Heart Attack Blessings?

Two days ago I had a heart attack. Last night I got back from the hospital I was rushed to where I had a stent placed in a vein. It’s been a very  (…)  time; I don’t even know what word to use to describe it. But I’m left here realizing what an amazing and loving God we have and how I’ve just survived, utterly by the His grace, an event that kills millions every year. And, strangely, there’s an emerging element of supernatural blessing and divine purpose in what’s happened to me over the last 36 hours.

I was fixing my lunch just after finishing a rather vigorous workout that I do at home. And I began to realize I was having a strange pain in the middle of my chest, unlike any I’d ever had before. I went to look up the symptoms of a heart attack and many of them I didn’t have: pain in my left arm or jaw, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, and others. But there was definitely a discomfort in my chest that didn’t go away.

After some hesitation, I talked to a dear friend who rents me the room in the place where I stay. He was busy but I told him it was an emergency. With difficulty I told him that I thought I was having a heart attack and needed to go to an emergency room. God bless him, he immediately dropped everything and we were off in the car right away.

At the emergency room things really swung into quick action. They did an EKG and the doctor said that I’d had, or was having, a heart attack. All during this time I wasn’t really feeling super bad. They ask me what my pain was on the scale of 1 to 10 and I said about 2 or 3 but that it was more discomfort than really pain. But it certainly was discomfort.

The emergency room people immediately took me in an ambulance to one of the main cardiac hospitals in our small Texas city. I actually was in fairly good spirits and was conversant with people in the ambulance and once I got to the hospital. Admittedly the thought did cross my mind, “Well, am I going to die now? I don’t feel really bad.”

It all was moving very fast. And I knew the reason for this as I’d read in the past how it does really come down to a matter of time in these situations. During this time one super busy nurse told me “Minutes are muscle” and the goal is to try to intervene before the damaged heart muscle really gets worse or the overall problem escalates.

What they did was to insert a stint through a hole in my wrist, up into my heart. I learned later that an EKG is able to identify the quadrant of the heart where the problem is. But then they insert some kind of dye in that area and by seeing how it interacts, they can identify exactly what the place is that needs the stint.

And I learned that this is not all actually about big arteries but about the smaller veins that run along the outside of the heart and supply blood to the heart itself. One of those veins had become blocked and needed the stint.

But here’s where it gets interesting. The big arteries that carry blood in and out of the heart could be seen like very big highways. But the veins are like smaller city streets, some bigger and some smaller. The place where my vein was blocked was what could be like a somewhat smaller street. They were able to identify it and put the stint in so blood could flow again. Within less than an hour after the operation, I was beginning to feel ok again and not having those symptoms.

And here’s the eerie thing, what they told me today. While I was on the operating table, when the doctors used that dye to find where the blockage had happened, they found another “bigger street” vein that was still functioning but was 90% blocked.

My cardiologist had not been able to know that without doing the stint work that was done yesterday during the operation. So they said very definitely that I need to come in and discuss another similar operation to get a stint into the vein that is 90% blocked. But if this incident yesterday hadn’t happened, we would not have known how badly that one is blocked and that vein is larger and more strategically placed than the one that went bad yesterday. This heart attack was used by God to bring to light a more serious condition I’ve had which no one was aware of until now.

I’m still personally coming to grips with all this. In Texas you can be bitten by a rattle snake. It may not kill you but it certainly can. Or your house can be hit by a tornado. It may not kill you but it certainly can. And 36 hours ago I had a heart attack. It may not kill you but it certainly can.

But here I am, back at my desk, in my room and not really at a place yet where I’ve fully fathomed what has happened to me. And it seems like it was, so strangely, almost an act of Providence that this till-now unknown blockage of a vein on my heart could be made known, so that it can be operated on.

What kind of comment can be made to this? What an experience of underserved mercy and prescient providence to allow something like this to happen. I think of the many people who have been praying for me. I think of the open doors of ministry that the Lord has given me over the last few months and years. I think of how my life on this earth could have come to its end over the last 2 days. But God has turned it all into something good.Oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.” (Romans 11:33)

 

13 thoughts on “Heart Attack Blessings?

  1. You are indeed, a splendid fellow: you seem to get something out of each and every downturn the old enemy sends your way.
    Be careful about excesive excercise but rather, go down the moderate trail!
    As Pablo admonished his new converts: let your moderation be known to all men.
    To sumarise: live long and be content with a god buxom spouse.

  2. All in God’s timing. Be sure to get the other one taken care of right away. Do not put it off. My son-in-law has had 20 heart surgeries. He’s had multiple stints put in and has even had quadruple heart by pass surgery. We take him in at the first sign of trouble.
    A surgery such as this may have saved my son Jesse. But he didn’t know he had the problem. I’ll be praying for you Mark.

  3. Thank you Mark, heart disease is rampart in my family. Listen to your body, I’m finding that out also. I know God is leading you and I believe this mild heart attack was to let you know of the more serious problem. You are in a lot of prayer’s and God is taking care of you. You still have a lot to do here.

  4. I am surely glad you are doing better, Mark, I am praying for you. What sort of exercise did you do, weight lifting?
    God bless you, keep up the good works!
    Stefan

      • Oh I see, I used to do weights as well, then I came down with a painful rib cage inflammation, then I changed to doing regular swimming and vigorous walks and haven`t developed any problems from it.
        It’s great being in touch with you again, get well and take it easy.

  5. God bless you with healing in His wings. “Unto you that fear my name [with awe-filled reverence] shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” Mal. 4:2 Thanks for sharing your testimony and lessons learned. I’m so glad the Lord led you to a correct diagnosis right in time. I’ll be praying for you, for your complete healing.

  6. Thanks for sharing your experience. So glad you have come out well from the operation. May the Lord continue to use you mightily but at the same time, taking it easy. You are such a blessing to many. God bless you!

  7. Praise the Lord, the first hour is the most important and you beat the time. Praise God for a quick diagnosis. That was Angina pain, very characteristic, I have experienced it.
    But, that’s beside the point. The important thing is that they got it at the right time. The LAD is normally the culprit and could be the big artery they are talking about. Please get that block removed. Nowadays they have methods to burn them out with a probe much like the one they used to install the stent, only this one has a tiny laser beam that can burn the clot out and is a more permanent solution than a stent.
    Please make sure you have cardiac chem with homocysteine levels checked regularly. A homocysteine level below 7 is where it should be at.
    Get your grape seed extract and Omega 3 regularly. Good antioxidants.
    Do a retake on complete diet change and stick to it.
    Thank you Jesus, we need you around Mark. Please take good care of your health, at our ages, the enemy uses that avenue more than others.
    Glad you are up and working again,
    God bless you, will keep you in our prayers.
    Luke.

    • Thanks for your advice on this; I’ll check those things out. I’m more or less doing the Mediterranean diet and trying to live healthy, things are going well. Always good to hear from you. Your friend, Mark

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