I am scheduled to have coronary bypass surgery because I was lucky enough to have bronchitis. Sound funny, but it’s the truth. If not for the bronchitis I might have delayed seeing a cardiologist until after a heart attack.
In most ways, I’m a typical
man, and my type of behavior is predictable. Though older than I admit and
heavier than I should be, I have always considered myself capable of answering
any challenge regardless of a few aches and pains.
Over the years, I have modified
my exercise routines to avoid injury and pain risks. As an aging martial artist,
my tournament-training days of tornado-like spinning heel kicks are behind me. In
their place, I’ve adapted to a routine of lower and shorter-reaching but
effective techniques to both promote fitness and maintain something of an emergency
arsenal should the occasion arise. I have enough skeletal issues to discourage
running, but walking has been enjoyable, until recently.
At first I found myself out breath
much quicker than in the past, and then my blood pressure elevated after even short
workouts. As fate would have it, a flare-up of reoccurring bronchitis emerged.
Naturally, I credited my bronchitis with the exercise-induced shortness of
breath and elevated blood pressure. Wisely, I decided to lay off my exercise routine
until the bronchitis cleared up.
Then it snowed in Louisiana.
My four-year-old grandson had never seen snow, and the idea of going outside
into the white stuff captured his imagination.
After I gave him a
demonstration of how to make a snowball, he quickly became an expert, too. Of
course, I had to help him make his first snowman. What kind of grandpa would
pass up such an opportunity?
As the base of the snowman
grew to sufficient size, I realized that I was in trouble. I leaned on a nearby
fence while I encouraged my breathing to return to normal and for an angry tightness
in my chest to relax. The closest thing I’d had to this level of discomfort had
been during the last few hundred yards of an Alabama 10K in 1985.
Back then, I had the good, or you might say, bad timing of approaching the finish line beside another
runner, who was as determined to finish in front of me as I was to be in front
of him. Understandable consequence for then, but this time, all I’d done was
roll up a medium-sized snowball.
After I recovered my breath,
and the pain left me, I blamed the bronchitis and rolled another ball to make
the middle of our snowman. Then it happened again.
When I recovered, we finished
the snowman. My grandson thought it was a great invention. I think he’ll
remember at least a little about his first time whenever he makes another
snowman, or as he called it, a snow dragon. Because his grandpa writes books with dragons in them, he often sees dragons where others can't.
When I explained the
breathing, blood pressure, and pain issues as part of a plea to get my desired
antibiotics, my doctor suspected more than bronchitis. A flurry of test and
procedures: EKG, x-rays, stress test, and eventual heart catheter confirmed the
suspicions.
I have many blockages, some
quite serious. The doctor told me that the good news was that my heart was
healthy. Sounds funny to you and me, but in cardiologist talk, that means I
haven’t had a heart attack. I presume many of their patients wait too long.
Good thing I didn’t.
When there isn’t enough oxygen-carrying
blood flowing to a part of your heart, you get pain, sometimes called angina. Fortunately,
the pain goes away when you rest. It’s not a heart attack, but it’s a sign you
might have one.
It’s not always an indication
that you’ve allowed yourself to get out of shape and need to push yourself to
the next level. Telling yourself, “pain is weakness leaving the body,” and then
trying to push through the barrier can very well kill you. I think that may be
what happened to a few of my old friends. I didn’t understand it until now. As
demonstrated, a typical man may not be able to distinguish the nature of these
pains until he gets some help from a cardiologist.
Not all problems like this
require coronary bypass surgery. Depending on
the severity, some solutions are relatively simple, but you need a trained
professional to make the determination.
Naturally, my story is not a
substitute for qualified medical advice, but I hope it serves as a warning to
all those typical folks like many of friends who chose to push back at the pain.
Think of pain as a light on the master
caution panel. Don’t push it and forget it, hoping it stays away. Investigate
it; you might have multiple problems confusing your symptoms. Take the proper
action.
Be good to your heart. Talk to a doctor about chest pain and
shortness of breath.
It might not be what you want it to
be.
The Chronicles of Susah
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The Dragoneers
The Lost Dragoneer
The Last Dragoneer
