BillFitzmaurice.info

Wow!
Here's hoping that you will be in good health soon!

Don't know what's going on Brent, but certainly wish you the best.

Last Wednesday evening, I went to the Er with severe chest pain and was diagnosed with a mild heart attack. Within a few hours (before I knew what had happened, really) I was on the table in the cath lab and came out with a stent. They told me I had a 95% blockage of the left circumflex artery. They released me Friday, and I had a charity show on Saturday that I had already staffed, but just being there was enough to make me hurt again by the end of the day, so back into the hospital until Monday evening.

Medically speaking, I am now "healthy." I have no heart damage and not much other blockage (one artery at 25% that they're not worried about). Realistically, things are improving, but I really can't do much without getting tired. They tell me that will pass in a few weeks.

The whole ordeal has been a bit trying to say the least. I have not been admitted to the hospital since I was three years old, and I'm 35 now. Recovery is as much mental as physical, and I am perhaps not handling it as well as I would like. The pressures of caring for a family and a business are great, and I am currently not really able to do either effectively. Fortunately, lots of folks have stepped up to help staff shows and jobs that I would have normally done mostly by myself, and I am appreciative for that. in any case, I suppose I might have typed a few things in posts that were somewhat indicative of that overstressed mental condition, and my apologies for letting that out.

I have learned a few things with all this:

1. Heart attacks hurt. Despite the medical terminology, there really is no such thing as a "mild" one. Avoid at all costs.
2. Mrs. Dash is not salt, no matter how much you use or how good anyone tells you it is. It does not and cannot repair the damage that hospital kitchens somehow do to patient food.
3. Turkey sausage, bacon, and burgers are not sausage, bacon and burgers. Egg beaters are not eggs.
4. I am really glad to be alive.


Thanks for the concern guys. Hopefully things get back to some semblance of normalcy soon.

Good to hear that your pulling through toward 'normalcy'.

It's a big help to have people step up on your behalf!

I'd better be careful, myself: My A2 can set up and run most of the gear himself, bit he can't tow the trailer to the gig.....

He's 10.

Rest up and get well the right way. The show season will be there when you're ready!

BrentEvans wrote:Last Wednesday evening, I went to the Er with severe chest pain and was diagnosed with a mild heart attack. Within a few hours (before I knew what had happened, really) I was on the table in the cath lab and came out with a stent. They told me I had a 95% blockage of the left circumflex artery. They released me Friday, and I had a charity show on Saturday that I had already staffed, but just being there was enough to make me hurt again by the end of the day, so back into the hospital until Monday evening.

Medically speaking, I am now "healthy." I have no heart damage and not much other blockage (one artery at 25% that they're not worried about). Realistically, things are improving, but I really can't do much without getting tired. They tell me that will pass in a few weeks.

The whole ordeal has been a bit trying to say the least. I have not been admitted to the hospital since I was three years old, and I'm 35 now. Recovery is as much mental as physical, and I am perhaps not handling it as well as I would like. The pressures of caring for a family and a business are great, and I am currently not really able to do either effectively. Fortunately, lots of folks have stepped up to help staff shows and jobs that I would have normally done mostly by myself, and I am appreciative for that. in any case, I suppose I might have typed a few things in posts that were somewhat indicative of that overstressed mental condition, and my apologies for letting that out.

I have learned a few things with all this:

1. Heart attacks hurt. Despite the medical terminology, there really is no such thing as a "mild" one. Avoid at all costs.
2. Mrs. Dash is not salt, no matter how much you use or how good anyone tells you it is. It does not and cannot repair the damage that hospital kitchens somehow do to patient food.
3. Turkey sausage, bacon, and burgers are not sausage, bacon and burgers. Egg beaters are not eggs.
4. I am really glad to be alive.


Thanks for the concern guys. Hopefully things get back to some semblance of normalcy soon.

Take care of yourself, young man!

Best wishes, Brent

Rest up Brent!

In the words of late great Mickey Mantle, "If I'd known that I was going to live so long I'd have taken better care of myself".
Thirty-five is way too young for that kind of blockage, even if you do everything wrong, so it may well be a genetic thing. You can't be blamed for not having been tested for high cholesterol etc., because at your age who goes to the doctor if they're not sick? But now you know, so by all means, take care of yourself!

Brent, all best wishes for a speedy recovery!

In what seems to almost be another lifetime ago, I was an integral member of an open heart surgery team, so I know exactly what you have been talking about.
The advancement of treatment of conditions such as yours, in more modern times, means you didn't require open heart surgery.

What has happened must be a huge wakeup call for you at your age.
Still, you have plenty of time to get sorted, so, as I said before, all the best...

As Bill hinted, it is always more complex than it seems on the surface. The way it was explained to me, you can have what appears to be a very small blockage of no apparent concern that is sort of 'burrowed down' into the artery. These can, for reasons not very well understood, rupture, causing near immediate clotting and major blockage. This appears to be what happened to me.

I actually have been monitored for cholesterol, blood pressure, etc, for years due to my diabetes. While elevated, nothing has been of immediate concern beyond low dosage meds (I now have scripts several times more powerful for these things than before). There is a genetic factor too, but I was adopted shortly after birth (I was an "oopsie baby") and `there is no history of my biological parents beyond about 18 or 19 years old. In fact, the whole 'medical history' I have is more focused on physical attributes rather than useful medical data. It reads more like my parents were buying a horse rather than adopting a child.

I did come upon one positive side of things today.. the WAF in my house has been altered by the pity coefficient. She let me, even SUGGESTED that I set up my jam rig (complete with Texas headphones) in the living room rather than at my shop down the road so I could have something to do. She even helped me move it all in. For all our spats, I married a gem.

BrentEvans wrote:She let me, even SUGGESTED that I set up my jam rig (complete with Texas headphones) in the living room rather than at my shop down the road so I could have something to do. She even helped me move it all in. For all our spats, I married a gem.

Oh....young man....it's so refreshing to see bewildered ignorance putting a blissful smile on your face.


Enjoy while you can, but.....it will cost you at some point. (advice from an old guy with 37 years of marriage behind him.. )

Bruce Weldy wrote:

BrentEvans wrote:She let me, even SUGGESTED that I set up my jam rig (complete with Texas headphones) in the living room rather than at my shop down the road so I could have something to do. She even helped me move it all in. For all our spats, I married a gem.

Oh....young man....it's so refreshing to see bewildered ignorance putting a blissful smile on your face.


Enjoy while you can, but.....it will cost you at some point. (advice from an old guy with 37 years of marriage behind him.. )

Oh I'm sure it will.. In order to keep it she wants me to clean out my corner behind the baby grand and move ur there... Lol

BrentEvans wrote:I did come upon one positive side of things today.. the WAF in my house has been altered by the pity coefficient. She let me, even SUGGESTED that I set up my jam rig (complete with Texas headphones) in the living room rather than at my shop down the road so I could have something to do. She even helped me move it all in. For all our spats, I married a gem.

..I think Brent could be on to something here fellas. The key may be to keep the total WAF/Injury differential very high. Maximum WAF and Pity coefficient for minimal Injuries sustained.....I'm heading out to the barn to get "injured" let you know how that goes!

Drey Chennells wrote:

BrentEvans wrote:I did come upon one positive side of things today.. the WAF in my house has been altered by the pity coefficient. She let me, even SUGGESTED that I set up my jam rig (complete with Texas headphones) in the living room rather than at my shop down the road so I could have something to do. She even helped me move it all in. For all our spats, I married a gem.

..I think Brent could be on to something here fellas. The key may be to keep the total WAF/Injury differential very high. Maximum WAF and Pity coefficient for minimal Injuries sustained.....I'm heading out to the barn to get "injured" let you know how that goes!

YMMV. No warranties are given, explicit or implied. Chances of winning are one in a gazillion. Winning entries must be submitted at two past dark thirty, the day before yesteryear and winners will be notified by Russian smoke signals sent at midnight in winter at the South Pole on Mars.