Member Profiles
CJ RICH
am a 43 year old male, never been
overweight and have always been active with sports. I'd been a longtime smoker
till recently. Three years ago I began having pains in my chest which worried me
enough that I went to ER. I was given an EKG, stress test and an echocardiogram,
all of which were normal. They told I me I was probably experiencing muscle pain
from cleaning our newly installed pool. Fast forward to late July of this year.
While in the pool with our dog I got what seemed to be the worst case of
heartburn I'd ever experienced. It persisted for awhile, so I went to the
pharmacy looking for stomach relief. I bought some pepsid complete and all trace
of heartburn disappeared. The next day at work I again got the same heartburn,
only this time I became lightheaded and sweaty and thought I was going to
passout (I probably did). I went to my boss who called an ambulance immediately.
They got there quickly, but by that time I felt better. My boss gave me a ride
to hospital anyway to be on the safe side. Once there they immediately gave me
an EKG which they said was abnormal (inverse T waves). I stayed there the whole
day, was given two blood tests and a stress test and sent home and told to get a
family doctor (I didn't have one). I seen two GP's after that who both gave me
something for my stomach (pantoloc and nexium). Neither drug helped much. Three
weeks later I again fainted at work with the same symptoms. I seen another GP
who sent me home with a holter monitor for 48 hrs. On review of the holter
report, the cardiologist determined that I'd had 24 beats of ventricular
tachycardia and told me to go right to hospital. I spent three or four hours
there and was told that there was a mistake, they believed I had SVT, not VT and
I was okay to go home and back to work. After the labour day weekend I called my
boss and told him I had clearance to return to work as soon as I could see the
company doctor. Later that day I received a call from the cardiologist who
reviewed my holter report and told me she'd heard that I was released from
hospital and was livid. She'd made arrangements for me at another hospital and
told to get there and not to drive. I was admitted and had a heart cath,
angioplasty and two stents put in my right coronary artery. I still feel like
it's a bad dream...but I'm grateful to the cardiologist that went the extra
mile.....thanks to her I'm alive to type this letter. P.S ...my EKG has returned
to normal.
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