We've sprung this joint!

I called my mom right after they took him in for the angioplasty. She told me "No worries he'll be out in 25 minutes those things go so fast", oh if only. They spent two hours in the cath lab attempting to find and treat his blockage, by far the longest two hours of my life. He told me later that the female doctor (Dr. M) working on him could not find his blockage because it was at the base of the artery. She called in a colleague of hers (Dr. K) to assist, with both of them and lots of blood thinners and contrast medium they were able to clear and stent the blocked area.

Dr. K came out to speak with my mother-in-law and myself. He told us that he indeed had a massive heart attack, one he called a "widow maker" because of the location and extent (100%) of the blockage. He told me JD was a V8 working on 3 cylinders, a fitting metaphor since my husband works on cars for a living, meaning his heart was working at about 35-40% of capacity attempting to pump blood to his whole body. He told me I was very lucky that JD was so young and that he had gotten into the cath lab so quickly because they were able to diagnose and correct the blockage. He told me my husband should be dead. It's always nice to hear from a medical professional that your beloved should be dead. He then said we had a long road of recovery ahead of us. We won't know the full extent of his heart damage until 6 months out.

They put him on an aortic pump to assist his heart in pumping oxygenated blood to the rest of his body and give his muscle wall extra time to heal. To let his cells wake up and get some good blood after being deprived for so long. Upon discharge Dr. K told me he was up to about 4 cylinders with just some leaky valves which is quite a recovery in four days.

The day we left the hospital was a joyous day indeed. Discharge date was May 22nd, 2010, just four days after having a massive myocardial infarction. Two and a half of those days were in intensive care.