Heart attack on my birthday

The day before my 40-something birthday I was thinking about just going to work as normal and celebrating over the weekend. But for some reason I decided to take the day off anyway. Got home and decided to have a relaxing movie and beer evening, went to bed in a good relaxed mood...so good so far.

Around 6am on my birthday I was woken up with mild chest pains, thought it was just because I smoked to many cigarettes after a few too many beers the night before. But the chest pains were getting worse so I decided to call my brother for a lift to the hospital. He advised me to call for an ambulance since he was at work and it would take in an hour to get to me, I took his advice and called for an ambulance myself.

The ambulance arrived and I explained what was happening, where the pains were and all that stuff. At this point I was still fully conscious and talking normally, the pains were strong but I wasn't rolling around on the floor in agony. The paramedics did their checks (blood pressure, pulse, ECG etc...), but nothing was showing up...all seemed normal. Just to be on the safe side they decided to take me to the hospital for more checks. In the ambulance on the way to the hospital I started to feel very very tired and was falling asleep, the lovely lady just kept talking to me trying to keep me awake.

Arriving at A&E I was taken to the priority area and again was feeling better just with strong chest pains. The initial nurse arrived to take my details like name, address etc. When she asked me my date of birth I replied 'today 1972'. She looked at me with a confused face, after I explained it was my birthday her confused face turned to a sympathetic face. By this time my brother had arrived and we were joking about my birthday and I must stop smoking.....at this stage it was just chest pains. The doctor arrived to check what was wrong and again asking my name, address, date of birth - again I replied today 1972..we laughed.

The doctor checked blood tests, blood pressures, pulse, ECG and couldn't find anything wrong. He decided to give me some pain killers for the pain via a drip and off he went to do other doctor things. Returning after 10 minutes the pains were still there so he decided to give me a very very strong pain killer and again off he went to do more doctor things. He returned after 5 minutes to check on me, but the pains were still there. All this time they took many blood samples. The doctor now decided to give me a cocktail of pain killers and we joked about getting high. This time as I was watching him pushing the syringe my whole body relaxed...and the pain was gone at last. Everything was still light hearted yet professional. A few moments later the nurse arrived with the results of my latest blood test and the doctor became very serious. Ok, he said to me, you are having a heart attack and this is now serious. My brother and I looked at each other and were confused, after all I wasn't rolling around on the floor like you see on television. At this point people were rushing around connecting me to various machines and I was not allowed to get up...it was lock down for sure.

Within 10 minutes I was back in an ambulance being taken to the specialist cardiac centre, I was still awake but very drowsy and very confused what was happening. Arriving at the specialist centre I was taken straight to the operating theatre which looked scary and very high tech. Things got serious in my mind when another doctor came and told me I had to sign this form allowing them to operate on me and that I could die during the operation......What ! ......die. But its my birthday and it's only chest pains I thought. Of course I signed and was expecting to be put to sleep....but no.

Apparently I needed an angioplasty and possible stent (a small balloon which opens up your artery). There were around 10 people in this room and each had their specific task. Within minutes I was striped, put into a hospital gown, hooked up to many machines, my right wrist was numbed with an injection ready for the surgeon to do his thing. I was expecting to be put to sleep for any operation let alone a heart-op. He arrived and explained the procedure. A small incision was made in my wrist and a wire was threaded all the way to my heart......wait a minute...a what to where? But yes a small wire was inserted into my right wrist and wire was threaded to my heart, surprisingly I was watching this live on a big x-ray type screen, I could see my own heart pumping, I could see this wire testing to see where the blockage was. Was it here...no, maybe there...no, lets try here....no, and then 'Ahah' the blockage was found. As the stent was inflated I watched the blood flow back to that area.

Around 20 minutes later I was in the recovery section....all done. It was 4pm the same day...my birthday, and I was home 2 days later ready for 6 months of post op recovery classes.

Big thanks to all the staff at the hospital, very very professional.