Well, that's one way to find out you have clear coronary arteries!So….yesterday after our discussion here I made an appointment with my doctor to get a referral for a cardiologist who might perform a TTE. Today I got on my home Stairmaster and had a weird episode at the 23 minute mark. I felt a twinge and my heart rate decreased from 150 to 133 instantly. No pain but I felt a bit uncomfortable. So I immediately drove to Park City Hospital.
The ER doc did an EKG, called the attending cardiologist who noted a possible anomoly associated with a heart attack. 30 minutes later I’m on Lifeflight headed to their primary cardiac treatment center in SLC.
I land on the roof and less than 3 minutes later I’m drugged and having an angiogram. Turns out no heart attack, very clear arteries and no indication of anything concerning. Best guess at this point is dyhydration coupled with a long workout at 98%+ of my aged based theoretical max HR.
So here I lay in intensive care for overnight observation but it seems pure formality, no one thinks anything is going on. Follow up with the cardiologist tomorrow morning and likely discharge.
Educational, scary and well surreal.
My view from inside the helicopter.
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Foliage is beginning to turn and looks good from the air.
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Very clean angiogram.
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Good news is, aside from the bullet dodge, I don’t seem to have the heart issue gene that runs through part of my gamily.
Yikes! Glad you are OK!
Did they check your troponin level (blood work that shows an MI) before they put you on the helicopter or took you to the cath lab? Or maybe troponin was elevated from exercise?
Fortunately, I don't have CAD, but I've been to the ER half a dozen times with my Dad having chest pain and they always check troponin along with the EKG before doing anything.
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