TLDR; I had another heart attack. They put in a couple of stents. I’m much better now.

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For the past few weeks, I’d been getting some nasty heartburn after dinner. Usually, some Pepto Bsmol would shut it up. On Wednesday night, the Pepto didn’t help, and the pain got worse, reminding me of an actual heart attack that I’d had in 2016.

In 2016, I was told, in no uncertain terms, that you always take an ambulance if you’re having a heart attack. I called 911 and they sent over an ambulance and a firetruck because that’s what they do. The EMTs took me to a cardiac hospital.

Folks weren’t positive that I’d had a heart attack. The EKG didn’t show anything conclusive. Since I’d had a heart attack before, they decided to look for enzymes. Apparently, if you have a heart attack, specific enzymes are released over the next few hours. The plan was to keep checking my blood every few hours to see of the enzymes showed up.

By about 10:00am, they’d seen that my heart attack enzymes were rising and brought in a cardiologist.

The cardiologist came in just after lunch. He said that I needed a catheterization. This is where they shove a probe into your artery to look around to see if your ticker is blocked. The same probe can also install stents to unblock your heart.

Then he said that since I’d just eaten, I’d have to wait for another day. Then I mentioned that the pain was coming back. The cardiologist relented and put me on that day’s schedule.

The procedure was like others that I’d had. I was sedated but awake.The drugs affected my vision so that it looked like there were prisms around my peripheral vision. “Dude! The colors man!”

I was feeling better as soon as they wrapped up. It took another 24 hours for the sedation to leave me alone.

I was discharged just after 1:00pm the following day. The discharge notes say to lay low for a few days, fill a new batch of prescriptions, and schedule some cardiac rehab.

I return to work on Monday.