two year stent-iversary!

It's been two years since my stent was placed.  Only 35 more years to go (although no one seems to know or want to say what the mortality is for a 38 year old with a stent).  What will I be doing for the next 35 years?  If the last two years are any indication, I'll be doing a lot of running:

In the past two years, I've run the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot 5k twice (2010: 23:09, 2011: 22:46), the Big House, Big Heart 10k twice (2010: 47:41, 2011: 44:10) and the Dexter-Ann Arbor Half-Marathon (2011: 1:51:40).  I've run over 1,700 miles (2010: 655 miles, 2011: 1050 miles), burned over 200,000 calories, and lost 35 pounds.

Why would anyone do that?

I've seen my daughter's 3rd and 4th birthdays, three Christmases, her swimming, tennis, and soccer lessons, and spent millions of valuable minutes with her.

I've celebrated my 12th and 13th wedding anniversaries with my wife, and travelled with her to Japan and Croatia and Las Vegas, NV, Marquette and Petoskey, MI and spent millions of valuable minutes with her.

I've spent countless hours with friends, most of them were either running or drinking or with cameras in our hands.  I've turned two of them into runners (and they've lost a combined 100 pounds) and helped return one to running, so the health effects spread.

That's why someone might run 1,700 miles.

Happy second stent-iversary to me, happy second stent-iversary to me, happy second stent-iversary to me, happy second stent-iversary to me.  


And thanks for all the help - you know who you are.

... just like Bill Clinton.

That's my new line.

When someone asks about it, I can say it's the same thing Bill Clinton had done.  So anyone watching CNN (here or here), reading Newsweek, or the New York Times will know.

I, not being a former President, did not get two stents.  I only got one.

Also, I am not 63, I'm 38.

Nor did I ever have any, much less quadruple, by-pass surgery.  So there's that.

The idea is the same, but I wouldn't have minded waiting a few more years.  Like until I was 63.  That would have been 25 more years of eating cheese.  Dammit.

I wonder if the ex-President got a copy of his imaging so he, too, has a picture of his ribs and heart and the catheter.  I did.  So there.

I now return you to our regularly scheduled rambling.  Thanks for reading.

medicine

Other than a brief run of Prilosec (a freaking miracle drug, as far as I'm concerned) more than a decade ago, I've never taken any medicine regularly.

Now:

• Lipitor, forever.  Keeps the cholesterol down.
• Baby aspirin, forever.  Yeah, it's not recommended any more- unless your doctor says it is.  Mine does.
• Metoprolol, for 3 months, or forever, depending on who you talk to.  Blocks the Betas, keeps the heart rate down, and generally mellows me out.  I don't know why exactly this is needed, but in this case, I'm doing what I'm told.  Transient effects include dizziness, lightheadedness, drowsiness, tiredness, and unusual dreams. It may also reduce blood flow to the hands and feet, causing them to feel numb and cold.  Word.
• Plavix, for a year.  Reduces blood clotting.  Apparently, clotting off that stent is Bad.  This works to prevent that.  Also, adverse effects include hemorrhage.
• Omega-3 capsules, 2 a day for the "slippery fats" to keep the blood moving.
• A daily multi-vitamin, mostly for the Vitamin D.  400 IUs. 

The bad part: That's quite a change, going from zero medicine to 7 pills per day.  Most of the change is in my routine - don't forget to take the medicine.  Various doctors, physician assistants, etc. have said (and this is a very, very light paraphrasing) "If you stop taking the Plavix, you will die".  So that's some sort of motivation.

The OK part: As far as I've noticed, I've suffered no side effects.  All that stuff you hear on the TV ads - not for me, at least not in the first month or so.  So, yay.  Except for the lightheadedness from the metoprolol, but even that is getting better.

Thanks for reading.  Next week: food.  Maybe. 

my first month

The first month wasn't so bad.  I didn't die. I didn't forget any medication, although came close a few times.  I lost some weight.  I ate pretty well and didn't starve to death, although it felt like I would a few times.

But let me catch you up.

In the middle of November I was in Portland for work, and went for a run - an easy run, but it was 5 or 6 miles - and held a conversation the whole time.  Not bad. On Thanksgiving I went for another run - a 5k Turkey Trot, and it was not easy.  It was hard, and it hurt.  It was a long 31 minutes.  But it was a cold and rainy day, so that's probably why.

As November closed itself, and December spun by, I was running more and more slowly and with more and more chest pain, but only when I ran.  CuteDoc, my wife, thought maybe it was a cold or a pulled muscle.  I went with that.

By the end of December I decided to go to the Doctor.  He said they take chest pain seriously.  A week later - the Monday after Christmas - I had a stress test - that was pretty much fun.  I got my radiation injections, got wired up to a zillion leads, did some light exercise on their nice treadmill, and laid still for a while (which I'm particularly good at) while the single photos were emitted (it was a SPECT study).

That study wasn't good.  My left anterior descending (LAD) artery (one of the arteries delivering blood to my heart) was blocked.  My heart was starving for blood.  Also, I wasn't allowed to go home, and because it was near the holidays, the cafe was closed, so I was also starving for a bagel.

Very quickly, I had my upper legs shaved.  Not long after that, I was once again laying quite still (years of practice paying off twice in one day!) and a nice cardiologist had a wire in my femoral artery that was on its way to my heart.  A few more healthy doses of radiation, and he found that the LAD was about 90% blocked.  That seemed not that great, but then I thought about it more, and it was worse: 10% more and that means a heart attack.  Happily, an angioplasty made it bigger, and a stent was put there to keep it open.

To keep the stent from clotting off (there's that heart attack again) I had a lot of anti-coagulants in me, which means that hole in my femoral artery was not going to close easily.  Six more hours of laying still (38 years of practice, paying off three times in one day - the trifecta!) so I didn't bleed to death out of my leg.

At midnight on Monday I had to get up and walk.  Four laps around the hospital floor.  I felt a lot better.  Really.  Like everything was working.  Weird.  And there was never any pain during all of that.  None.  Not before, during, or after.  Modern medicine and skilled doctors, nurses, and techs.  Wow.  Thanks everyone.

So far, I've lived a month with the stent.  No running allowed, just walking at 3.5mph or less.  A lot less crappy food (which is a bummer, crappy food tastes good). 

What does a 38-year-old with a stent do?  Blogs about it.  Also, uses the phrase "serious as a heart-attack" a lot more than ever before, because it's a lot more funny than it was in the '80s.

I'll try to write about my on-going diet modification, weight loss, use of the modern American health care system, and trying to keep my heart (and my stomach) from starving.  Thanks for reading, and welcome.