A Big Scare - Part Three

On October 30, 2006 I'm setting at my computer desk playing some online poker as I do many days when I start having a tightness in my chest. Having suffered two heart attacks prior, it's a feeling I am way to familiar with. Angina is the medical term and when it sets in it scares the hell out of you. With the pain increasing to that place I've been before, my mind starts wondering, why me, can this really be happening again. In hopes I can make the pain go away I start taking nitro pills placing them under my tongue and waiting five minutes to see if the pain subsides. After 20 minutes and 3 nitro pills the tightness had grown to the feeling of an elephant setting on my chest. It's time to dial 911.

If your ever unfortunate enough to experience a heart attack, don't do like I did the first time and drive yourself to the hospital. Call 911, get help Immediately. You really need medical attention within the first 30 minutes of a heart attack in-order to minimize heart damage. The advantage of pre-treatment from the EMT's will greatly increase your chance of survival.

This time around the doctors found 70% blockage in three arteries and I underwent triple by-pass surgery. Obviously all went well as I'm here to share this story with you but the big scare is yet to come. Since I was already in the hospital and I was overdue for a check-up from my oncologist, I requested he be contacted to check me out. His initial review of my blood work was positive and he stopped in to tell me I was still dancing with N.E.D. which was a short lived but welcome relief. The very next day he reappeared at my bedside announcing he had bad news. X-rays had revealed a mass in my lung, as well as a swollen spleen.

What a crushing blow. I was so weak from the surgery and was looking at a 6 to 8 month recuperation period. The question was could I really survive a course of chemotherapy which I knew was the next step in treatment as the cancer had spread. I was scheduled to follow-up and have a port installed in my chest 5 weeks later. Like another hole in my chest is what I needed.

Back at home I was having a difficult time as most open heart surgery patients do. Pain, extreme fatigue and loss of appetite were the order of the day, all the while wondering if I was really going to be able to survive chemo as sick as I was. Three weeks into my home recouperation a slight set back sent me to the heart surgeons office. A stabbing pain in my upper back during deep breath was a symptom of a possible pulmonary embolism. I was sent back to the hospital for a CT scan. I spoke with the radiologist shortly after the scan and was told everything was fine, he saw no blood clots and would send copies of the results to my heart surgeon and oncologist for review.

Two weeks later, still extremely weak, I headed back to the oncology clinic to resume my battle with cancer. After the typical weigh in and pre-exam from a P.A. she discovered the prior CT and told me that it appeared the mass in my lung was shrinking. SAY WHAT! Shortly after the doctor walked in and said I had found a cure for lymphoma and wanted to know how I had managed to shrink this tumor. Apparently the mass was not due my lymphoma but was some how related to my resent surgery. You can not begin to know the relieve I felt when I was told no chemo was in my immediate future and was put back on a watch and wait status.

It's now been close to two months since my surgery and I'm doing great. I'm walking a mile or more every day, my pain is minimal and I feel I'm back to 80% of my previous self. I will head back for another scan in two months but until that time I'm still Dancing with N.E.D.


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