Author Topic: Really getting for Wilmington next April now.  (Read 2581 times)

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Offline garrell patterson

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Really getting for Wilmington next April now.
« on: September 11, 2012, 06:48:53 AM »
I have already had some performance modifications done to my truck but I know now why I haven't felt so good this summer and was so short of breath and dizzy in the heat and bad air quality we have had. I had my annual echocardiogram two weeks and my heart function and ejection fraction were both down from last years and because of my heaert  the Doc. wanted me to have a chemical stress test which I did yesterday  well the good Doc ,and he is, called me at seven last night and wanted to know how I had been feeling. I told him as hard as I tried I felt okay on some days and really not so okay on others and that I exercized and tried to buildup my stamina but nothing worked.
Then he says your stress test doesn't look very good it appears you have blockages on the backside of your heart and I think we need to do a cath very soon. I said Doc I am going dragracing next month and I pick my Corvette up from the performance shop tommorrow and my truck goes next week in preparation for next April in Ohio. I told him that I had too much invested in me to chance another heart attack and my Wife was tired of nurseing me back to health so lets set the cath up soon.
All of you and not just the men need to have your checkup every year and whrn you are under that car straining to get that transmission to go in place and you feel pressure in your chest or pain see your Doctor and tell him about it. There is nothing macho about being in back of an ambulance headed for the hospitol with a heart attack or NOT.
 
Garrell
garrell patterson

Offline Glen

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Re: Really getting for Wilmington next April now.
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2012, 11:18:37 AM »
Garrell, been there and done that including a 7 artery bypass, pay attention to the doctor. hope you are feeling better. :cheers:
Glen
Crew on Turbinator II

South West, Utah

Offline Dan Stokes

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Re: Really getting for Wilmington next April now.
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2012, 11:46:32 AM »
Garrell - Best of luck buddy!  I'm running on 3/4 of a heart myself (left outer wall is there but kaput) so I'll echo your sentiments.  For me, nothing was wrong and then it WAS - all at once.  An echocardiogram likely could have picked this up but I thought I was fine.

So guys - listen to the man!

Dan
Wilmington, NC - by the sea

ECTA idiot, Bonneville volunteer

Offline garrell patterson

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Re: Really getting for Wilmington next April now.
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2012, 05:09:15 AM »
Dan, you know in 1998 I was two steps away from being put on a heart transplant list. We had already, family I am speaking of, made several visits to a physycologist to make sure not just myself but my immediate family could emotionaly handle walking around with someone elses heart. I was in a program at the Emory Heart Failure center in Atlanta. My Wife says they called one day and said a new medicine had been approved for CHF patients and they wanted to start me on it imediately. The medication was Coreg or Carvadiol, my ejection fraction was down to 20. They gave me a starting dose of the new medication and had me go to the snack bar and kill about an hour then come back. They then gave me 100 mgs. of Coreg and in three months my heart function had improved considerably. I still take Coreg today and Ibet you take it or have and I am sure by know there are other similar medications.
I have just never really come back from my heart attack three years ago, but it was the three strokes I had within a month that put me on my backside so long plus Parkinson's desease.
I have a friend right now that builds and restores hotrods/ muscle cars, he is 65 and never had a EKG and he can work two twenty five year olds in the ground. He gets so hot in his shop and works at a running pace and has had some chest pains this summer but I can't get him to get a checkup. I just wonder what percentage of men and women that experience some chest pain or tightness and ignore them go on and have heart attacks and don't make it?
Landspeed racing and dragracing and tinkering around in my shop has been the driving force in my recovery.
Take care

Garrell
garrell patterson