LOREN WISEMAN UPDATE
TAKEN FROM SJG PAGE
Recent Events
I recently underwent a quadruple bypass operation. I hope the medical professionals among you will forgive me if I bowdlerize a few things as I report on this event for the readers, who I am sure will be interested. I apologize that there are no articles for this issue, but I am still considerably under the weather, and it took me several days to put this short account together.
SUNDAY (1 August)
On Sunday August 1st, I was feeling a little tired and decided not to do my usual Sunday afternoon shopping trip and to postpone my laundry expedition until the next day. I decided that I did need to take out the trash (collection day is Mondays), so I loaded up the bin and wheeled it to the curb.
I dropped it off and had turned to walk back to my apartment door when my right calf began to tingle. After a step or two, every single muscle in my right calf siezed up, and I could not move my right leg. I took a few feeble hops on my left leg and was rewarded with a sudden wrenching pain in my right calf -- worse than any muscle cramp I've ever felt, and the second worst pain ever. Fortunately, one of my neighbors in the fourplex I live in saw my distress, helped me to my porch, and called 911.
One of the paramedics in the responding ambulance turned out to be my nephew, Galen Wasem, who knew the family medical history and something of my own -- Galen made a joke of the coincidence, saying that if I had wanted to see him at work we could have arranged a ride-along -- I needn't have gone to all this trouble.
He noticed that I was cold and clammy, not hot and sweaty on the 100-degree day, took a blood sugar level and started an EKG. He then declared that he was going to treat the incident as a potential heart attack and I was off to the hospital. I expressed my concern was that the leg pain was a DVT (deep vein thrombosis), which can cause a heart attack, stroke, or pulmonary embolism, and Galen acknowledged that might be true, but insisted that my EKG showed problems as well, and that had to remain his main concern.
The ER doctors said he had made the right decision, ordered a series of tests (mostly for my heart, but they did do an ultrasound of my right leg (which eliminated the DVT possibility). Still, my only pain was in my leg, and I felt nothing out of the ordinary in my chest. I was placed under observation and underwent a series of tests. I began receiving the first of a series of calls from friends and family, which I will not cover in detail.
MONDAY (2 August)
The next day (Monday), it was decided to do a catheterization exam, a stress test, and some other procedures. The calf had recovered almost completely-- stiff, no pain , but my blood pressure and glucose levels were very high. My blood work further showed that I had indeed suffered a heart attack and the treadmill and other tests gave the doctors the information they needed for a diagnosis. Diabetes had caused poor circulation in my legs, triggering a cramp. It and high blood pressure masked the crushing chest pain typical of a heart attack, which was why I had felt nothing. I spent Monday recovering from the cath procedure. Last time I had to spend 8 hours flat on my back with a 40-pound sandbag on my hip -- things have improved: no sandbag, and only 6 hours with one leg immobile.
TUESDAY (3 August)
The cardiac surgeon who talked to me said there were several variables, but that he thought there was a good chance that the damage to my heart muscle
