OpEd in MetroWest Daily NewS, December 8, 2013.
NO LONGER ON LINE, SO HERE IT IS
Listen to your Body … Please 911 words
Martin G Evans
I didn't.
I first felt mild chest pains when walking in the old square
in Wroclaw, Poland. It was an August afternoon after my lunchtime nap On this walk, my aim was to go through the
square and under the highway to see and take some photographs of the Renoma art
deco shopping center which was about 15 minutes away. By the time I had walked
for five minutes from the hotel to the post office on the South East corner of
the square I was experiencing some chest pains. Oh, I thought, it's that food
and beer I had had for lunch –
attributing, incorrectly, the cause to indigestion.
This seemed to me to be the issue because we had had a
strenuous, at least compared to my typical sedentary life, two weeks in central
Europe during which I had no problems at all despite long walks in Budapest,
Krakow, and Wroclaw.
I sat down and rested and ,after a while,the pains went away.
I continued my walk going through the underpass under the main road that
circles Wroclaw old town. I got to the department store complex and some slight
pain returned. I rested, took my photographs, and then returned to the square
for an afternoon snack and then the hotel.
During this time I experienced some discomfort but was able to complete
my self-imposed assignments
The next day, the same thing happened at the same time. The
morning walking around went without any problem. But after lunch and a nap and
soon after I sallied forth for some more photographing: this time another
art-deco building. As soon as I had
crossed the square, I began to have chest pains. These behaved the same way as
their predecessors, easing when I rested and returning as I continued to walk.
That evening, I casually mentioned that I thought I had some
heartburn with all this heavy Polish food..
The next two days were symptom free. On the first, we had a
road trip to Dresden so most of the day was being chauffeured around with only
a couple of hour of walking. I had no problems at all. The following day we
left for Boston. In the morning we walked round the old town for the last time.
In the morning, the distance walked that would have triggered chest pains on
previous days left me untroubled. The
heavy lifting of luggage at the airports and the heavier lifting of our duty
free purchases had no impact on my activity, neither did the six hour flight. I
got home without incident.
The next day, Sunday, we then loaded the car for our trip to
the my wife's family cottage in central New Hampshire. We arrived at Alton soon
after noon. Our daughter and her children were delighted to see us. We took the new kayak out of its chrysalis;
loaded it on top of the car; drove down to the beach; unloaded the kayak. All
without any problem.
It was later at the beach that I had my next and most severe
chest pains. I started to swim out to the raft, about half way out, I
experienced severe chest pains and, if my memory serves, I think they spread to
my shoulders. I managed to get to the raft and hung on for a while. I rested. I
then started to swim back. Several times I tried to stand so as to rest my
arms; but the water was too deep until I had gone a good way to the shore.
Stupidly, I did not think of turning on my lack to propel myself with leg
kicks. Accordingly I made my painful way to land using my arms. I was worried
that I might have had more difficulty but there were lots of people around who
could have helped me.
I didn't mention the pains to my wife. That is one of my big
regrets. I should have told her. She had a right to know. These pains were an
important signal; but I did say that last summer I could swim to the raft and
then swim some more parallel to the shore and that I couldn't do it this time.
On Monday in the afternoon I had to go down to the crawl
space under the cottage and was crawling around in pretty unusual kind of
position; again I felt some pains in my chest. That night at dinner, after the
main course was over and the kids had vanished somewhere, I allowed that maybe
I had a touch of angina and explained when I had experienced it. Before I could
finish speaking, my daughter, an ER physician, had packed me into the car and
was driving us to the local hospital in Wolfeboro.
There, after many tests, the medics found out that I had
cardiac problems. This was a complete surprise to me as I have had low levels
of bad cholesterol all my life and even though both parents had, had heart
problems, I thought that their influence on my health would work through the
cholesterol level and not through other genetic routes.
I was transferred to the Catholic Medical Center in
Manchester for surgery.. They found several blocked arteries. They put a stent
in one and since that time I have felt quite well; though, of course, I have
changed my eating and exercise habits. Thanks to Medicare, my out of pocket
costs have been minimal.
My lessons:
•
Listen to your body.
•
Act on its messages immediately. I know now that
I should have done that in Poland, but I find the idea of being in a hospital
where I don't understand one word of the language absolutely terrifying.
•
Tell people about what is going on clearly and
precisely – especially your loved ones.
