Here's to my health

Since I've been getting lots of questions, and I don't feel like typing the explanation some more, I thought I'd write it one last time for the record. Then if anyone else asks, I can send them the link. Keep in mind, most of this will not be well written. It will probably be a lot of babble, but hopefully it will paint of picture of the whole situation.

So, for those who don't know, In Sept. 2007, I had a mild stroke. Yes, at the ripe old age of 37. Thankfully, I am pretty healthy from all of the running, and I also took aspirin right away even though I wasn't having a stroke. (So I thought.) Within an hour of the episode, I had no ill effects. I was feeling very foolish sitting in the emergency room telling them I felt fine, but an hour ago my hand went numb, I was light-headed and nausious, and I couldn't finish a coherent thought. They kept me overnight for some tests, but said it was probably an atypical migraine. Low and behold, the mri showed I had a stroke. BUT, it was probably a fluke thing, so take a baby aspirin once a day, and you'll be fine, they said. No need to see a neurologist, since we consulted with the on call head doc and you're fine. That's what the doctor told me. So I believed him and went on my merry way.

Fast forward to the end of 2008. I've now been taking my baby aspirin. I've ran two marathons. I'm feeling great, although, I did struggle with cramping on both marathons, which I may be able to explain further down. November brings my annual checkup, which I haven't done in years. I ask my primary doc if I should see a neurologist just to be safe. Sure, why not, he said. So off I go to Raleigh Neurology to see Dr. Gabr. She looks over the hospital records and tells me, NO, a neurologist wasn't consulted, or at least it wasn't written down. She also tells me a very important test to check for a hole in my heart wasn't done. A hole in the heart is fairly common, hereditary, and a common cause of strokes in people my age. The problem with having a hole in your heart is that it allows a blood clot to pass from one side of the heart to the other and end up in your brain. Normally, the clot would go into your heart, pass into the lungs, break down, and never make it to the other side of the heart to pass on to the brain. The other side effect of this, is that the hole is distributing non-oxygenated blood over to the wrong side of the heart, which is being distributed throughout my body. This could be a cause for the marathon cramping, I'm told. I guess I'll have to test that one later.

A week later, I'm in WakeMed Heart Center getting a TEE, which is an internal ultrasound of the heart. This involves being drugged and having a camera stuck down my throat and lowered just behind my heart. The test shows that I do in fact have a hole in my heart. It ends up that my sperm donor gave me a genetic heart defect. Seems he and a couple of his brothers had the same problem.

This is all before Christmas. I now have an appointment for Jan. 20th to get this fixed. It involves having two incisions made in my groin. One is for a camera that goes up a vein into my heart. The other is for a device that will go up my main artery into my heart and placed into the opening preventing another blood clot from getting through. After a period of time, my heart will form tissue around this device permanently closing off the hole. The good thing about all this is that the doctor doing the procedure, Dr. Rhodes, is the expert who works out of Duke, who has doctors come from all around the world to learn how to do this. I had first hand experience of this, as there was a doctor from Australia observing my procedure.

The day of the procedure comes, and everything starts. I'm wheeled into the room, given a brazilian bikini wax (yes, they shaved my privates, but not the tender parts.) I'm given some drug that doesn't fully knock me out. I was aware of some of what was going on, but really felt nothing. Typically for this procedure, the patient is given heparan to thin the blood for the procedure and another drug after to allow the blood to clot. Since I've had a vasectomy, I can't be given this drug because it's made from salmon sperm, and I may have built up anti-bodies. I'm not making that up. So, since I can't be given this drug, the sheets (probably spelled wrong) that are used to hold open the vein and artery are kept open until my blood shows that it is clotting again. So a while later, they test my blood and feel it's safe to take out the sheets. Here is where I run into a complication. The nurse practioner who took out the sheets can't get the bleeding to stop. She calls in 2 other nurses and a doctor. For about 30 minutes, I have 4 people pushing on my groin with gauze pads trying to stop the bleeding. I was blissfully unaware of this for most of that time. In the end they stop the bleeding, and all is well.

After an overnight stay and a morning ECG, I'm allowed to go home. The boys were definitely effected by this. Robbie was mad at me. He said it wasn't funny that I was gone, but he was ok once I explained that I didn't mean it and gave him a kiss. All was forgiven. Aidan cried on and off all night when I was gone.

Also, my mom was supposed to fly down the night before, so she could be there for support. She ended up in the hospital herself the weekend before. She's got a problem with her throat and choked on some food spitting up blood.

Overall, it's been a very strange experience for me, and a pretty tramatic one for the family, even though, it was pretty uneventful. Within 6 months, my heart will be completely healed, and I'll never have to worry about every having that type of stroke again. I'll be no worse for the wear...