Something new

Well, as some of my church friends know, I had to go back into the hospital. I was at my computer, and I had a heart attack. I called 911, and then called my wife. This was the most exquisite pain I have ever had. I had a double heart bypass at 45-years of age. They cracked my chest open. I spent around 6 days in ICU and 5 or so days in a regular room. The pain from the ribspreader is something else. Getting the chesttubes out was one of the most painful things as well as the urinary catheter. A person also gets VERY close to the Lord during this time. The pain killers that they used were powerful; and also gave a person the most elaborate hallucinations! I am getting stronger everyday, as I am trying to get out to walk as much as I can.

ErikC

My stay in the hospital

As some of y'all may already know, I was in the hospital. It was no piddly little stay. On Thursday I was picking up my wife from work and I told her that I didn't feel right. She said that we would go home and that if I still didn't feel good we would go to the ER. She took a bath, and I told her that we really had to go to the ER. When we got there, we told the doctor there everything that I was feeling(chest pain, pain radiating down both arms, shortness of breath, etc.). He decided to keep me over for observation. The cardiologist saw me, and initially said that my symptoms were atypical of heart problems. He decided to run some tests just to be sure. He had me do a stress test. He did NOT like what he saw. He also did an ultrasound of my heart, and that was inconclusive. He said that he really needed to do a heart catherization. This would be definitive. The procedure would probably take 30 minutes if nothing was wrong....... well, my procedure took 2 and a half hours!!!!!! I had three blockages.... one that was almost totally blocked(which they put a stent in), and two others(which they did angioplasties on), which were 90% and 80% blocked respectively.

Now that I've told you about the nuts-and-bolts of the situation, I want to say that I felt God's presence through the procedure. God made sure that I was awake; they tried to sedate me, but it didn't work. The only pain I felt is when they put pressure on my groin(where they inserted the wires). The scripture that comes to mind about God's presence comes from the Psalms.

Psalms 91:1- "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

This psalm has become so real to me now. There is no place that I want to be than in God's presence. I would want to implore everybody to do the same.

Erik