Heart Stent

In November 2012, I was going to work and the left side of my chest was aching. I just thought I must have pulled a muscle doing something. I remember going to a football game and telling Jimmy Davidson that I pulled a peck muscle. He gave me some stretches to do and I went on about my business. Well, it continued to get worse. It got to the point that I couldn’t lay down and sleep it would turn into a sharp pain. I would sit on the edge of the bed and sleep. It got really bad and luckily I had a random cardiologist appointment the next week. So I go to the doctor and we chit chat and he says that my enzyme levels for my blood work came back high. He then asked if anything had been bothering me. I said well I feel like I might have a pulled a muscle in my chest. He lays me back and checks me out with the stethoscope and checks my lungs and stuff. Then he says “Let’s go get on the treadmill and check it out” So we go in another room and I get on the treadmill. He leaves and a guy comes in to set me up. I stand up and he starts the machine. I’m walking for maybe a minute and not even at a fast pace. He hits the stop button, tells me to get off and sit down. Then he leaves and comes back with an aspirin and Dr. Walmsley. They tell me to sit down and take this pill. Then Dr. Walmsley says “It’s one of two things, either you’re having artery spasms or you’ve had a heart attack“. I kind of sit back in a stupor. He says he’s going to take me over to the hospital, put me in the Cath Lab and do an angiogram in the morning. I say I need to call my wife. I called Tressa and don’t remember the conversation but she called her dad and headed to the hospital. For me they had some guy pushed me over to the hospital in a wheelchair. When we got over, I found out how high up Dr. Walmsley was. I get up and give the lady the paperwork while the guy goes and puts the wheelchair away. She seemed to not be moving very fast and the guy comes up and tell her “he is one of Dr. Walmsley‘s patients“ she opened her eyes real big and moved a lot faster. So they get me in the Cath Lab and I’m in a bed and I’m to the right side of the nurses station. Dr. Walmsley shows up and yells at the poor lady to put me right in front of her. Well, Tres and the kids were there for a while then they went home and the procedure was set for in the morning. The next morning Tres is there and they wheel meet to a room. This lady shaved my chest and then I go to another room and there’s a anesthesiologist, Dr. Walmsley and another guy he called a fellow. There’s also a huge TV screen. They put Novacain on my thigh and the anesthesiologist is right by my head. They proceed to run a wire or something up there to my heart. Dr. Walmsley says he’s gonna shoot some dye in there to see what my heart looks like. It will make my body feel warm. He does that and then says “there it is”. He pulls the big TV screen down in front of my face and shows me where the blockage is and he’s gonna go tell my wife that he’s gonna try to put a stent in to fix it. The anesthesiologist sees me get a little worried and asked if I’m OK. I say I’m just thinking of my wife and kids. He made me feel better and soon Dr. Walmsley comes back. Tres said he called her over and says something like this real quick “he has blockage, we’re going to put a stent in to fix him up”, and that was it. So the fellow does most of the work. He runs the stent up there, but at that time, my shoulder was hurting for some reason so they put ice on it. Anyway, the stent is in and he says “I’m gonna open it”. He does and I automatically feel like I can take a deep breath. It was weird. The process of it getting blocked was such a slow process that I never knew I wasn’t able to get a deep breath. But it was great. He ask me how I felt, and I felt more relaxed and actually more energetic. They shoot more dye to make sure it’s all cleared out. (that’s the pic. I have attached to see the difference. The before is on the left after the stent is on the right) they move me to a recovery room for the day and then to a room just for the night. The most dangerous part is monitoring the leg artery incision so I don’t bleed to death at home. Stephen Harrell came to see me and we talked and I was sent home the next day. My leg healed up and I went on about my life and then I tried to eat better and exercise more. Didn’t do as good as I needed to, but I’ve gotten better. That was 14 years ago and I monitor my meds now and try an exercise each day. The lessons I’ve learned is to try and take care of your body and you never know, your heart can be a silent killer.

Y’all be safe out there.