Some might wonder why the Alaska moose story did not get finished this week. Well, had a little problem to deal with the last few days.
Laying in bed Wednesday night, I thought someone snuck in my house in the cover of darkness and stabbed me in the chest. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my chest and tried to hide the pain, given Mrs. Fin was on high alert to my theatrics.
I downplayed it, trying to write it off as indigestion from her homemade chicken noodle soup. I told her to go back to bed assuring her that if I took some reflux meds all would be fine. I stayed up until 2am, before the pain subsided enough that I could fall asleep.
I awoke at 6am, still feeling tightness in my chest. WTH? Guess I better take the dog for a run and work the stiffness out of my chest. About two hundred yards into that, things seized up pretty tight. It took all I had to walk the dog back to the kennel and into the house. I told Mrs. Fin I was now ready to go to the doc. I must not have looked too good, as she was in high gear without any further words from me.
Not as worried as her, I demanded we wait until the clinic opened at 8am. She was not happy, but I can be rather obstinate at times. She called at 8 am sharp. When you use the term "chest pain" you get moved to the front of the line. Off we went.
All test say I am having a heart attack. I protest. I have super low cholesterol, even lower blood pressure (usually 95-105/55-66), and very low testing pulse (usually 45-55). I have no family history of heart disease. The doctor's scale that morning put me at 6' 1.75" and 213 pounds, not svelt, but hardly obese. I have spent three weeks in the last five hiking my arse off, exerting myself way more than sleeping requires. No way I am having a heart attack.
Doc tells me she really doesn't care about my protests, the enzyme tests show I had a heart attack. She further shows that aspirin and nitro piils have reduced my pain and brought blood pressure down from this temporary spike. She offers to rerun the tests for a third time, if necessary.
She calls the cardiologist. He tells her what the tests say. He instructs a heart cath. He normally can so those, but a mountain bike wreck broke his hand and he cannot perform the procedure. I will be transported to Billings for the procedure. I want to drive, but lectured to shut up and get in the ambulance by the doc, nurses, EMT, and paramedics. I suspect Mrs. Fin lobbied for their support.
Off to Billings. The cardiologist requires the same tests as I had in Bozeman. Same result. WTH?
Last evening he comes in to tell me what he found and what he will perform the next morning. Some of you may have had a heart cath. He is perplexed how someone of my age and relative heart health has a cardiac event. He indicates there is a giod chance he wil go in and find no blockages. He explains how heart attacks in younger people are usually a fluke of some sort, but often very damaging. My EKGs show no sign of damage even with the other indicators. If there is blockage, he wil fix it while he is in there.
This morning, he did the heart cath. Very painless and only took twenty minutes of him augering around in there. I got to watch him and he showed me what he was seeing. Very cool.
End result - I am a picture of cardiac health. No blockages, hardly any plaque, strong pressure and full valve strength. No damage from this event.
He has a couple ideas of what may have caused this attack. Possibly a blood coagulation issue, thus a new test run of anti-coagulates for me. Or, as is often the case on people with great cardiac health, a small piece of plaque did flake of and temporarily blocked a small artery near the heart.
I her to leave Billings tomorrow. I an on limited exertion restrictions for a week, then once the plug in my femoral artery is inspected, back to the same old regimen. Have to defer the Wyoming antelope hunt by a day, leaving Tuesday, rather than Monday. Will need the guest hunter and camera guys to do heavy lifting, given I am restricted to ten pounds. I had to promise I won't walk any big hills until this femoral plug is inspected. Must shower and clean the area daily, so no wall tent on this hunt, rather wil be motels.
The doc watches our show, so he knows what it entails. He is more concerned about my femoral artery than my heart. Have me his card and told me to cal if I needed a guest hunter.
So, the show well go on, just with a little slower for the next few weeks. Enough excitement for the week, so looking forwards to getting home and readying for the next trip.
Moral of story - If you have acute chest pain, listen to your wife. Don't mess around like I did.
Fin ready to get his heart cath finished so he can go pronghorn hunting.
Laying in bed Wednesday night, I thought someone snuck in my house in the cover of darkness and stabbed me in the chest. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my chest and tried to hide the pain, given Mrs. Fin was on high alert to my theatrics.
I downplayed it, trying to write it off as indigestion from her homemade chicken noodle soup. I told her to go back to bed assuring her that if I took some reflux meds all would be fine. I stayed up until 2am, before the pain subsided enough that I could fall asleep.
I awoke at 6am, still feeling tightness in my chest. WTH? Guess I better take the dog for a run and work the stiffness out of my chest. About two hundred yards into that, things seized up pretty tight. It took all I had to walk the dog back to the kennel and into the house. I told Mrs. Fin I was now ready to go to the doc. I must not have looked too good, as she was in high gear without any further words from me.
Not as worried as her, I demanded we wait until the clinic opened at 8am. She was not happy, but I can be rather obstinate at times. She called at 8 am sharp. When you use the term "chest pain" you get moved to the front of the line. Off we went.
All test say I am having a heart attack. I protest. I have super low cholesterol, even lower blood pressure (usually 95-105/55-66), and very low testing pulse (usually 45-55). I have no family history of heart disease. The doctor's scale that morning put me at 6' 1.75" and 213 pounds, not svelt, but hardly obese. I have spent three weeks in the last five hiking my arse off, exerting myself way more than sleeping requires. No way I am having a heart attack.
Doc tells me she really doesn't care about my protests, the enzyme tests show I had a heart attack. She further shows that aspirin and nitro piils have reduced my pain and brought blood pressure down from this temporary spike. She offers to rerun the tests for a third time, if necessary.
She calls the cardiologist. He tells her what the tests say. He instructs a heart cath. He normally can so those, but a mountain bike wreck broke his hand and he cannot perform the procedure. I will be transported to Billings for the procedure. I want to drive, but lectured to shut up and get in the ambulance by the doc, nurses, EMT, and paramedics. I suspect Mrs. Fin lobbied for their support.
Off to Billings. The cardiologist requires the same tests as I had in Bozeman. Same result. WTH?
Last evening he comes in to tell me what he found and what he will perform the next morning. Some of you may have had a heart cath. He is perplexed how someone of my age and relative heart health has a cardiac event. He indicates there is a giod chance he wil go in and find no blockages. He explains how heart attacks in younger people are usually a fluke of some sort, but often very damaging. My EKGs show no sign of damage even with the other indicators. If there is blockage, he wil fix it while he is in there.
This morning, he did the heart cath. Very painless and only took twenty minutes of him augering around in there. I got to watch him and he showed me what he was seeing. Very cool.
End result - I am a picture of cardiac health. No blockages, hardly any plaque, strong pressure and full valve strength. No damage from this event.
He has a couple ideas of what may have caused this attack. Possibly a blood coagulation issue, thus a new test run of anti-coagulates for me. Or, as is often the case on people with great cardiac health, a small piece of plaque did flake of and temporarily blocked a small artery near the heart.
I her to leave Billings tomorrow. I an on limited exertion restrictions for a week, then once the plug in my femoral artery is inspected, back to the same old regimen. Have to defer the Wyoming antelope hunt by a day, leaving Tuesday, rather than Monday. Will need the guest hunter and camera guys to do heavy lifting, given I am restricted to ten pounds. I had to promise I won't walk any big hills until this femoral plug is inspected. Must shower and clean the area daily, so no wall tent on this hunt, rather wil be motels.
The doc watches our show, so he knows what it entails. He is more concerned about my femoral artery than my heart. Have me his card and told me to cal if I needed a guest hunter.
So, the show well go on, just with a little slower for the next few weeks. Enough excitement for the week, so looking forwards to getting home and readying for the next trip.
Moral of story - If you have acute chest pain, listen to your wife. Don't mess around like I did.
Fin ready to get his heart cath finished so he can go pronghorn hunting.
., the little trip to Billings sure is easier than jet boats and tuboprop ERA planes to get to someone who can tell you that you are "the picture of cardiac health". Seems like rugged individualist western types are more likely to ignore their doctors recuperation orders. If you mess up, the femoral plug or the heart may not kill you, but Mrs Fin probably will!!
