In my previous post I discussed my recent heart attack.
What I did not mention was my experience of “watching it all happen” as a stent was placed within my coronary artery.

I arrived at the hospital at 01:08:00 on 19th January 2016. The stent was placed in position at 03:07:00 on 19th January 2016.

So in just under two hours, my life was saved. Here’s how I saw it all taking place:

I walked up to the Emergency reception window and sat in the chair. The moment I mentioned chest pain, within only moments of arrival, everything shifted into high gear. They were able to locate my previous medical records in an amazingly short time and I was sat in a wheelchair and brought into a consultation room where the leads of an ECG (electrocardiagraph) machine were fastened to my chest.

Within moments the doctor was in there looking at the ECG and after what seemed to me to be only a few seconds, he said to me, “The indications I see on the screen are consistent with you currently having a heart attack.”

My immediate thoughts included: “Is this the end moment of my life?”, “Am I now about to go to heaven to be with the Lord? … If so, I am ready for that.”, “What about Wendy and my children? … I would like to be with them for many more years yet!”, “Now, just calm down and pray!” So I prayed there quietly under my breath and immediately felt very much at peace.

I heard the doctor asking other staff questions like: “Is the lab ready?”, “Is there a cardiac team ready?” and receiving affirmative answers to everything.

Before long, I was moved to “the lab” as the staff referred to it.

In the lab I was transferred to the table and fitted with an awesome number of electrodes which connected me to the most detailed ECG machine I have ever seen. A huge array of large television style monitors was placed over me and large x-ray-like equipment was placed around me.  The doctor warned me that the table I was on would suddenly move, and not to be alarmed when it did so.

An X-ray like real-time movie of my upper body appeared on the nearest enormous screen and it was fascinating to watch on the screen as a catheter was inserted into an artery in my right wrist. Next a long narrow tube was inserted through the catheter and I watched on screen as the doctor expertly guided it through the blood vessels all the way up my arm through my shoulder and across my chest and into the blood vessels that surround my heart. The doctor squirted some contrast dye through the tube and the blood vessels surrounding the heart instantly “lit up” in black so they could be clearly seen. It was immediately obvious where blood vessels had been narrowed by the build-up of plaque and the doctor pointed these places out to me.

Next a metal cage called a stent was inserted through the tube and along the artery to the worst area of restriction. A balloon inside the stent was then inflated, and while I could not see the stent itself on the screen, I could see the effect it had as the narrow section of my artery expanded out until it was the same diameter as the sections of artery on either side of the blockage.

the doctor then withdrew all the equipment from inside my arteries, removed the catheter, and it was all finished.

I was moved back to the ER and then to the CCU, where I had plenty of time to reflect on the show I had just been watching.

The scripture immediately came into my mind: “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” – Psalms‬ ‭139:14‬ ‭KJV [http://bible.com/1/psa.139.14.kjv] Having looked on the screen at all my insides all I could think was how wonderfully made I was. I also marvelled at how God has enabled man to learn how to fit replacement parts within the body without even needing any anaesthetics or having to suspend operation of any parts of the body. This would be equivalent to me replacing the oil pump in my motorbike engine without even turning the engine off! Utterly impossible! And yet nothing is impossible with God: “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭19:26‬ ‭KJV [http://bible.com/1/mat.19.26.kjv]

I feel I am truly blessed to have lived through this heart attack and to have been privileged to be able to watch in full detail as the doctor worked what seemed almost like a miracle by fixing that blocked artery.

Thanks are due to the doctor, to all the hospital staff, and especially, to God.

Six hundred grams. A medium bottle of distilled water.

That is all I am allowed to lift with my right hand and arm at this moment due to my recent heart attack.

Here is my Facebook post of Wednesday 20 January at 13:35 [square brackets indicate additional thoughts not in my original post]:
Well, everybody else has been posting about me and my heart attack, so it’s high time I did so!
Firstly, thank you to all of those who have been sending their wishes, greetings, prayers, thoughts, and similar tidings. While I have to admit I felt pretty crook during Monday, with all you guys praying for me, I am now feeling better than I have for days, weeks, or perhaps even a long time!
I am still [20th January, 13:35]  in the Coronary Care Unit at the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, but will be moved “upstairs” to a ward, probably some time today.
Perhaps it is a good idea to share about this experience so that if any others have similar symptoms they might seek assistance BEFORE they actually have a heart attack.
I go to the gym nearly every day and I noticed that I was having to slow down the treadmill because I just felt unable to walk as fast. I was gradually slowing over several weeks. At this stage I didn’t have any of the standard chest pains that are associated with heart attacks, I was just feeling less and less fit and more and more tired. When boxing with my trainer, my punches seemed to be losing strength, weights seemed to be becoming harder and harder to lift. I should have been getting fitter, but my general fitness seemed to be slowly getting worse and worse.
I had no idea that one of my coronary arteries had closed up until it was 99% blocked.
On Saturday 16th Wendy and I cleaned out the shed. I had to keep sitting down for a rest and my upper arms were aching terribly. I felt sure the physical work I had been doing shouldn’t have made them hurt that much. [I thought perhaps I might have pulled a muscle or two when my upper arms started to hurt really badly.  I had none of what I had thought of as the classic heart attack symptoms: shortness of breath, sweating, or chest pains. The niggling thought did cross my mind, “What if the pain is in your heart?” but I dismissed that thought with a silly comment like, “I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve!” So I just kept right on cleaning out the shed.]

On the Sunday 17th, I rode my motorbike to church and was surprised at how heavy the steering felt. In church I felt so much pain in my upper body it was like I was coming down with the ‘flu, but without other ‘flu symptoms. I was prayed for at church and had no more pain for the rest of Sunday.

Monday [18th January]  I went to the gym and was feeling very lethargic when I did my session with my trainer. I felt very week and was getting extreme pain in my upper arms.
Home again by midday I had so much pain I took a couple of pain killing tablets (and I literally never take those things) and went to bed. Upper arms were so painful I couldn’t find any comfy position to lie in to alleviate the pain.
4pm I took another couple of pain killing pills and noticed that the pain was across the top of my chest as well. Now thoughts about the possibility of a heart attack began to surface. But I was neither short of breath nor sweating and I assumed that both of those were signs of a heart attack.
8pm saw me taking two more pills but with no relief for the pain.
Midnight saw another dose of pain killers and Wendy said, “we’re going to the hospital.”
Only a few moments after arriving there, the doctor had determined that I was having a heart attack.
This post is already too long, so I shall continue the story in another post.
Sufficient to say I now feel very fit and healthy, although the health experts warn that I must now take things very easy.
The most important part of this post is to say, if you do find yourself getting weak and having unexpected aches and pains, have your heart checked before you actually have a full-blown heart attack! [end of FB post Wednesday 20 January at 13:35]

Here is my Facebook post of Thursday 21 January at 16:06 : Still in hospital where various procedures have resulted in various bits of diagnosis.
My first echocardiogram yesterday afternoon indicated the possibility of a thrombosis near the bottom of the left ventricle. That would have meant the need to take warfarin and have daily blood tests for the rest of my life. However the contrast echocardiogram conducted this morning cleared me of any thrombosis, so my medication will be much simplified from here on.
I shall be kept under observation until tomorrow morning and, assuming all is well, I shall be unhooked from this “spaghetti junction” of wires and technological marvels, and sent home.
I am really looking forward to that!
The tests have shown that my heart is now working at an efficiency of [36%], so I will need to be very gradual about returning to any exercise.
I will not be permitted to drive a car or to ride my motorbike and sidecar until a fortnight from the time of the heart attack, so I shall have to be chauffeured anywhere I need to go until 2nd February.
Later today a specialist in cardiac rehabilitation will consult with me to set up a program to strengthen my heart during the coming months.
So it is all looking very good indeed, praise the Lord!
Again, thank you to all of you for your many posts of encouragement and support, and for all the praying that has been going on.
My word of the day for today is: “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. … Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” (John chapter 14, verses 27b and 27a)
I memorised that quotation more than four decades ago (in the “correct” order) and it has always had a special meaning for me. Today I felt like I should reverse the order – maybe I am just a non-conformist! [end of FB post Thursday 21 January at 16:06 ]

Here is my Facebook post of Friday 22 January at 13:24 : “Free at last;
Free at last;
Praise God Almighty, I’m
Free at last!”

As I stated above, the most important part of this post is to say, if you do find yourself getting weaker and having unexpected aches and pains anywhere in the top half of your body, have your heart checked before you actually have a full-blown heart attack! It will apparently take me a long period of rehabilitation to regain my strength due to the damage to my heart muscle, and I will probably never attain the strength I had before the heart attack.