Mac's Heart Attack, Surgery, and where to get reliable info re your own condition.

On friday the 7th of March 2003, I had dropped my wife off at work, and returned home to prepare for my trip to the Mt. Gravatt campus of Griffith University. (Yes, I was back lecturing on a part time basis). I had noticed what I thought was a bad "gas attack" and decided I'd walk around a bit and shake it off as it were. Well, that just didn't happen. No matter what I did it seemed to get worse.

I then thought, Ok, don't do something entirely stupid here, get to the doctor. And, I drove there (not stupid?? Moi?? Nahh.. course not *shakes head*), walked in, and the receptionists looked at me and said "Mac, Sit Down!!" I said "umm... can I see George (still my G.P.)? I don't feel too good" and again they said even louder "Mac. Sit DOWN!!!" I did, and, to make a long story short, the ambulance arrived within 5 minutes and I was on the way to the hospital. Once there they did x-rays, angiotraces, etc, and had made arrangements to take me across the street to the private hospital to be booked in.

After running more x-rays, more angiotraces, more blood tests, my wife and daughter arrived. The hospital doctors came up and said "You've just had a rather massive heart attack. The problem is you will have another one shortly and to prevent it you need heart bypass surgery. In fact, you may well need up to 4 arteries replaced. We won't know until we get in there, but the operation will cost about $25,000 Australian. Do you have health insurance?"

Well, both of us almost fainted. All those with a spare $25,000 hold up your hands.... Well, we thankfully do have medical insurance and we called them to make sure we were covered. They said "No problem. This is a new condition, not an existing one, so you're covered". So, when we both could breathe again we said "Okay, covered. Tomorrow??" They said "No problem - 7:00am"

At 6:00am the following morning the Anaesthetist came in and gave me a premed injection. The next thing I really remember was waking up on Wednesday evening at about 6:30pm - I remember waking up but not much else - Then finally waking up the next day in the normal ward in a private room.. with lots of drains, holes, staples (yup, think of stapling something to the wall and you have it... they came out during my first week back home - not a fun time) two long gashes - one down the middle of my chest, and one on my left leg, then a smaller one on my left leg as well.

Anyway, yes, I was finally home again, hurting but doing okay, exercise program for the next 6 weeks in hand (get this - within 6 weeks they said I'd be walking a kilometer (5/8ths of a mile) a day - yeah, right..lol.. Ohh, I did it okay, you all know that in one way or another I'm a fighter.. always have been.

Now, the most amazing news of all? I've had my last cig. Yes, after 46 years of smoking a pack of non-filter Camels a day, I'm finished. It's funny, but I think that a quadruple bypass operation is God's way of telling you you're doing something wrong... and DAMN - does He hit hard.... :-)

Well, again dear friends, thank you for your kind encouragement and good wishes.

Another interesting thing that happened was that I finally understood, due to the good description of a diabetic specialist, what influence my smoking had on this problem. Let me explain it as he explained it to me. Think of the surgeon as the plumber (and your other specialist as the chemist). Now, compare your vascular system to a pipe system in your home carrying water for your use. You know as well as I that various "silt" material drops out of the water and builds up in the pipes. Let it go long enough and it can block the flow of water. Still with me?

Now the good bit. I know that if you are a smoker like I was (a pack a day of non-filter Camels for over 46 years) everyone and their gramdmother tried to get you to quit. But, for many it's just too stressful and no real reason has been shown to do so. Well, here is the ONLY thing the studies to date have ever proved. Remember the silt in the pipes - and compare that to impurities dropping out of your blood system into your arteries - those who smoke run a 4 to 10 times greater risk of buildup of that silt, and thus - Heart Attack and Stroke and the need for replacement of the arteries to and from the heart.

Read that again. The ONLY thing any of the smoking studies can "prove" is that if you don't smoke the chance is even - one on one. If you do, the risk is increased from four to one to a possible ten to one. Like those odds? Like I said, I've had my last smoke.

Please understand - I am NOT going to be a born again non-smoker, browbeating people who do. I may give them this information but the decision to continue or not to do so is theirs (and/or yours) to make. Good luck with your choices. I've made mine.

Below are hopefully some useful links for you to find out more about heart disease in general and what you can or can't do about it. Thank you for visiting and please do come back again. :-)

First of all I want to acknowledge the finest Cardiothorasic Surgeon I could have had. He is young, brilliant, talks in english rather than medical terminology so you understand everything, is approachable, kind, and saved my life. Yup, it's that simple - the man saved my life. Please have a look at John Ichsan Tan's site. It will give you a small insight into the man himself. I and my family are truly grateful for your work John. You are, without doubt, the best there is.

The Information on Cardiac (Heart) problems I have found that you may find interesting and useful

The Cardiac friendly recipe sites I've found so far.

Oh great sez his wife - MORE RECIPES TO MAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

I know that, on these pages, you may find links that no longer work. The net changes daily and some links simply disappear. However I would like to hear from you if you encounter any that don't work so I can delete them from the list. Contact me with your ideas and thoughts (constructive only please) or new sites you feel I should add to these pages.

You can choose to search The Net or My Site via Google based on the "Family Friendly" content found on my site from here. The balloons show sites close to the content of my site.

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