Did I Suffer a Heart Attack?

The simple answer is No. But was it a wake up call to get in better health? Yes.

Wednesday afternoon, January 25th, at work after walking up several flights of stairs fr the third time that day, which I generally do not do, I started exhibiting many of the classic symptons of a heart attack. While I felt some pain in my chest it was the confluence of feeling dizzy, naseous, and having a throbbing pain in my left arm which did radiate down to my hand that sent me to the emergency room.

Over the next 24 hours I went from the ER to a cardiac unit to having undergone a stress test complete with a nuclear isotope being injected into my system so they could take pictures after the my run on the tread mill and once my heart was at rest. At 41, the target heart rate I was to shoot for on the tread mill was 152. I exceeded that and got my rate up to 190 for the last two minutes which were hell. Nothing in my blood work indicated my heart had suffered an angina or scarring so they are unclear as to what happened other than my overexerting myself.

I do no exercise whatsoever other than playing with my kids. My weight of 145 is reasonable for my height 5'6". I don't have high blood pressure but my cholesterol is just over the desired range. In short to look at me I am not a candidate but to know how I eat, my family history, and that I don't exercise I am a prime candidate to leaving my kids fatherless and my wife a widow.

My warning is simply this, re-examine what you do, check yourself out (without my radical method of scheduling a stress test) otherwise these kids we all have and want will not have you there for them. If not for you do it for them.