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Southwest Missouri | I wound up in the hospital with two stents in my heart.
Beginning of story. I am 56. I used to be an athlete and was in pretty good shape. Time passed and I was too old to play basketball and slowly let myself go. I married a year ago and between, family, court, and the farm I had no time to exercise. I knew I needed to change.
Last week, I finally found time to put the bulls up (should have been done long ago but with soybean harvest, wheat planting, etc. It did not get done). I walked the two bulls down a lane and I ran out of breath! Something was wrong. I could not be that bad.
Between the morning and afternoon docket on Monday, I went to my friendly primary care doc. (love small town where you can walk in on even a busy doctor). He ran a bunch of tests that were available and everything was fine. He was not satisfied and scheduled an echo cardiogram (sp) at the affilliated heart institute in Joplin for Wednesday am.
I did my normal docket this morning. A 77 year old buddy picked me up for our regular Tuesday lunch. I told him about my week's history. He told me about his 5 bypasses 15 years ago. I started feeling a weight on my chest. It was not the proverbial elephant, it was a 300 pound calf.
I took a few minutes to realize this was real. I asked buddy to make a u turn and go to the hospital. We had driven past it a few minutes earlier. I walked into the er. Nitro and asprin stopped the pain. Er doc and my doc said I was going to Joplin for stents that afternoon.
A quick ambulance trip followed and I was fixed. Doc told me I will check out tomorrow am.
I am lucky. I was 3 minutes from the er. Last month we were doing soybeans and wheat. I had a driver. Usually, I am by myself on the farm. The episode with the bulls got my attention. My do friend knew something was wrong, even though preliminary tests were good.
I hope other people will also be lucky!! Do not ignore the signs! A day or two later (maybe an hour later) and I would be dead. Now, there was no damage to the heart. I should do great. | |
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Funny thing happened on my way to lunch today....
