The story so far...what I missed pt. 1

I was asleep. There was nothing but my nightmares and hallucination. I had arrived at Huntington Memorial Hospital. Both the paramedic and the attending physicians were perplexed. My drug screen and blood screen came up negative, but my EKG was positive. Positive for a massive heart attack - at the age of 34. What I don't remember is that the EKG was done in my bedroom and THAT is when they took me to the hospital. The CT scan showed a complete blockage in th eleft ventricular artery and the on-call cardiologist decided to attempt an emergency bypass surgery. They removed a large piece of artery from my right left, opened me up and found ... a heart too damaged for the bypass to be successful. Apparrently this was not my first heart attack. At this point, the calvary was called in. In was determined that the only thing that would ultimately save my life would be a heart transplants. My old heart was still beating, functioning at about 10% capacity. It needed help. Help came in the form of a Left Ventriclular Assist Device of LVAD. Go here to find out more about my particular device.

The story so far...what I remember.

On July 29th, 2008, I was 34 years old. I was an active mountain biker, going for long rides at least twice a week. Playing at, and trying to get back to being a strong rock climber. I had a job as geologist that afforded me opportunities to travel and work outside. While certainly no where near an alcoholic I was certainly on the road to being an oenophile, and along with that I'd developed an appreciation for fine dining. I ran a few miles a couple times a week, and visited an excellent personal trainer at least once a week. I had a wonderful girlfriend and slowly expanding circle of friends. I was very happy with my life, despite the fact that gas was around $4.50 a gallon.

On the night of July 30th, all of the changed. I'd went on super fun bike ride with my friends Nick and Matt and just finished dinner at Nick's house. I had to leave the dinner table because I wasn't feeling well. What followed was 2 hours of excruciating chest pain. Two hours where I desperately tried to simultaneously will the pain away and ignore the radiating pain down my left arm. Finally after making back to our house, I agreed to let Wendy call an ambulance. The EMTs gave me oxygen and determined after only a couple minutes that I needed to go the hospital. I remember the ride in the ambulance, the EMTs giving me aspirin and nitroglycerin (definitely not a good sign). I remember arriving at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. I remember being wheeled into the ER. Here is where my world went black. But not really black. What followed was an endless stream of nightmares. Bad dreams that I never thought would end. I can't and won't go into these here, unfortunately they are mine to keep. This is the beginning of the fight of and for my life. A fight I've won, so far, and one that has been by far, the hardest thing I have ever done.