About Me (& my heart)

What about me? Ok, in no particular order..

I am a...  Christian, husband, father, doctor, son, friend, walker, runner, swimmer, cyclist, heart patient, clydesdale, tweeter, and now.. blogger.

I know what day I was supposed to have died: February 22, 2006.
Why didn't I? 12 hours of emergency open heart surgery, 19 minutes on the "pump" (bypass at a chilly 22-degrees body temp),10 units of blood, my wife's strength, lots of prayers, and God's grace. Since that day, I went back to more-than-full-time work after only 7-weeks recovery. I was blessed with an awesome new baby (#3), got another chance at my "perfect" job, and picked up my family and moved (again). Every day since that day has been a wonderful gift from God (and every day up to then also!).

Before this date, I was presumably "healthy" with the exception of being a bit overweight. Sadly, even after this humbling ordeal, I not only stayed overweight, but actually got heavier! A tiny part of this was the severe activity restrictions and some of my medications. But, mostly, it was work, family, stress, sedentary life and dismal eating. I was my own worst enemy. In the blink of an eye, I was 260lbs, sluggish, headaches, with daily pains in my feet and lower back. In the initial years after my heart surgery, my cardiologists advised extreme caution in my exercise, and pretty much approved just walking. He showed me this table, and approved anything in the upper left corner and a few things across the first row. Archery? Golf? Bowling? Are you kidding me?

Watching my wife train for marathons has been a daily inspiration to me. Helping and watching her at this year's 2010 Los Angeles Marathon, I saw so many inspiring stories and athletes. I remember how after our third child was born.. three kids born pretty much within 4-5 years, she said she could not even walk fast. She just walked slowly pushing a double-stroller, and trotted or jogged across intersections only. Then soon, she would do short sprints across the intersection. That's how she started her road back to fitness. Now, she's trying (& close) to qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I am so proud of her!

I said "how cool would it be if we both did the LA Marathon next year (2011)?"

So after the LA Marathon, I started walking and watching what I eat (sometimes).

The rest of the story is a work in progress...



Some questions several people and patients have asked me about my journey so far..

Q:   Did you have a heart attack? You seem so young to have had a heart attack?
A:   No, I did not have a myocardial infarction (aka.. MI, heart attack, the "big one", etc). I had a "dissecting ascending aortic aneurysm". Which is basically a splitting and ballooning out of the aorta. The aorta is the main blood vessel exiting the heart before it branches and supplies everything else. Think of it as a split in a tire that starts ballooning out until it ruptures. If it does, death is certain, as in what happened to actor/comedian, John Ritter. Wikipedia also has a good description of "aortic dissection". My actual heart, and the smaller arteries that supply oxygenated blood to the heart muscle, (called "coronary arteries") are to my knowledge ok. They probably have some mild early atherosclerosis from too many pizzas and cheeseburgers.. but I'm working on that. So now, the main trunk exiting my heart (the ascending aorta root) is replaced with a synthetic Dacron tube replacement, sort of like felt material. There is a main exit valve, like a 1-way door, called the aortic valve. That was blown out and dilated, so it was replaced with a mechanical aortic valve. Yes, it clicks. Yes, I can hear it sometimes at night. Because my aortic valve is mechanical, I need to take a blood thinner everyday, called coumadin.

Q:   Does your cardiologist know/approve of you running marathons, or training for a triathlon?
A:   Well, there was somewhat of a gap in my cardiologist coverage when I switched jobs. Plus, I made a deliberate personal decision based on the following reasoning:
(1) there is probably a very small, but real, risk of sudden death or something bad happening while I am exercising or training, or during a race. However, more importantly,
(2) if I did not do something about my weight and my unhealthy life, there was a very significant and large risk of early death and leaving my young children without a father.

Choice seemed clear to me.

I did not initially tell my current cardiologist, because I figured "hey, I'm just walking, right?". By the time of my first half-marathon (5 months later), I had lost about 20 lbs and had already (on my own) cut down my beta-blocker blood pressure medications by half. By that time, people were noticing my weight loss, and my improved health, energy, and attitude. My cardiologist asked what I was doing, and I told him I'm training for a marathon and triathlon. What was he going to say now?
(By the way, NONE of this is good advice! Please DO NOT do ANY of this, without speaking with your own doctor. Do as I say, not as I do!)

Q:  Did you "die" when you were on the heart pump (bypass)? Did you see light or anything?
A:  Sorry, no. Nothing so Hollywood dramatic. To do what they needed to do to fix my heart, the cardiothoracic surgeons had to act quickly. To buy them more crucial minutes, they cool my body down to 22-degrees and put me on bypass for 19-minutes. During this time, a machine was doing the work of my heart circulating blood to the rest of my body. Many people think that since during this 19-minute period my heart was "stopped", that it means I was "dead", and brought back to life later. No.. only one man I know of had that experience, and I'm not that man. I did not see any lights or any weird experiences or UFOs. I pretty much remember everything that happened before I went under anesthesia (vividly). I woke up 2 days later and asked for a diet coke.