Our Big Scare

Well we had a bit of a scare at our house this past week. Wednesday morning John woke up and started having some chest pains that went all the way up his neck into his jaw and to his head. Th episode only last about 3-4 minutes and then he felt fine. I told him we should go to the hospital but he thought it was just anxiety. He ended up having several more of these throughout the day. At around 7pm he had a stronger one and couldn't move so we immediately went to the hospital in Pineville near us where he had another one. They determined, due to abnormal EKG results and a very high enzyme level in his blood, that these were in fact mild heart attacks that he had suffered and that he at least had one artery with more than 80% blockage. He was then transferred to CMC Mercy where they discovered 3 large blockages-2 in the circumflex and one in the right coronary artery (see picture above). They where able to put 3 stents in to repair these. He was very lucky to not have suffered much damage to the heart.
It is so amazing what they can do these days. We were very fortunate to have caught this in time. He is going to have to make a lot of lifestyle changes which he seems to be all for- and I am so thankful for that. He is usually very stubborn about these things but this time he is really taking it seriously and I am supporting him 100%.
He is home now, resting & recovering, and I am thankful for the thoughts and prayers of so many friends that helped us both trough this. The funny thing is my friends kept telling me that I seemed too calm- Well I think that God kept me calm so that I could be strong for John. After I knew everything was going to be ok I did actually lose it completely and bawled for about an hour to release that build up inside of me. It is amazing how someone like me who suffers from panic disorder, can be that strong when I need to be- there is definitely a higher power involved and the power of prayers is definitely effective!!!!