beljorde gente bella: August 2009

I was en route to my three-week vacation at the lake when the heart attack began somewhere between New Salem and Mandan. A dull ache crept between my shoulder blades and things just didn’t seem right so I pulled off I-94 at the Almont interchange. I got out of the truck and let Charlie (my daughter’s lab) out for a stretch while I tried to figure out what was going on.

I thought about turning back and heading to Medcenter One, but after a couple laps around the truck I felt better and decided to head onto Glen Ullin. By the time I pulled into Glen Ullin the pain intensified in my chest and back and began traveling down my arms and my breath was heavy. I pulled over on a side street and called Renee to tell her I needed to turn around, and she insisted I find an ambulance, so I headed for the Cenex station.

I walked into the station and told Shari that I needed an ambulance, and the next thing I know they sat me down on a folding chair right in front of the door and didn’t want me to get up. Glen Ullin’s a friendly town, so everyone who came into the store said hello, and Shari volunteered to take care of Charlie until someone came to get him.

Shari grabbed a chunk of rope and went to retrieve Charlie. Then I realized that Charlie wasn’t likely to accommodate a stranger very well, so I got up and wandered to the truck where Charlie was crouched and snarling at Shari. I took the rope and tied up Charlie and Shari headed off with him just as the ambulance roared into the Cenex lot.

The siren was blaring and dust flying when they came to a stop to look for their patient. The crew looked a tad doubtful as I waved at them and walked across the lot to board the back of their ambulance. The next thing you know, they strapped me in, put on the O2 and headed for Bismarck on a mercifully uneventful ambulance run.

I was wheeled into the ER where they admitted me to the hospital, put a stent in my heart, sent me home with a bag of drugs, a long list of instructions containing more “do nots” than “dos” and all I can say is WOW!

I’ve known for a long time that I’m genetically predisposed to heart disease; my dad had it, my mom’s always been hyper-tense, and the chances of my escaping a heart attack have always been slim to none.

So here I am, quite grateful to have survived round one… and trying to figure out how I’m gonna get along without my friends Bud and Bud Lite whilst hoping I can find something besides food to replace my cigar habit, and wondering how come last week I was able to run 3 miles per day and this week I’m not s’posed to walk up two flights of steps… and geez, there’s nothing easy about changing one’s lifestyle…

So far I’ve discovered if you don’t exercise you eat, if you don’t smoke you eat, if you don’t drink you eat, and even though the food I’ve been ordered to eat tastes like different shades of cardboard, I still seem to eat it and I bet I’ll have to find a larger wardrobe before this thing levels out.

Then there’s all the mental stuff that goes along with every twitch your body takes, the first chest pain makes you wonder if you shoulda left the hospital, that ringing in your ears coupled with that headache makes you wonder if the big one isn’t moving in… and the first time you get dizzy from rising too fast makes you just give in and hope things will get better… and that’s where I am today.

Hopefully the dizziness will pass by next week and I’ll be able to get back to complaining about something else besides me.

Here’s hoping that you can handle the cures to whatever ails you.