The Attack

The day I had my heart attack started just like any other. I live on a boat docking in a pretty little marina on Mobile Bay. I sent my husband, Corey, off for the day and went out to lunch at one of my favorite local places. Panini Pete's makes an amazing turkey sandwich. I ate the whole thing and started to feel a little dizzy and tired. I thought maybe I had eaten to much or maybe it was the sweet tea. I'm a healthy eater and sweet tea with real sugar is so rare for me now it's a treat. I drove home and laid down for a quick nap.

I woke up 3 hours later. I'd slept through the whole afternoon. The 5pm news was about to come on so I grabbed a Diet Coke and lit a cigarette. That was the cigarette the almost killed me. What happens next gets a little hazy for me. I'm sorry about that but when I look back on that day I have a lot of blurry memories. I'll do my best to explain.

I was smoking on the sofa, watching the news, when several things happened at once. It felt like a bomb went off in my body. I felt a sharp pain in my chest like when you swallow a potato chip. I staggered to the bathroom and threw up but instead of feeling better I got much worse. I broke out in a cold sweat and became very dizzy. Everything was greying out and the pain in my chest got much worse. It took everything I had to get off the floor in the bathroom and make it to my cell phone. I sat down hard on the floor, still pouring sweat, and my body just quit. It became harder to breathe and I was trying hard to get in enough air. Every part of me weighed 100 pounds. I couldn't lift my head off the floor or move. I was getting confused and I didn't think I could speak. I can't tell you how scary this feels. I didn't know I was having a heart attack. All I knew was I was very sick and I needed help and I didn't think I was going to be able to call anyone. One of the last things I remember clearly was pulling myself together enough to send this text message to my husband. It saved my life.



Text - Come home. Sick. Chest pain fainted. Hurry. August 7th 5:15 pm

I was taken to the ER that Friday night and was diagnosed with a heart attack. At 30. I was in serious trouble. I spent a few days in the ICU and had to have a procedure done called a cathe. They punctured the femoral artery in my upper thigh and inserted a wire like device that traveled up to my heart. Dye was injected into my heart to get a clear picture of what was wrong. To make a joke, they should have been looking for what was right. My husband was called and informed that I had to have a stent put in. I recovered from the narcotics to be informed that I had two new implants.

The first is my new "heart jewelry." I have a Xience V coronary stent in the left anterior descending vein in my heart. The stent was placed to open this vein and save my life. The second is called the StarClose vascular closure system and was used to close my femoral artery. Basically, it kept me from bleeding to death and enabled the doctor to use just a tiny incision. As that said incision is in my bikini line, I can't complain. I'm told I won't even have a scar.

Unfortunately for my husband, father, and anyone in my radius, me and heavy narcotics don't get along. I had no idea what was going on and placed the blame for waking up in the ICU with implants squarely on my husband and father's shoulders. What were they thinking letting this happen?!? Who authorized this?!? Once off the drugs I felt awful about it but I'm sure I'll never live it down.

I spent a little over 4 days in the hospital. Heart patients must be monitored and so I was. I carted around this heavy little heart monitor everywhere I went. I was told that no, I could never smoke again. It most likely would kill me. Yes, I am very rare. As of yet I have no idea how rare. I can't find any statistics. They also have no idea yet WHY I had a heart attack. We have the broad strokes. Smoking. But would that take down an otherwise healthy 30 year old? They don't think so. I'll get more tests later but we may never know. Whatever was wrong is now fixed so who knows. All I can be is grateful.