps. I tried to drink a bit of water and ate a ¼ of a banana, then got nauseous and threw everything up. One of the nurses put an IV in me and they gave me some meds again since I threw some of them up. The cardiologist said it was unlikely I'd be able to get in for an angiogram until Wednesday due to it being the long weekend but they'd just monitor me and do an Echocardiogram (ultrasound) on my heart and some more tests in the interim. After resting a little while thinking I’d be in the emergency ward for the night, they managed to find a spot for me in the cardiac unit so they moved me there probably around 9 pm. They gave me a shot in the stomach to help bring the BP down.
Overnight, my BP came down a bit but was still exceeding 180/90 and was fluctuating a fair bit. They also woke me in the middle of the night as my heart rate went down to 35 bpm which is dangerously low.
In the morning, I was expecting a chill day with a few exams and blood samples. They brought me breakfast which I got about half way through when they rushed in to tell me to stop eating as they had got me in for the angiogram and I can’t have food for at least 4 hours before the procedure. They have two local hospitals that perform these like a production line with all the fancy equipment so I needed to get transported to St. Paul’s Hospital where the angio would be performed. Around 10 am or so, the transport paramedics came to get me and they asked a bunch of questions to get my details and stats and got my vitals before taking me into the van. I was checked in to the Angiogram unit and the nurses there went through everything again including checking vitals and getting consent forms signed off.
Probably around 1 pm I was on the table in a huge room full of what looked like incredibly expensive equipment. They went through the wrist artery vs. going through the groin which I was thankful for as the recovery time is a lot longer in the groin. Felt like they put a needle into my artery then it spread open to allow the scope to push through. You are conscious throughout the whole thing and it wasn't painful at all as they scope around in your heart looking through the 3 main arteries and such. They do a number of tests and at one point put a dye in to get visuals with the equipment which creates a hot/warm feeling. They warn you then they inject the dye - it was wild as the middle of my chest went hot, then it spread to the shoulders and neck, then I actually felt my anus get really hot! I guess it flows along the major arteries and that includes the lower part of the body! After all the tests and scoping, the doctor then said he saw something and wanted to get approval to fix it. I approved. Didn't take too long later and the procedure was completed.
The doctors and nurses were really nice, cared and had good demeanor. They let me rest a minute before transferring me off the table to a bed and I was brought out for aftercare. They had to put a clamp on my wrist to help it close from the insertion of the scope. Apparently if this goes bad, you can bleed out quickly. It took about 1.5 hours for them to slowly remove the clamp, in the meantime the nurses were very attentive and answered all kinds of questions and were great conversationalists. They had put a bunch of information together about the surgery - my copies - which were also sent to the other hospital and to the transfer paramedics. On the return trip to the admitting hospital, I chatted with the transfer paramedics and he stated that he was surprised at how good my results were. I took this with a bit of a grain of salt and he didn’t get too deep into details but gave some clarity on the chart of my heart. Upon return to the cardiac ward, they had moved me to a semi-private room and had saved dinner for me which was super nice as I had only eaten a bit of breakfast.
A bit later I got a visit from the cardiologist and he said I could actually go home if I wanted to! He explained that my arteries were actually in great shape, there was no heart muscle damage, they tested the blood flow and I was above average healthy, and they watched my ventricles for operation and said they saw nothing unusual. Apparently, they found an ulcer of the artery wall in the spot they did the stent which indicated something was there (usually plaque which gets covered over by platelets creating a pouch and it had burst leaving a damaged cell wall). I had read in the paperwork that you shouldn't go home if you don't have someone to watch over you so I stayed an extra night. The cardiologist stated that he felt I was fixed and there was no real reason to stay, but comfortable with having me there an extra night. Recovery period is really short as the procedure is not very invasive.
In the morning, they performed the echocardiogram which they were planning to do the day before when I got in for the angiogram, more blood work and then set me to go home.
I had good friends pick me up, help me with some groceries and get my prescriptions filled and dropped me off at home.
Despite some of the good news given, I have work to do. Need to get my health in line, weight down and diet improved. And I'm on meds for life now (aspirin) and I have some other meds I'll have to take for a while. One of the meds is super important as it inhibits the platelets from attacking the stent, apparently if you don’t take the pills you can die in about 2 days.
Apparently, I could go back to work right away, but I’m going to take a couple weeks to sort myself out. I need a few days to try and relax a bit and get my head wrapped around all of this myself and just a breather from the last few days of change/chaos.
Below is an image of my angiogram. Critical things:
Cross hatch is where the stents were put in, overlapping to fit the area
This is the left anterior descending artery (LAD) is the largest coronary artery runs anterior to the interventricular septum in the anterior interventricular groove, extending from the base of the heart to the apex. Most important as it feeds blood to the largest ventricle of the heart.
Scope of the other arteries showed to be in good shape. Only one spot showed 50% which according to them is still within a healthy range. Once it’s over 70% they are concerned. One other area is around 40%.
No other conditions found within the arteries.
The circular diagram lower right side is supposed to show key reduced flow regions and that shows nothing of concern.
Zero heart muscle damage detected.
They tested the blood flow, mine was at EF 59, a normal healthy heart is typically at 55, so I’m above the average healthy heart.
They viewed the ventricular operation for any abnormality and found nothing of concern.
Overall the cardiologist said my heart was in great shape. I need to lose some weight and should consider a better diet and exercise routine, however the bigger concern he suggested was stress (work primarily).
IMAGE OF MY ANGIOGRAM: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wiW16iAsBdjB-DY7HspnFbe0qe9BNX5R/view?usp=sharing
