The Retired Army Finance Organization "Keeping the Finance Family Together"
Posted as: Bulletin
Received this from Bill Hill today. Kinda deja vue. We expect to hear some good news in a couple of weeks. Gig 'em, Bill
Family and friends, I am a very lucky man. I dodged a bullet. I came within a whisker of having a major heart attack. Let me tell you the moral of the story and then I will tell he story.. Moral--Do not think for a minute that having good blood pressure readings means that you have no heart problems. For my entire adult life I have had good blood pressure readings. I thought I had no problems in regard to my hear. Story, Yesterday, I found out that I had 6 blockages in the arteries around my heart One was 99 percent blocked-My cardiologist (s p) told me that if a total blockage had occurred, I would have had a severe heart attack. Two of the others were 80 percent blocked and three were at 70 percent. About two months ago I started to have some symptoms that I should have paid more attention to. Felt very lazy- no energy at all Had trouble breathing Had heart burn Slept 10 hours a day I thought that if I could get rid of the heart burn, the rest of the symptoms would go away. I went to the doctor, explained my symptoms and asked for something to get rid of the heart burn. He agreed but wanted to do an E K G. Later he called and said that there was a problem with the E K G and scheduled me for a stress test. There was a situation with the stress test so he set me up with the cardiologist . This was last Tuesday. At that meeting he said that he though that I had some blockages in the arteries around my heart. He said that he needed to do a test whereby he injects dye in my blood stream and see what happens. If there were a blockage he would operate immediately. Yesterday morning he found the blockage discussed earlier and repaired three of them. Put in two stints and used a balloon on the third. . He said that repairing all 6 of them at one time was too much. I go back in two weeks. I am not writing this as a "pity party" letter. I just wanted to warn everyone to not make the mistakes I made by depending on blood pressure readings as an end all for heart health and ignoring symptoms for two months. I am a lucky guy. Bill