A heart attack at 41?
For those of you who didn’t know (nearly all of you) – I suffered a heart attack on Friday morning. What I write here not only serves a source of information for others but will allow a record to be kept for historical purposes.
Heart Attack Timeline
Tuesday, 14th April, 2015
My Mobile phone had been playing up for weeks and could only get a signal in a few places so it had to go into Vodafone to be investigated. Estimated timeline for repair: 7-10 working days
Friday, 17th April, 2015
I had an assignment due in for my Open University (OU) degree but had to get an extension as I was too busy and it wasn't ready.
Saturday, 18th April, 2015
Rowan (my son) was being a right pain in the bum which meant that not a single piece of OU work got done. That meant it had to be done over the weekend (Sunday was spoken for).
Monday, 20th April, 2015
I started a new full-time job as at SkyBet as a Software Developer. This was brilliant for me for a number of reasons.
I walked it up to school with Rowan and Ann (my wife) as far as Barnsley train station. From there I was to catch the train into Leeds and start my new job.
Unfortunately that wasn't to be and some scum-bag had stolen all of the cabling out of one of the signalling points in Wakefield. This meant that there were no trains running to Leeds.
This was not a problem as I could just phone my new boss and let him know the circumstances and that I may be a bit late in but I hoped the detour on the train journey that would have taken my via Meadowhall. Then I had a thought:
Whilst Ann was at home off of work the car was sat there doing nothing. Yes it meant that the forty-odd Pounds I had just folked out on for a weekly train ticket would not be used to it's full potential and sure… I would have to folk out another twenty-odd Pound in parking charges but it was preferable to being late on my first day of a new job.
With that in mind I went back, got the car and managed to get to my new job on time.
Shattered!
When I got back from work I was shattered! The OU work would have to wait Im afraid.
Tuesday, 21st April, 2015
Again work was fine and when I got back I was yet again shattered. I had all the intentions of doing my OU course work but was simply too tired.
Wednesday, 22nd April, 2015
Over a week later and still no sign of my phone being back.
The journey to Leeds as well as a full time job would shatter me out again.
I sat down with my OU course work and finally continued with my studies. Unfortunately I was way too tired and Ann had to wake me up every 5 minutes. Even to the point where my head was resting on my text-book looking like I was busy studying. It was only when Ann realised that our dog usually did not snore that loud that it was in fact me making all the noise. Ann told me to go to bed but instead I just put the course work away.
Thursday, 23rd April, 2015
I went to work as usual and came home as usual. I knew that I had to get quite a bit of OU work done on Thursday night. In fact I only did a little as…yes; you guessed it…I was shattered.
That meant that most of the OU assignment would have to be done on the Friday after I got back from work. With that in mind I started putting together what little I had from my assignment together into it's final format.
Not much got done on this end though as I was simply too tired.
Also bearing on my mind was the fact that I still had two months worth of minutes to transcribe and write up for the Honeywell Tennant's and Resident's Association which I am Secretary for.
Friday, 24th April, 2015
I knew exactly what had to be done. I had breakfast with Rowan and then we all went upstairs to get ready for work and school. I went to take a shower and once it finished all Hell broke loose.
I got in the shower as usual but this time I stepped out and went really dizzy: my chest went really tight as well. I went for a lie down on the bed with the fan blowing over me. Unfortunately the tightness in my chest did not go away and to top things off I was also finding it difficult to breath.
I knew that this was no ordinary dizzy spell so got some clothes on and went to see Pat next door as she used to be a nurse. She took my blood pressure and pulse and told me that at the least I should go straight up to my GP's surgery and that if they didn't let me see a Doctor straight away then I should go straight to the local A&E department.
Without realising what I was saying I said “OK, I’ll have slow walk up there now and wait to see somebody”. On hearing this I think she herself had a heart-attack and she immediately drove me up the the Doctor's while Ann took Rowan up to school.
Arrival at the Doctor's
When I got to the GP's surgery I explained the symptoms that I had and the receptionist went straight into the back office. She came out a few seconds later and told me to sit down (which I already had). Within seconds a Doctor had appeared; he looked at me and told the receptionist to dial 999 and tell them that they had a heart attack patient at the surgery.
A wheel chair was brought out and I was wheeled into the back nurses station where I was laid on a bed; given some GTN spray underneath my tongue and an oxygen mask was put over my mouth and nose.
Within minutes the ambulance crew were there and it's two young ladies were soon helping out. Everybody then tried to stabilise my condition but decided that I should be taken straight to hospital. They moved me into a wheel-chair again and started to move me to the door. Then I threw up! and when I say I threw up I mean…I THREW UP! At the time I still had me oxygen mask on and as I myself didn’t get any warning it first of all went all inside the mask; then spouted out of the holes in the mask with such force that it went all the way up in the air and down my back, fleece and let's not forget the walls of the surgery! However, at least when I hurled I felt much better.
In the ambulance
Once I was in the ambulance one of the technicians tried her best to get a canular into one of my arms but after trying in both arms and wrists for about 10 minutes she gave up and took me straight into hospital.
Resus!
I was then transferred straight to the resuscitation ward of the A&E department. There they tried to get my heart beat down and after a while I vomited again into yet another face mask and again I felt much better. The Doctor told me that it was a good job I vomited as he was about to pump something into me but now there was no need.
At it's peak my heart beat was at 180 beats per minute and one of the levels that is indicative of a heart attack that should be below 40 was above 3,000 !
Once they got my heart under control they arranged for me to go up to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) in Barnsley District General Hospital (BDGH).
CCU
Since I have been up here in the CCU I have been treated brilliantly. Initially I didn’t want my Mum to know which meant not telling anybody. The reason was that I am in the bed next to the one my Nanan died in. Imagine my Mum's feelings when she comes in to see her son recovering from a heart attack only to see him in the bed besides the one her mother died in. In the end Ann & I decided that she would never have forgiven me if we hadn't told her. I made the mistake then of not thinking of my Dad and never thought to tell him.
Emergency Contact
While I was in Resus they were trying to phone Ann to let he know what had gone on but I have blocked all anonymous calls and so they couldn't get though. As far as Ann was concerned I had just gone up to the Doctor's to wait and see if they had any appointments to see a Doctor as she thought I was just having a dizzy spell.
God Damn Phone!
Any normal week my phone is very rarely used and now that it is in the shop I have had a quite desperate need for it twice this week. Once on Monday when I found out there were no trains to Leeds and then again on Friday after I had the heart attack and they needed to get in touch with Ann.
I could also do with my phone so that I can use the internet. As it is I have a script ready for when Ann arrives. Then I can tether to her phone and set the script running. It will then do quite a few of the things that I need the internet connection for.
For example: I am using a word processor to write this blog post and I will post it once Ann gets here tonight. Even her connection is very slow though so you have to excuse a lack of pictures. If I can find some stock images on my laptop that I can use then I may use them but if not I shall just post a plain text post to begin with and anybody who is interested will read it.
That it all
Well that is all. If you wish to leave any comments then you can leave them by replying below or simply by replying via Facebook/Twitter etc.