Blah, I don’t want to write about this but I put all our big moments on the blog and this was a BIG moment so I feel like it should have it’s place.

On Sunday Oct. 2nd it was a regular day. We had just had a great week with football and band. Greg and I didn’t have much planned for the day so we were going to work on sewing the canvas on our pop up trailer to get it ready for hunting season.

We got in the hot tub that morning and had a nice relaxing time. After that we got ready to go outside about 9ish. While we were outside sewing Greg complained that his chest hurt and he thought it was heart burn. He said that for several weeks his chest had been hurting off and on and that he thought his heart burn prescription was no longer helping him.

He went inside to get a Zantac to help. He came back out and started sewing again but the pill did not seem to be helping him. He thought he just needed to burp so he went inside again, this time to do some stretches.

I went in to check on him and he said he did burp and it seemed to help so we went back to working on the canvas. It wasn’t long before he was uncomfortable again. He went back inside and decided to lay down for a bit. That didn’t seem to help much so I thought it was time to go to the doctor. As soon as he stood up and we were walking to the car in the garage he burped and said he felt better. We stood there for about 10-15 minutes to see if the pain would come back but he said he felt fine so we went back inside.

We had told the kids we’d take them out to practice driving their car. Greg said I should go ahead and still take them to a parking lot and let them practice. He was fine but was going to stay home and relax.

I took the kids and came back about an hour later. Greg was sitting on the couch fine – eating tortilla chips.

I went upstairs to start dinner. I was making quesadillas and I had the kids done and was about to start on one for Greg and I and he yelled up not to make him anything he wasn’t feeling well again. I put a couple more on and just as they were about done he yelled something was wrong and we needed to go the hospital now. He went outside to wait for me while I turned off the stove and talked to the kids. He threw up all the chips in our yard and was shaking and sweating. I knew something was wrong.

I wasn’t sure he’d make it to the hospital so I asked him if I should call 911, he said just hurry. So we got in the car and I rushed him there, I ran a couple of lights, stopped at one and took off when it was clear. I got him to the hospital in 7 mins by about 5:30.

They took him into a room right away and did an EKG, it came back abnormal and so then things were on. Probably at least 10 people in his room hooking him up to equipment, running tests, giving him medicine. One of the nurses came and talked to me and said they were taking him up for a stint. This was a stint to put stuff in his veins to see if there was a blockage. If there was they’d put a 2nd stint in at the blockage. He told me to say good bye because if they found a blockage I wouldn’t see him again until it was all done.’

Greg’s main concern at this time was watching Sunday night football. He kept asking people to put on the game. He also wanted more morphine. They had given him some but the pain was still pretty bad, they did give him a second dose.

Less than an hour since we arrived they wheeled him out of the room to head to the OR. I followed a nurse up to another floor and to a lobby. I was all by myself. It was very quiet. Since it was a Sunday night, there was not much staff or people. I made some calls, looked at my phone but mostly just sat in silence wondering what the heck just happened?

Luckily things went pretty quick and by 8:10 the cardiac surgeon was out to speak to me. He walked out asked if I was Greg’s wife and said whelp he had a heart attack. He was the first person to say it. Everyone else just said we’ll see what the doc says or tests say. He came out and just said it. At that moment, that’s when it hit me and I finally had a break down. Luckily the Dr. was great and pulled me out quick by saying hey if you’re going to have a heart attack his is the one to have. He explained that he had a blocked artery but it was a small diagonal one. In fact he had 2 blocked arteries and one was so small they were going to let it die. He chose the healthier larger one to put the stint in. He said it was caused by a calcium build up – likely from high cholesterol. He said he was young and would recover and be back to normal just fine.

As we were talking they wheeled Greg by, I could hear him talking about hunting to the nurse. The doctor got up and said we could follow him. I followed Greg to his room and he was in good spirts. Wide awake and seemed to be doing pretty good.

Turns out he was awake the whole time. They put a stint in by his groin to put the dye in to see where the blockage was. He was able to see his heart and the dye on a big TV screen. He would see when his heart pumped the dye moving through the arteries. He thought it was really cool.

He was pretty hungry and it was close to visiting hours being over so I ran home to get him his phones and stopped at the store to get him a veggie platter to eat. I ran back dropped it off and then went home to sleep.

I unfortunately had to work the next day, I would of loved to take the day off but my boss was having surgery that day and was going to be out for weeks so I had to go in. I did let them know I’d be in late after I stopped to see Greg at the hospital. He told me that during the night the upper chamber of his heart stopped and set off al kinds of alarms. The nurses were a bit concerned.

Darin and I got there pretty early in the morning and hung out with him for a few hours. After the cardiologist came to talk to us and told his he was doing really well – despite the hart stopping. He said that is normal after trauma to the heart and would be able to go home that day. I decided it was ok to go to work for a few hours.

Around 3 he was released from the hospital and Darin was there to take him home. Less than 24 hours after arriving at the hospital he was back home.

We definitely have some life changes we’ve made. Much less red meat, more chicken and fish and a lot more salads. It’s still a learning curve that is going to take some time to find the right balance. I’m just glad that he’s made a full recovery and doing good. I’ve got a lot planned with that guy and couldn’t imagine life without him.