Lance McAllister Medical Alert
From his blog.....get well soon! Scary for such a young guy.
Hey...here I am
Good news....I'm alive and blogging.
Bad news.....I'm in the hospital and need a pacemaker.
What a wild couple of days.
After experiencing 36 hours of mild discomfort in the right side of my chest, I decided to go to the emergency room. While in the exam room I starting feeling lousy after taking Nitroglycerin and fainted. I have always fainted easily.
But the next thing I knew there were 8 doctors and nurses surrounding me. This time, instead of just fainting, my heart actually stopped, and I flatlined for 60-seconds before coming out of it on my own.
Everyone was freaked. In fact, my cardiologist said he's never seen/heard of someone flatling for that long and coming out of it on their own. I didn't really believe it until I saw the printout. It's kind of scary to see a heartbeat and then nothing but a flatline from 12:06 to 12:07. I feel like I've become a case on "House".....everyone that sees me says, "so you are the guy that flatlined for 60 seconds.".
Long story short.... it appears my chest discomfort was simply stress related.
Luckily, the fainting shined the light on the bigger issue...my vagal response(fainting). My heart may have stopped for a shorter amount of time during other times I fainted but I didn't realize it. This time I was on a monitor that recorded the event.
Wednesday I went thru a boatload of testing....from the stress test on the treadmill to an echo and other stuff. There is no damage to my heart...no blockages...nothing...heart is fine.
My options...roll the dice that the fainting/fllatlining doesn't happen again, when I'm driving or last a longer amount of time.....OR.....get a pacemaker to shock my heart if/when it does occur again.
I'll take Door #2 and pacemaker. I'll probably have it done Friday.
I'm in the excellent care of my two new favorite doctors...the best in the business......Cardiologist Stuart Steinberg and Electrophysiologist Sheldon Brownstein.
If not for John Fay's column in The Enquirer (about his heart issues) I don't think I would have gone to the emergency room Tuesday. Thanks John!
I feel fine....no pain or discomfort. I'm a little bored. The burger Kelly brought me beat the mystery meat served for dinner. A nurse did come room to room with ice cream Wednesday night!
I have cable, (I watched UK-UNC and will watch the Bengals) and my laptop.
And hey, nothing beats being alive.
So..... this is my first official blog post from a hospital.
Nick will fill in again Thursday. Mo will host Bengals Breakdown Friday at Buffalo Wings and Rings with David Fulcher and C. Trent.
I told the doctors I have to be up and ready by Sunday. A month ago I bought tickets to take Peyton to see The Cheetah Girls at US Bank Arena.
I'll be blogging and answering emails Thursday. Catch you then.
PS
Since I'm gone, the Reds can go ahead and make some moves
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