A further flash back and a little history on our active trials to make our first trip to the salt...
The story has been told before but I'd like to repeat it in this blog to contribute to the background and trials & tribulations that got us to this point.
(feel free to bypass this post if you just want to hear about our actual trip. This is just background to help understand the emotion behind our trip
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We had plans exactly 5 years ago, August 2003, to make our way to the salt with Todd’s Ironhead Sportster in tow. A week before we were due to leave Todd wasn’t feeling well. He couldn’t catch his breath, almost as if he were having an asthma attack. With what little breath he had to work with, we argued about where to take him! In hindsight I should have called 911 but Todd being a guy, he completely downplayed what he was feeling, so I really couldn’t see the severity of it at the time. It was a Saturday afternoon, it was getting late and all the usual medical places were closing. So I ushered him in to the truck & drove him the ten minutes to the hospital.
As we were rounding the final corner to the hospital he started slumping down in the seat!
I reached over with an aggressive one arm grab (he’ll tell you I slugged him!) and yelled something at him to the effect of Dross don’t you die on me now, we’re almost there!!! I was about ready to drive over a curb but luckily the traffic moved so I didn’t need to!
I pulled up in front of the ER and as I was getting out the guard asked what was up. I told the guard that Todd couldn’t breathe very well. They had him in a wheel chair & out of site before I knew what was going on! I parked the truck and got inside. When I got to his little room they had him hooked up to a blood pressure cuff (and I believe some heart monitor leads) and he looked like his perky old self! He told the nurse wow I feel great, I’m going to go! She said oh no you’re not, you’re having a heart attack. He argues, I didn’t have a heart attack! She says no, you are having a heart attack right now!!! The blood pressure cuff slowed things down enough that it relieved the pressure on his chest & he suddenly felt great!
Well, long story short… he was admitted. They did the cardio cath and reported back to me. Lots of words and luckily a picture! When I added up all the blockage ¾’s of his lines were blocked!!! Luckily he had grown collaterals so there was virtually no heart damage at all! What a lucky man! They ended up inserting a stint and referred him for further analysis once the crisis state was over.
Well, with Todd being in business “for himself” with our shop and us not being married at the time, he didn’t have any insurance! We were very lucky that aid was granted to him and debt forgiven and I think all in all we only ended up needing to pay about $3,000 or so for the whole event. We were very lucky and are very grateful of that fact!
He did the follow ups with the cardiologist and was referred to a heart surgery specialist. As it turns out Todd is a unique specimen and actually had a third main artery. An anomaly that is very rare and one that contributed to the fact that he lived through such significant heart blockage. The original second artery had completely shut down and to most looked like a shadow when in fact it was the closed artery! The surgeon sternly advised that Todd schedule a heart bypass sooner then later and preferably while he was feeling well. Get it repaired while you’re healthy and it will all go better!
Well, a little time passed, things that needed taken care of were taken care of so we got married during a small and intimate ceremony at Todd’s parent’s house on 8/28/04. We considered getting married at the ECTA track as that was the basis for our relationship but things worked out better at the family home. I got him onto my medical insurance and we pursued the bypass surgery with the surgeon.
On 7/7/05 Todd went in for his bypass surgery. He ended up with a triple bypass. The surgeon went the extra mile and used one mammary vein and one vein from each arm. It’s a more intense procedure to use the arm veins rather then the traditional leg veins but what he explained is that the mammary and arm veins are more of a high pressure line then the legs. With Todd being so young, 38 when he had the heart attack, 40 for the bypass surgery, it was worth the extra effort as he would be needing this to last many more years then the typical older heart bypass patient.
Well, recovery progressed but was very difficult for Todd. What we also found out, as Todd watched the much older men running circles around him in recovery, is that a younger persons pain receptors are far more vibrant then the older folk so Todd was actually feeling much more pain then the older patients! Once we knew that we understood much better and were able to cope with the slower recovery.
As you can imagine this put a toll on our small business! Thankfully our lone employee John helped us through the tough times. Time passed and we got back to racing but the thoughts of making it out to Bonneville were again a distant dream. More localized financially viable goals were now the focus. We didn’t have a Bonneville ready bike so why go through the expense if you can’t make a serious effort right?! The highs and lows of my quest for 200 mph club entry at the ECTA were in the forefront so the thought of Bonneville was distant.
Well as you can guess, all things that are meant to be when their time comes to be, have a way of presenting themselves and it is our job to recognize this fact and follow what is being laid out in front of us.
That’s how it worked for us. The stars aligned through the grace of many wonderful people and so our trip was planned. In hind sight again, we were grossly under prepared to make that trip in 2003! I think we both would have preferred a more subtle indicator but having the heart attack occur at home and not on our first trip to or on the salt was indeed a blessing.
So there you go the background…
