Member Profiles
JAMES EILERT
Well here's my story, Last january 2006 i was
on a business trip to a chrysler plant up north of chicago i had given up up my
tough weightlifting due to wreaking my back and was not living very well - lots
of burger king and mountain dew! well anyway i was in my hotel and wok up with
the worst heartburn and a massive pressure in the middle of my chest. I passed
it off a bad reaction to my new bronchitis medication i had just got and ended
up walking around my hotel room for 45 minutes before finally calling the front
desk and asking them to call 911. your probably wondering why i didnt know what
the symptoms were but i was 34 at the time and no family history so i never paid
attention. so the paramedics filled me with aspiring and nitro (they knew even
though the whole ride i argued with them about it!) it never even hit home with
me until the 2nd ekg was taken and the doctor said "i think you ARE having a
heart attack" as soon as he said that the team went into high gear, one nurse
had the iv in me and was giving me the initial knockout stuff, one was pulling
me pants off, and the other had the papers for me to sign during this time the
doctor was explaining that i had a 10 percent chance of dying on the table.
which was the last thing i remember before waking up in the icu. it turns out i
had a 100 percent occlusion of the left coronary artery (often called the
widowmaker) and 50 percent of left ventricle was not moving. my ef was between
20 and 30 percent. my cholesterol was 231 15 hdl, 151 ldl, and 301 tri. after
thinking i was basically going to be daed in the next few years i decided to
change things and try and prove my doctors wrong as much as possible. at therapy
i decided to get as fit as possible. so to that end i kept my heart rate at 150
beats a minute and tried to maintasin that for at least 40 minutes. first by
walking fast uphill and couple of months later i was running 2 miles, riding at
least 5 miles on the bike with high resistance and feeling great. in less than
two months i g!
ot my cholesterol down to 125 25 hdl, 80 ldl, 60 tri (apparently genetically i
cant seem to keep good cholesterol) by 6 months after my heart attack i had lost
90 lbs, got my resting heart rate from 110bbm to 60bpm and my ef up to a solid
38 percent. they were unable to cause a vt or vfib with the electrical testing
so i never needed a defibrillator installed (thank god!). within a year after
the heart attack i no longer have any massive angina attacks and am hoping with
my next muga scan coming up that my ef is somewhere in the 40's.
i thought i was out of the woods until last july they confirmed that have had a
partially collapsed lung at least since the heart attack and discovered that i
had a lung cancer called a carcinoid tumor apparently this thing had been slowly
growing in me for 20 years and was never caught it literally filled the space
taken by my right middle lung. luckily due to my heart condition i had the
director of heart and lung transplants do my operation at henry ford in detroit
and thanks to my vigouruos exercise my heart was strong enough to ungo a nasty 6
hour operation where they go in from your side rib cage and take the whole lobe
and the tumor. thank god - not malignant. and i am now back to therapy and
pushing as hard as my body will allow. to do anything i can to maximize my heart
until either the myoblast or stem cell therapy becomes available - i dont care
if i have to go to europe to do this - its better than dying or hoping that
someone else dies so i can get their heart out of it.
what i would like some of you (who have a similar condition as i) to take from
this is that even though it may seem like you cant push yourself or your scared
to do it (so was i) if you can consistantly push your heart rate up to 150 bpm
and your ekg stays stable then keep doing it - your level of fitness will
increase very fast and your resting heart rate will decrease very quickly the
harder you work. If your in a excercise rehab program and they dont push you
very hard get them to increase the levels slowly, you may be supprised how fast
your body adjusts and how much better you'll feel afterward.
Also congrats to those of you who like myself were told they had a very short
lifespan and beat the odds though hard work and dedication its the only way to
keep the beast at bay.
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