Miocardial Infarction

 

  It seemed like a good day for burning. The forecast called for winds of 5 mph. We'd been wanting to burn a big pile brush that had been sitting in the grass field east of the house for over a year. The pile was plenty dry by now. I was standing by with my five gallon water backpack, a gift from Steve Reynolds after a grass fire had gotten away from me in April, 2022 and we had to call out the fire department. We had been fined $500. That was a good lesson.

  But lessons are often forgotten in the hurly-burly of life. As soon the brush pile was roaring away, a strong wind blew up and sent the fire into the grass around the pile. I was doing a good job extinguishing the fire downwind when Teresa called that the fire was spreading on the upwind side. In fact it was spreading in every direction. Teresa hauled more water for my backpack in milk jugs and suggested we call for backup. In a few minutes Steve drove up with his two backpacks and started fighting the fire.

  None of our buildings were in danger but the fire was headed for the woods. Steve said we should call the fire department. I kept thinking of that $500 bill, but Steve and Teresa outvoted me and soon a truck with a big hose arrived and quickly put out the fire. Meanwhile Teresa had been running  back and forth to fill our back packs and had been beating out the fire with a shovel.

  Once the fire was out and we could relax Teresa said her chest hurt like it did when she ran the 600 yard dash in high school phy-ed. She took a couple of aspirin and waited for the pain to go away. But it didn't go away. Let's go to the hospital in Roseau and get it checked. "Should we call an ambulance?" She thought we could make it. But as we drove the 15 miles to town the pain got worse. "Should we have the ambulance meet us?" "Yes" But my phone was dead! My phone is never dead. But in the excitement of the fire, I had left it on, and it was dead.

 By the time there was enough charge on the phone it was too late for an ambulance. I called ER and let them know we were coming. The nurses quickly got Teresa hooked up to an IV and monitors. They drew blood and gave her nitros and morphine for the pain. Gradually her pain went from an eight on a scale from one to ten down to a two. The doctor said it looked like Teresa could be having a heart attack, but she would have to see a cardiologist to confirm it and determine treatment. She would go by ambulance to Grand Forks two hours away.  Grand Forks was full so Teresa would be going another hour down the road to Fargo. We were happy with this because Teresa's brother Pete and his wife Kathy live across the river in Moorhead. 

  Denial is a powerful defense mechanism of the mind and neither Teresa nor I were realizing the gravity of her situation. Her pain was controlled, she was in good hands. She "could" be having a heart attack, but maybe it was something else. The doctors and nurses would figure it out and make everything fine. They weren't calling for a helicopter so it couldn't be that serious, right?

  It took awhile to get the ambulance crew in place so I went home to get a change of clothes for Teresa, her iPad, and some other necessities. By 8:00 pm I was on my way south. I could see with my Find My Friends app that the ambulance was on the road. By the time I found the entrance to the monolithic Sanford Hopital in West Fargo it was 11:30 pm. Teresa was settled in a first floor unit just off the ER entrance. She was feeling ok and was just waiting for the doctor to come by. Since this could be a couple hours away. I drove to Pete and Kathy's and crawled into the warm bed they had set up for me in the basement.

  The doctor saw Teresa at 3:00 am and told her she was indeed having a heart attack. That hit home. They would do an echocardiogram in the morning to pinpoint the problem and would probably do an angiogram to install a stent, if they could find a surgeon on a Sunday.

  I arrived about 8:00 Sunday morning. We watched the echocardiogram which showed the heart pumping away. We could see the valves open and closing. If only all our muscles were so tireless. We asked the technician if she could see where the problem was. She said the doctor would have to tell us that. 

   By 10:30 there was still no plan and Teresa said it was ok if I went to church. There are lots of Catholic churches in the area. St Anthony's looked good. It was Palm Sunday so I got my palm and joined the procession. It's funny, St Anthony is the saint we go to when something is lost. He always comes through even if it takes a year. I didn't think to ask him to find a surgeon, but he took it upon himself to provide the necessary.

  When I got to the hospital they said Teresa had just gone up to surgery. Getting a stent is a procedure rather than surgery. They put a tiny tube up a vein to the area of blockage. They expand a balloon to crush the blocking plaque against the artery wall (Teresa had 80% blockage). They then leave a stent or tube in the artery for the blood to flow freely to the heart. Good as new. The whole procedure took less than 90 minutes.

  Teresa had been awake during the procedure. She still had chest pain and the clever nurse guessed it could be heartburn and offered Teresa a yukky cocktail that fixed her up. Whew! She would spend Sunday night in the hospital, have some supper and get to sleep early. It had been a busy 24 hours.

  It takes a while to get out of the hospital. You have to wait for the doctor to make rounds and say you're good to go. That didn't happen till 11:30 am, so Teresa ordered lunch. Then came a series of nurses with instructions and then someone from pharmacy brought her new pills. Finally at three, Teresa signed her discharge papers and off we went. I knew Teresa was ok because she wanted to go to a thrift store. Thrifting is her happy place. It seems I had picked up the wrong clothes for her at home and she was able to remedy that at Plato's Closet.

  Meanwhile there had been a blizzard raging on the prairie. We would not be driving home this evening. Kathy made a delicious and restorative chicken soup and we got a good night's sleep. Tuesday was my birthday. What a great gift to have a live and smiling wife! Pete and Kathy's daughter Callie's stopped by and we celebrated by having races with wind-up chicks and bunnies. 

Moral: If your chest hurts- go to the hospital STAT!