On April 21st of this year, I was preparing to travel to Blakely, GA, to start a four-day meeting on Sunday, April 23rd. That evening (the 21st), while moving a few things from the car to the house, I became nauseated. I found myself leaning against the garage, spitting up what fluid came to my mouth into a flower container near the entrance. After five minutes or so, it subsided, and I carried a few more things into the house.
When I neared the kitchen on my way back to the garage, it was as if an audible voice told me to sit down. I grabbed the closest chair and sat down at the table. My wife told me later that I was gasping for breathe. She took my blood pressure (180/100), gave me an aspirin and called our youngest son, a physician at a local hospital who was, fortunately, home at the time.
He came over immediately. After using an Apple watch to check my heart beat, he convinced me that I needed a full EKG before leaving town that next morning. I agreed. Vickie and I went to the emergency room at Hillcrest about 7 p.m. that evening.
Their initial blood work showed that my heart was under stress. They knew due to the presence of cardiac enzymes. We had to wait three more hours and have the test run again to know if the enzymes were increasing or decreasing. Their increase meant I was in the process of a heart attack.
By 4 a.m., I had been transferred to Prisma and in a room. That same morning, I underwent a cardiac catheterization. It was then that they discovered my four blockages. The doctor performing the procedure later told me he had to back out, knowing I needed by-pass surgery. He did say that, if I chose, he could try to place a shunt in the worst of the blockages, but that it would most likely not hold. I opted for the by-pass.
They kept me in the hospital, stabilized, until they could perform the surgery. The operation was Tuesday morning, April 25th. One week in ICU, one week in rehabilitation and then home. Tuesday, June 20th, marks the 8th week completed since the surgery. I am feeling stronger every day.
Doctors tell me it takes 12 weeks for the sternum to mend completely, on average. That does not mean I will be at full strength by then, but God knows. Anything is possible, with the Lord!
Thank you for your prayers I cannot express proper gratitude to so many who were there when I needed them. The doctors, nurses and staff were all amazing. If the Lord had not brought Vickie into my life, I would have slept that feeling off that Friday night and headed to south Georgia, where, no doubt, I would have suffered a major heart attack.
The Lord does work in mysterious ways. Through Vickie and our marriage, her youngest son becomes my youngest son; and God used him to set all else in motion by persisting on a full EKG..
God has extended my days, and I give him the praise!