600 grams – only 600 grams?

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!”

After a most unexpected and unplanned visit to the hospital, I am now in the waiting area waiting for Wendy to take me home.

The heart attack I had during last weekend means I now have ten different medicines on the go instead of only two, so I guess this means that I won’t be able to sneak up behind you because I shall rattle while I walk!

Now I need to gradually build up my exercise, watch what I eat, and in general look after my health. I am not permitted to drive until next month.

Again, thanks to everyone for your prayers and encouragement over this time.

Blessings to all!

Phil
<>< [end of FB post Friday 22 January at 13:24]

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.

 

 

 

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