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Hello all! Long time Fubarian but new account. I had never created a blog on here before, but I decided for some reason to go ahead and start creating some.
As some of you know I had a heart attack 3 years ago, February 23rd 2011. It was 20 days after my 36th birthday. The medical reason for my heart attack was due to a blockage in an artery, but I feel the main reason was due to stress. At the time I was married with children, in college working on 3 degrees at the same time, doing 22 credit hours a semester, and having some marital issues. The day I had my heart attack was the most stressful day of my life. I had just put on my backpack to head off to school, when all of a sudden I felt my back tense up. Now to give you some info, I have a bad back already with 3 disks completely gone and 3 more almost gone due to car accidents. So at first I didn't think much of it as my back will do that from time to time, but this time was different...I started going from being hot to cold within minutes and back and forth, and then dry heaving...so my ex-wife who happens to be an RN suggested I go to the ER. I really hate hospitals but something told me I better go.
So at the hospital they ran all sorts of tests, blood and EKG and they all came back fine. The did another EKG and that was fine, and then when they did the second blood test the enzyme troponin had risen in levels which alerted that I did indeed have a heart attack. The news scared me. I was 36, and although a smoker, I was in great physical shape, exercised and worked out, coached my sons Little League baseball team for 7 years, so to me I had a hard time believing that it was true. The next day I had a stent put in and went home the next day, with a plethora of medications to take.
That first month afterwards I was literally scared to leave my house, and do anything. I felt like at any time I could have another heart attack and was afraid I wouldn't survive. Eventually I knew life had to go on and I slowly started doing what I used to do.
In the time since my heart attack, I learned a few things about myself and about life in general. #1 Life really is too short and precious. With that said, life is too short to worry about things that you can't control. When you wake up each day, be thankful you did. When people ask how I am doing, I reply with "I am breathing". That is a wonderful thing. No matter how bad life may seem to be at times, at least you are breathing.
As time went on I really got to thinking about my life and the world. One thing that amazes me is that this world is so big, yet most of us stick around the part of the world we were born, or live in. Not me. I want to travel the world, see as much of it as I can, while I can, because you never know if tomorrow will come. I don't say that being pessimistic but as a realist. Some people take life for granted and then when something happens like what happened to me, then they realize just what I did. Hopefully it isn't too late for them.
Another thing that changed about me is that I no longer act my age. While I may be 39 almost 40 in a couple months, I do things that most people my age wouldn't do, or into things most people my age aren't. For example, as a teenager I used to skateboard and ride a BMX bike, and where I live they built a really big outdoor skatepark along the Mississippi riverfront here in Davenport. So I went to the local skate shop and bought each piece I needed to put together a new skateboard and off I went to the skatepark with my kids. I admit I was nervous at first, as older people don't heal as quickly as we did when we were younger. So for the first two to three weeks I just rode the board around the park getting comfortable with my balance again. Skateboards are made different than when I was younger.
To be continued....
