“OK Google, heart attack symptoms”

There’s not going to be a lot of tech-related talk in this blog post. Rather, I’m going to share with you the events of a day that changed my life forever. On November 21, 2015, while raking leaves in my back yard, I suffered a massive heart attack.

If that last statement surprised you, imagine how I felt. I am only 45 years old—way too young (in my eyes) to have a heart attack.

My symptoms

I guess what surprised me the most is that when my heart attack started, I didn’t think I was having a heart attack. I felt a pretty significant pain in my chest—like someone was pressing hard on it—but my first thought was that the cold air must really be affecting my lungs.

Believe it or not, I continued to rake leaves. One bag done, two bags done. Only by the time I got to the third bag of leaves did I start to think something was not right.

So I dropped the rake and sat down on the stairs of my deck. That’s when sweat started to pour from my forehead. I had all I could do to stand up, go inside and tear off my jacket and sweatshirt to try and cool down.

I managed to get to the couch and somehow had the mindset to call my wife who was running errands at the time. I don’t remember the entire conversation but I remember saying something to her along the lines of, “I’m not doing well. Get home quick. It’s my chest.”

My wife immediately called my 12-year-old son who was the only other person home with me at the time. She insisted my son be the eyes and ears for her until she got home.

Even in crisis, I turned to “OK Google”

Knowing this was getting serious, I once again turned to my phone and spoke the first set of words that I believe saved my life.

“OK Google, heart attack symptoms.”

Google delivered several search results but, for some reason, I felt compelled to click on the one from the Mayo Clinic.

What I read immediately became a checklist for me. Chest discomfort or pain? Check. Upper body pain? Check. Shortness of breath? Check. Sweating? Check. And just as my eyes got to the heading, “Nausea and vomiting”, I had to run to the bathroom where I dry-heaved over and over again.

At this time, my son came into the bathroom and said to me, “Mom wants to know if she needs to call an ambulance.” I turned to my phone one last time and read this:

Don’t “tough out” heart attack symptoms for more than five minutes. Call 911 or other emergency medical services for help.

“Dad, you haven’t answered Mom. Should she call an ambulance?”

And that’s when I gave up all control, set down my phone and spoke the second set of words that I believe saved my life.

“Yes.”

A surreal experience

Everything after this point was surreal to me. A few minutes later I heard the sirens of the ambulance approaching my house. I heard my wife get home moments before the ambulance arrived. I felt stickers being attached to my chest. I saw a stretcher being wheeled into my house.

A few minutes later, an EMT looked at me and said, “Mr. Welch, you are having a heart attack.”

I remember being wheeled into the ambulance. I remember baby aspirin and nitro sprays. I remember not a one of these things making my chest feel any better.

I remember my shirt being cut off of me and thinking to myself, “Darn, that was one of my favorite shirts.” The shirt was the concept of Internet celebrity, Gary Vaynerchuk, and had “A penguin can’t be a giraffe… so be the best penguin you can be” written on it.

I remember IVs being put in both of my hands. I remember arriving at the hospital and being wheeled into some sort of staging room where they told me I would be going straight to the “cath lab”. I remember something about a shot of morphine.

And then I remember something that has caused me to burst out in tears of emotion every time I think back about it. It was a cardiologist standing next to me holding some sort of scope in his hand. He said to me, “Mr. Welch, we need to insert this scope through your groin up into your heart so we can see what is causing your heart attack and get rid of that pain in your chest. The risks associated with this are bleeding, stroke and even death.”

And then the words etched into my brain forever.

“If we don’t do this, you will die.”

100% blockage

I don’t remember much after that. I’m sure they injected some sort of sleepy, happy medicine into my IV and got busy with their work. My next memory was apparently about 90 minutes later when they wheeled me down a hall and told me to wave to my wife to let her know I was okay. I happily obliged.

It turns out I had 100% blockage in the biggest of 3 arteries in my heart. The cardiologist cleared the blockage and placed a stent in its place which immediately allowed my blood to flow freely again.

Here are before and after pictures of my heart.

Recovery going well

Believe it or not, I am recovering remarkably well. Within a day, I was able to walk around on my own in my hospital room. Sure, there are some issues with my heart that will take time to heal and repair but what else would you expect when a large portion of your heart “gives up” for such a long period of time?

Would you believe I even had my wife bring my iPad to the hospital so I could watch the Wisconsin Badgers football game on the Big Ten Network app and keep myself entertained with Netflix shows? I guess not even a heart attack can take the tech out of me.

I guess my good spirits paid off because I was released from the hospital on Monday—only two days after my heart attack.

11-22-15

I have one more picture to share with you. I took it the morning after my heart attack. It’s right after a nurse walked in and updated the white board in my room.

This is the first time I teared up in my hospital room. Why? Because the nurse wrote “11-22-15” on the white board—a day that on more than one occasion I have been told I am extremely lucky to see.