Is this really happening?

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 started out like any other day, the alarm went off at 5:30 AM and I pushed snooze..hit snooze again..and again, until it was finally time to force myself out of bed and get ready for work. I got ready, packed my lunch, and was out the door by 6:15. It was Election Day and according to the state of Indiana, it considered a "state holiday", so I knew it would be a quiet day at work because no one would be in. So you may be wondering, why is Kristy going to work? Well, in my position, we are required to work 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and it was my scheduled day to work. As I'm driving into work, I can feel my chest starting to get tight; it felt as if someone was stabbing me. I didn’t think anything of it, and just thought it was either heartburn or anxiety. I'm going to be honest right now, and it's kind of hard for me to tell everyone, but I was diagnosed with anxiety disorder several years ago. It had been a stressful past few days, so I thought it was just an anxiety attack and would go away. My commute to work is usually 20-25 mins, depending on traffic. As I'm getting closer to arriving at work, I can feel my chest getting tighter and my neck starting to hurt. I came into work and told my coworker (who I replacing) that I was having some pains, but I would be okay. I took some aspirin and started my workday.

I can remember sitting at my desk and the pain getting worse, not only was my chest aching and neck becoming stiff, my right arm was going numb. I knew something was right; however, as most of you know, I can be pretty stubborn, so I kept thinking the aspirin would kick in and the pain would go away. During this time, I'd been texting Mark, who is a very good friend of mine, and telling him my symptoms. He kept telling me to get off the phone and call 911; again, I was being stubborn. I had finally convinced myself that I did need to get the hospital and was going to drive myself. Since no one was in the office, I called my boss. While on the phone with my boss, I started to cry and was in some pretty serious pain. He told me to get off the phone and he was going to get me help. Next to our office is the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, and they are staffed all the time as well. My boss had called over there and before I knew it, I had 2 people at my side. By this time, I was really starting to freak out, and started to hyperventilate. They told me that they had called 911 and help was on the way. They escorted me outside, where EMTs arrived and transported me to IU Methodist. I'm not sure what happened, but two ambulances and a fire truck all came within several mins of each other...I admit, I started to laugh, which helped calm me down.

As I was in the ambulance, they hooked me up to all kinds of machines and started asking my medical history. The pain continued to get worse, so they gave me baby aspirin to chew and also nitrostat...nothing was helping. The lady EMT was looking at my EKG and told the driver that something didn’t look right, so to turn on the lights and sirens and get to the hospital ASAP. The hospital is a mile or so from work. I was really scared at this point; I didn’t know what to think.

I arrived at IU Methodist and was quickly surrounded by numerous doctors and nurses. I was being hooked up to all kinds of machines. I had blood work, ultrasound, and an  x-ray of my chest done. Mark arrived at the hospital, and I was so grateful to have someone there with me. I didn’t want to call my parents yet, because I didn’t want to freak them out, I wanted to know what was going on. However, I did end up calling them and my dad kept insisting that he would come, but I said it would be silly to drive 2 hours if I was going to be released. He agreed and said to keep him updated. Since I was in a lot of pain, I was given morphine to help control the pain, which just made me pretty tired. The ER doctor said I had a little bit of fluid around my heart, but was nothing to be concerned about. Six hours later, the Dr. was pretty sure I just had some inflammation in my chest wall cavity and that I would be released soon. Mark had called my dad to let him know that I was going to be dismissed.

The doctor came back in and I thought he was going to give me my dismissal papers; however, that was not the case. He informed me that my blood work showed my heart enzymes were elevated. I had no clue what this meant and asked what that was. The doctor reported that something was going on with my heart and they called for a cardiologist. Once again, I started to freak out, thankfully, Mark was there calming me down. The cardiologist ordered for my blood work to be done again, just to make sure there wasn’t a mix-up in the lab..because how could a 24 year old be having a heart attack? Again, the blood work showed my enzymes were elevated. My cardiologist told me that I was going to go to the cath lab and get a heart cath done to see what's going on. I couldn’t believe all this was going on and it was happening so fast. Mark had called my dad to let them know what was going on and they said they were going to be on their way to Indy soon.

I got to the cath lab and do not remember much., only that they told me they were going to give me some medicine to "relax" which ultimately put me to sleep. I guess it didn't take long and I was out relatively quick. The doctor said that one of my arteries had a dissection, which caused a clot, which resulted in a heart attack. He was able to push some kind of medicine through, and it cleared it up. He did report that some of my heart muscle was damaged.

The next few days were a total blur to me, because I was on so much medication. I was in ICU the first night and then was transferred to the heart floor. I was released from IU Methodist on Friday and was ordered off work for another week. I returned back to St. Marys and started my recovery process.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011, ultimately changed my life. It gave me a new outlook and an appreciation for life.

Through this blog, I'll share with you my journey to becoming, 'heart healthy’.