Heart Attack for the Seemingly Healthy

I'm sorry that it's been several days since my last post. We have had a rough week around our house. My husband had a massive heart attack around 1:00 a.m., Tuesday morning. I would like to share with you the story of a seemingly healthy man's experience with his heart attack.

Over the course of my husband's life, he has suffered with many different medical conditions. He had a severe heart murmur from birth. He has suffered from migraines and sinus headaches. He has suffered from multiple gastro-intestinal issues such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Diverticulitus, to name just a couple. He even had a bout with precancerous cells in his early 20's but he has never had anything that would make you think he was a candidate for a heart attack.

He has been very active and athletic all of his life. He used to ride his bike at least 5 miles a day. At least once a week during the summer, he would take a 13 mile bike trip to a friend's camp. He would water ski and then ride the return 13 mile trip back home.

He participated in a competitive marching band, playing the tuba. For anyone that hasn't participated in a competitive marching band, we are talking about long hours of practice; both music and marching while carrying a tuba. He also marched in Drum and Bugle Corps during the summer which makes even the hardest high school marching band practice look like a walk in the park. During his time in Drum and Bugle Corp, he would experience episodes where he would have seizures after a performance.

In his early 20's he was on a business trip to Denver. He became very ill and went to the emergency room. When he came back home he took the results of his blood work to his doctor. The doctor told him that he was in great shape for a man in his 80's on life support. That's NOT good news for a 20 year old. He was also told that he had precancerous cells in his body.

After doing some research, he decided the best way to fight his susceptibility to cancer was to become vegetarian...and he didn't mess around with it!

He took a radical approach. He started out by consuming ONLY water for a month. Then he added fruit juices for a few weeks. After the fruit juice he added fresh fruits and finally vegetables. After a couple of years he added small amounts of cheese and egg to his diet. This is the type of diet he lived on for the next 20 years.

Over the past five years he has added some chicken and occasionally fish. About once every two or three months, he might break down and have a steak.

So as you can see, his diet has been a healthy one for over 25 years. He goes to the doctor for his yearly exams and all of his blood work comes back great. He doesn't have high cholesterol. His blood pressure runs right in the middle of the normal ranges. He doesn't have any blood sugar problems. He hasn't exhibited any signs of a heart murmur since his late teens. He doesn't smoke so a heart attack was the last thing we were expecting.

We almost waited to late to get him to the hospital because all of the signs he was presenting were symptoms of other issues he was struggling with. The doctor told us that if we had waited one more hour, they wouldn't have been able to save him.

Tomorrow, I will give you more details of his symptoms and his current prognosis.