I recently faced my own mortality when I had a medical procedure known as a cardiac catheterization. During this procedure, my cardiologist found that my distal Right Coronary Artery was blocked by plaque by over 95%. This lead the cardiologist implanting a stent in my heart that potentially saved my life and prevented me from having a major heart attack. I still have one more artery that is over 75% blocked that will also require the placement of a stent to improve my heart condition. Hopefully, I will have the next procedure as soon as possible and begin the healing process of having heart disease. I want to tell you about the mental, physical and career impact that this has caused me to face during the past few weeks. I am a father of two great boys and just imagine lying in the Cath Lab thinking about the impact if I wouldn’t have caught this in time. Being the best father that I can is important to me and I just wonder how they would live their lives without having me around. I had to tell my 14 year-old son that I couldn’t go shoot basketball with him a few days ago because of my heart condition. Also, imagine leaving this world at age 41 and all the things that I would have missed; their graduation from high school and college, getting married and having grandchildren, etc. Physically, I haven’t suffered any heart damage from the two blockages in my heart but I will have to stay on medicine for the rest of my life to prevent damage to the stents. Also, I had to stop the minimum amount of exercise that I was getting each week until I am cleared by my doctor. I enjoy hiking the trails along Greensboro’s Watershed and I haven’t been able to do that for awhile and I miss doing it. In addition, every heartburn pain or even having a small back pain makes you wonder if you are having a heart attack. Carrying around a bottle of Nitroglycerin for chest pain is no fun and makes me feel older than I am. As for my career as a firefighter, it has caused a major impact to myself and to my organization. I am unable to perform the physically demanding tasks related to fire and rescue operations and have been placed on light duty. Being off of Squad 50 has been tough to handle emotionally because I have always wanted to be a firefighter. Being unable to perform firefighting tasks due to a heart condition is frustrating and depressing. On the other hand, I am very satisfied how my chain of command has handled my health problems and I am very blessed to have light duty work to keep me busy. I truthfully don’t know if I will ever again have the pleasure of serving my community as a firefighter and it weighs heavily on me but I know that everything will work out, one way or the other. Please, no matter your age or current health status, keep heart health a top priority and be proactive in keeping your good health! Eat healthy, exercise often, stop smoking if you do and take care of your personal stress in your life. I am no expert in living a heart healthy life but please seek out those experts such as your personal doctor, fitness trainers and nutritionists. I wrote this to share my personal experience and to explain how having heart disease affects you and your loved one’s lives.
