This post is to create awareness, listen to your body, and don't wait until the last minute
It all started around October when I started to feel short of breath during exercise and some chest pressure, thinking it was from being out of shape I kept going, by November things were getting worse and was feeling out of breath after 5 minutes of exercising and more chest pressure. That's when I decided it was time to see a doctor.
This is when things took a turn, at the Dr's office they did an EKG and it came out irregular, Dr said I should get out and go to a hospital to get an Angiogram because he suspects that there is a blockage issue at the heart. At this moment everything is going a thousand miles per hour, I have no sense of the severity of this issue, and I even tell Ivette I'll go and call you after procedure.
Ivette making sense of everything asks me to go and pick her up, we get to ER and they waiting for me, long story short, the procedure showed a full blockage on 1 of the main arteries going into the heart, they tried to unblock it but it was all in vain.
Dr was very cautious and asked me to come Dec 27th to make the same procedure but from a different part of the body (groin), at this moment people are talking to me and i can't process in time to ask questions, all I'm thinking is why this is happening and what happens if they are unsuccessful next time.
I get sent home and that's when reality hits and I start getting anxious, nervous, afraid. I'm glad I had Ivette next to me all those days, she was able to calm my emotions down.
Wednesday 27th I wake the kids up and kiss them, and say to them see you later, Ivette my parents and I head to the hospital. At hospital and during all these days Dr's say it's a short procedure and I should be in recovery an hour later. They take me down I kiss my Wife and Parents and tell them see you soon.
At this time I'm a complete mess, I'm scared, but everyone keeps reassuring me it will be fine. They start prepping me for the procedure, and I see 2 doctors, they tell that they want to put 2 different catheters in order to be cautious and make sure they are able to clear the artery, not thinking anything about it I felt comfortable knowing they are doing everything possible to make sure everything will go as planned.
During this procedure I'm completely awake and alert, I'm listening to Drs talking, nurses applying more medications. Time passes and I start paying more attention to what Drs are discussing and at this moment I'm really concerned because they haven't been able to clear it as easy as they said it would be.
After a lot of discussions, tries and equipment they were able to clear the artery, I was exhausted and very very nervous, Dr comes and say we were able to clear the artery I'm going to speak to your family, I remember Thanking everyone in that room. As they prepared me to get moved I glanced at the clock and saw that I was in that room for over 3 hours. At that moment I remember asking a nurse why it took so long and she said Drs were having issues do to the blockage being so hard, she said that blockage was there for a while and that's when I thanked God to have me in his hands and not let me a cardiac arrest during all that month I was moving around without a care in the world.
At recovery I see Ivette and my parents and start crying because I felt a huge weight off my shoulders. I'm going to be able to go home soon and be there for everyone. During recovery I wasn't feeling very good and I remember telling a nurse I feel some kind of burning, and she said that it might be from the 3 hours, she said to keep her informed and we will see in a few hours. At this time and for the next 2-3 hours I'm laughing with my family, calling, texting and feeling better. I ate, drank, and started walking as prescribed by the nurses and Drs, in order to start the dismissal.
I remember feeling good and asking the nurses to please get me dismissed, Ivette and I were asking when I'm able to get out, and the nurse said "you look good, I'm going on my break as soon as I come back I will start removing all the IV's and get you on your way".
At 4:30 ish Ivette says let me call your Mom so she can spend some time with you, I was talking to my mom and texting some family members when I started to feel very weird, I was slow at answering, very tired, dizzy and very sluggish. I told my Mom " I'm not feeling well at all" that's when the machine started beeping and that's the last I remembered. I start coming to my senses very slow, and the first thing I hear is Ivette and my Mom unconsolably crying , those cries are something I will never be able to forget, I try talking to them but everything is in vain as I can't even open my eyes, then I start hearing nurses and a lot of people screaming at me to open my eyes and I'm slow to respond to them, until one of them screams at me "Open you eyes and tell you Wife and Mom you are Ok", that's the only time I was able to lift my hand and open my eyes to tell them I was Ok. After a few minutes I start regaining all my senses and able to talk and open my eyes. At this point Ivette and my parents are calmer but I see around 12 nurses and doctors around me asking me a million questions. I only remember saying I feel and I hear everything, but I have this pain on my chest that is really hurting me a lot. That's when one of the nurses say to me " That's my fault I had to give you chest compressions", that's when I realized something really bad happened to me. I was told my heart stopped for around 20 seconds and they were able to restart it with the compression. I remember telling the nurse Thank you a few times until they asked me to relax and stay calm.
After a few minutes I see one of the Drs that was on the procedure running towards my bed, after talking and regaining some strength they tell me that after this procedure is very normal for young patients to pass out and recover right away, what was not normal was for my heart to stop 20 seconds, I didn't care what the Dr said, I was still processing what just happened, replaying those cries in my head, thinking about the kids and that I was going to leave them like that. All I asked was, will this happen again and he said NO, this was a response of my body to the procedure and that they were going to leave me that night for observations but that it was a one time thing.
During the time of recovery and being moved to Intensive Care for observation I started to feel good, Color back into my face and all those feeling before the incident were gone, I asked for the nurse that did the compressions and thanked her again, I even gave her a hug, she was the reason I was able to go back to Ivette, the kids, my family and my life. She kept saying she felt bad about the pain from the compressions, I responded with a joke to make sure she knew I was thankful she was there and saved me.
After that I was transferred to ICU, and everything went well during the night, no issues, at midday Dec 28th I was told i was cleared to go home.
Please Listen to you body, if you feel something get checked up, If you have ANY procedure done, for as simple as it is, if you don't feel well Speak Up.
If the recovery takes forever Don't Rush it, imagine if that Nurse would have disconnected me before she went to her break, that cardiac arrest would've happen in the car on the way home and who knows if I would be here sharing this story.
