Around 1:30am Pam and I were still reading in bed. I felt a lot of pain in my chest and started sweating profusely. We eventually decided that we should go to the hospital.

As soon as I was put in an examination room Emily hooked me up to an EKG, took some readings, grabbed the printout from the EKG, and left the room. A few seconds later, 4 or 5 doctors and nurses came in and started setting up equipment and sticking things in and on me. “Can’t talk now. Saving.”

Somewhere in all this, someone explained to Pam that I was having a heart attack.
Chuck explained that they might need to make an incision in my groin area for the surgery so he’d need to shave there. I said “Wow. Didn’t even buy me dinner.” At least I wouldn’t be surprised when he started pulling my pants down.

In the midst of this excitement, I started feeling very wrong again. I was sweating, the pain in my chest was joined by pain in both carotid arteries in my neck, and I felt like I was about to pass out. I told folks this as I experienced these symptoms. Then I felt someone shaking me and saying “Steve! Are you back?” I was out for about 10 seconds. They later called this an “episode”.

I was packed off to surgery so that they could use a catheter to install a couple of stents to clear up the arterial blockages. I was conscious but dopey from the sedatives throughout the procedure.

By 4:00am I was listening to the cardiologist tell me about the blockages that caused the heart attack and what he’d done to fix it.  He also told me that the signs were good that I’d make a full recovery. I should be out of the hospital in the next day or so and back to work in a week or two.

We’ll see.