SO, this blog is a diary of my recovery from a severe heart attack on Nov. 22, 2015.
I am very late in getting the first post out. I hope you will forgive me the delay given that we have over 45 weeks of this left before next Thanksgiving.

To be a true diary, we need to start at the beginning. I will catch up and be discussing my present day condition soon, but for now, let's review.

Sunday, Nov. 22 - 7:30am
Headed to the store for milk, I felt some heartburn. Yep, heartburn JUST like I have felt a thousand times before. Get to store, get milk, get home...get nauseous.

Okay, I should have KNOWN then and said something, but I am a bit stubborn.
(Now all of my close friends are going, "Noooooooooo, YOU?!?")

Within10 minutes, my angel, my wife (yes, one and the same) was calling 911 to report her husband's heart attack.

In come the EMTs 4 minutes later.

In minutes, I am walking to the gurney and in the ambulance. I mention that I walked there because of what happens next....1/2 way to the hospital, I coded. That means my heart stopped beating. For 2 minutes, I pretended I was a Resuscitation Annie doll letting the EMTs practice their CPR skills on me. After that and a shock from the defibrillator, I was back. Those EMT's did such a GREAT job that I was awake and aware by the time we got to the hospital. This is a total of a 10 minute ride.

I remember it all as if it were yesterday, the pain, the fear, and the absolute, ABSOLUTE strength of my wife, Ashley.

To keep this from being too long for day 1, I am going to cut off here and invite you back to see what happened in the ER and the operating room...

I will tell you it included LOTS of people, words like nitroglycerine, and the first outburst of anger from Ashley.

Lesson Learned - If there is ANY concern for a serious health emergency, don't play tough guy. Call and be glad if it is just a false alarm. If I had "toughed it out" they'd have been doing CPR on my front lawn.