I EXPECTED IT TO BE JUST ANOTHER DAY.

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the Doctor had been warning me about.</p><p id="b95f">My phone was out of credit so I could not ring anyone. After around 10 minutes I managed to get to my computer and email my daughter on the Gold Coast (Queensland Australia). I live in Victoria Australia. She rung me, then rang our emergency number 000. The Paramedics soon arrived. They did some quick tests on me and prepared to get me down to the ambulance. It is still a mystery to me — they told me it was not my heart — the heart was good they said. I managed to walk along the balcony and down the stairs to the ambulance. For a brief moment I experienced a distressing feeling which eased off almost immediately.</p><p id="ed50">After three days in the Cardiac ward of the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and many tests, the Doctors informed me they were fairly certain I had had a heart attack during the time I was at the Mall and on the way home. The final test was to be an angiogram, which reveals any abnormalities to do with the heart. That test revealed not only did I have a closing aortic valve but also three blockages to the blood vessels supplying the heart. Heart surgery was the only remedy.</p><p id="9193">A number of people in the Hospital were awaiting surgery and I was told to expect a few days wait. Surgery patients are carefully monitored and started on various medications. I convinced the nurses I was able to walk to the ward toilet on my own. On the fourth day I had been watching TV from my bed and suddenly felt fatigued. I walked to the toilet and did my business. I started to cold sweat and had similar feelings to the first incident. I sat down on the closed toilet seat, and that is all I remember.</p><p id="f98c">Fortunately the ward toilets cannot be locked. I was told later they checked on me and found me lying backwards over the toilet and against the wall. My heart beat

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had dropped to 30 beats per minute and my circulation had stopped. A nurse did CPR on me and got the heart moving again. That nurse introduced herself to me days after. Emergency teams are always ready in Hospitals it seems, and a team began working on me. When I came back to consciousness I was in the intensive care unit surrounded by about 20 people. I could not work out where I was for a while. After a few minutes I remembered I was in the Alfred. The team leaders informed me what had happened and how they had worked on me.</p><p id="a7fd">That experience put me at the head of the list for surgery. I had a triple bypass operation and mechanical valve replacement the same or the next day. There is a lot more to tell but not in this read. I vowed I would never write about the experience, but when I read of the obstacles the editor of this publication (Be Open) has to deal with I decided it was the right place to tell some of my story.</p><p id="17c6">I am at home now. It has been three months since that day. It takes time to recover from heart surgery. The good news is, being able to write about it is a sure sign of progress in recovery.</p><div id="6d0f" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/be-open-submission-guidelines-41ea51ef4ef1"> <div> <div> <h2>We Invite You to Become Our Writer — Be Open Submission Guidelines</h2> <div><h3>You don’t have to be a great writer or super perfect human to contribute here. I believe everyone can become inspirator…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*eBrTZS3wC0WwzBZjivi7tg.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

I EXPECTED IT TO BE JUST ANOTHER DAY.

HOW WRONG I WAS.

GDj…Pixabay

Funnily enough I had been working on a medium story on the morning of the day in question. I looked at the time and realized I needed to go to the Mall to buy a few things and get cash from an ATM.

Four years prior to this day I had been seeing a heart specialist every 6 months to monitor the aortic valve in my heart. The valve was calcified and was getting smaller. But I has no symptoms. When you have no symptoms over four years it sort of fades into the background of your thinking. It’s there but it is not affecting your daily life.

I left my writing and caught a taxi to the shopping mall. I noticed I was feeling unusually weak. I had had a similar experience a week before which had not lasted long. I spent about 40 minutes in the Supermarket and took cash out from my card. I lugged three bags of groceries over to the taxi rank for the return home. The bags were in the boot and I climbed into the cab. Immediately I started to cold sweat and felt dizzy. I forced myself to relax so I would not pass out. The driver did not seem to notice anything amiss.

My unit is on the first floor. I got to the bottom of the stairs with my groceries and sat on the bottom step for 5 minutes. Then I carried the bags up the two flights of stairs and along to my door. Once inside I knew I was in trouble. I left the groceries in the center of the lounge room and went and lay on my bed. I knew if I tried to stand I would probably pass out. I did not identify it with my heart at first, but after a little analyzing realized I was getting the symptoms the Doctor had been warning me about.

My phone was out of credit so I could not ring anyone. After around 10 minutes I managed to get to my computer and email my daughter on the Gold Coast (Queensland Australia). I live in Victoria Australia. She rung me, then rang our emergency number 000. The Paramedics soon arrived. They did some quick tests on me and prepared to get me down to the ambulance. It is still a mystery to me — they told me it was not my heart — the heart was good they said. I managed to walk along the balcony and down the stairs to the ambulance. For a brief moment I experienced a distressing feeling which eased off almost immediately.

After three days in the Cardiac ward of the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and many tests, the Doctors informed me they were fairly certain I had had a heart attack during the time I was at the Mall and on the way home. The final test was to be an angiogram, which reveals any abnormalities to do with the heart. That test revealed not only did I have a closing aortic valve but also three blockages to the blood vessels supplying the heart. Heart surgery was the only remedy.

A number of people in the Hospital were awaiting surgery and I was told to expect a few days wait. Surgery patients are carefully monitored and started on various medications. I convinced the nurses I was able to walk to the ward toilet on my own. On the fourth day I had been watching TV from my bed and suddenly felt fatigued. I walked to the toilet and did my business. I started to cold sweat and had similar feelings to the first incident. I sat down on the closed toilet seat, and that is all I remember.

Fortunately the ward toilets cannot be locked. I was told later they checked on me and found me lying backwards over the toilet and against the wall. My heart beat had dropped to 30 beats per minute and my circulation had stopped. A nurse did CPR on me and got the heart moving again. That nurse introduced herself to me days after. Emergency teams are always ready in Hospitals it seems, and a team began working on me. When I came back to consciousness I was in the intensive care unit surrounded by about 20 people. I could not work out where I was for a while. After a few minutes I remembered I was in the Alfred. The team leaders informed me what had happened and how they had worked on me.

That experience put me at the head of the list for surgery. I had a triple bypass operation and mechanical valve replacement the same or the next day. There is a lot more to tell but not in this read. I vowed I would never write about the experience, but when I read of the obstacles the editor of this publication (Be Open) has to deal with I decided it was the right place to tell some of my story.

I am at home now. It has been three months since that day. It takes time to recover from heart surgery. The good news is, being able to write about it is a sure sign of progress in recovery.