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Hello, everyone! My name is John McGrail, I got the opportunity to do episode 400 and today 499-which I think is pretty cool, and I believe that if you’re not learning, you’re not living. Today I’m talking about living with the end in mind.
So, what’s today’s fun fact? Well, today’s episode is more of a friendly public service announcement so these facts aren’t fun, but they’re still unfortunately fact which come to us from the Centers of Disease Control…
- Heart disease is the leading causeof death for both men and women. More than half of the deaths due to heart disease in 2009 were in men.1
- About 610,000 Americansdie from heart disease each year—that’s 1 in every 4 deaths.1
- Coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease, killing about 365,000 peoplein 2014.1
- In the United States, someone has a heart attack every 42 seconds. Each minute, someone in the United States dies from a heart disease-related event.2
- Heart disease costs the United States about $207 billioneach year.1 This total includes the cost of health care services, medications, and lost productivity.
- And not to leave out our favorite Canadian cohost Mark, there are approximately 1.3 million Canadians living with heart disease, with the total population of Canada estimated at 35.8 million.
Well, what would do my heart good is you being a part of the Friday Forum. The Friday Forum is your opportunity to share with me and the rest of the Stuff I Learned Yesterday community. Your Stuff can be anything from five to fifteen minutes and can be in your voice or written. You can add your Stuff to the Friday Forum in several ways—by calling 3048372278 and leaving a voicemail, by going to www.goldenspiralmedia.com/feedback and uploading an audio file, or by using the provided speakpipe widget; or, you can type out an email and send it in that way.
Now, here’s what I learned yesterday:
It was June of 2013. It was one of the most significant months of my entire life because I was connected with my biological mother and father and their amazing families for the first time at the age of 42. As you might guess from the setup of this episode it was also significant for another big reason. The first incident was a strange pain in my chest that lasted for a few seconds but then subsided. I was walking my kids to a neighbor’s pool and because it went away. I resigned the pain to other incidents that I’ve had in my life due to some breathing issues that I’ve dealt with for some time. The second incident was that evening. We were back at home and another of the exact same kind of pain came over me while we were watching a movie. So, my rationalization was breaking down but as it went away in a short time I again dismissed it.
The third incident sealed the deal. It was the next day. I was on the phone because one of my new uncles called to introduce himself and we had a great conversation. I was also outside and bent over picking some weeds while we were talking. Only my (then 12-year-old) daughter was at home because my oldest was away at camp and my bride had our two youngest with her on a quick trip out of town. So, after getting off of the phone I went back inside to check on my daughter and the pain literally brought me to my knees. I was in the middle of walking up our stairs and knew I couldn’t make it all of the way. It still didn’t occur to me that I might be having a heart attack but I knew the time for action had come-and hopefully not gone.
I made two very fast phone calls. The first was to my best buddy and said “I need you to come and take me to the hospital quickly.” Looking back we can debate whether getting an ambulance would have been the better call but I was very aware of what was going on and I got to the point where I could move again mostly normally so I felt justified in getting the much less expensive ride. The second call I made was to my bride. I needed her to know that I was going to the hospital and that our girl would be waiting for her until she could get there. Then, I had one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had as I let my daughter know what was happening, that I would be leaving, but Mommy knew and was on her way home. With tears on her face she bravely nodded and my friend arrived and we were on the way.
You know how most times you go to an ER and have to wait to get seen? Well, that wasn’t the case here. Immediately I was hooked up to all kinds of machinery, blood drawn, oxygen given, nitro glycerin given, and within minutes was told that I had not had a hear attack. I thanked them profusely but also insisted that something was not right. They heard me well and the plan was that I would stay overnight and perform a stress test in the morning and we would take things from there. My bride stayed at home with our three kids because I insisted that there wasn’t anything to do. My friend that brought me is also the worship pastor at our Church so he was used to being with people in the hospital. I appreciated all of the time he spent that evening until I got settled into a room and he went home as well.
The next morning I performed the stress test and while on the treadmill went into v tach, or ventricular tachycardia. V tach is a fast but still regular heart rhythm. If left untreated it can lead to ventricular fibrillation, which is fast and irregular rhythm, and the leading cause of sudden cardiac arrest. What happened next was a defining moment for me. The plan was to place a stent into the affected artery; but, the cardiologist wasn’t sure if he would find other arteries that were blocked and a significant chance was given that we might have to talk about bypass surgery. They would get me prepped for the OR and the procedure would be underway shortly. As I knew my bride was on her way to the hospital, and I had little time to do much of anything, and I didn’t know if she would make it there ahead of me going under, I simply texted “I love you with my all of my broken heart.” I was confident that even if the worst scenario came to be that she would know everything I meant in those few words because of marriage’s strength and time of our being together. I ran through a short list in my mind of anyone that I needed to say something. My son was at Camp and would not know of any of this until afterward. Other than that I felt ok with how things were left with the most important people in my life. I was assured that everything would be fine but this was my first real experience with thinking about leaving things unsaid.
Here’s what I learned:
I have to live with the end in mind. The stent was placed into the left anterior descending artery (grizzly also known as the widowmaker). It was 95% blocked but the good news was that the other arteries showed no signs of damage at all. My cardiologist was amazed and we were both grateful that no bypass procedure would have to be done. What was my biggest question–how had this happened? The classic signs of coronary artery disease were all perfect. I’m not at risk for being overweight, my blood pressure has never been high and I’ve never had a total cholesterol test higher than 150. The culprit was my diabetes. I was six months away from having been diagnosed for 40 years. My eyes and kidneys were in great shape but the disease had finally taken its toll on my heart. I’ve been angry and frustrated that I’ll never fully beat my condition but the question is how do I live with the reality of having no control over something that is fighting my own body internally? It’s a mindset that I have to leave things “finished.” I don’t feel like I have the luxury of letting something go unresolved or not saying what is on my heart. And I don’t suggest you do it either. I know we’ve all heard the message before -live like it’s your last day- and I also know that when I had to face that potential moment thankfully I felt pretty prepared. Here’s what I want you to do. Take a few minutes today and call, text, email, whatever your preferred way is and let those most important to you know how you feel, what they mean to you, so that if your unexpected comes up you’re a little more prepared. There’s no better time than right now.
I’m John McGrail, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
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