Dave Wagner's "Not a Heart Attack!"

Written by Dave Wagner, Posted by Heidi G. (We love you Dave!)

Friends & Family,

I'm sending this e-mail to all of you who have been kind enough to send supportive e-mails and calls in response to my recent health issues. I figured instead of telling the same basic details dozens of times, I would just send this note out with a summary for those who contacted me or have heard about it somehow. Of course, thanks for all your concern and kind gestures. I truly realized how blessed and surrounded by strong friends and family I am by going through this brief ordeal.

First off, I'm OK and I'm feeling almost back to normal, so don't worry about funeral gifts just yet. This e-mail is a bit long, so you can stop here and not worry if you choose to skip the details, which are below:

I woke up with severe upper abdominal and chest pains at about 1:30am Thursday morning. I tried to walk it off and relax, but for some reason, they continued to get worse and within 3-4 minutes I couldn't stand-up anymore and just laid down on the floor of our bedroom. We didn't know what to do, because the kids were asleep, I couldn't drive myself to the hospital and Brooke was supposed to be on bedrest anyway. It was so painful, and in a way that I have never experienced before, that we decided to call 911 to ask them what they recommended. Before we got off the phone describing the details of what was happening, the paramedics had already arrived. I was pretty embarrassed to be dragged out of my house by paramedics in the middle of the night when I'm only 31 (my neighbor had the paramedics at his house a few months ago, but he's pushing 90), but that's what happened.

Once at the hospital, they ran a battery of tests that all pointed to it not being a heart attack (blood tests were good, EKG was normal enough, the CATscan didn't find anything and I was starting to feel better). They also conducted a "Stress Test" where they inject radioactive tracers into my bloodstream, made me exercise and then stuck me in another machine to take pictures of how well my heart is functioning. Funny enough, Brooke hasn't been allowed to be too close to me, because I've actually been radioactive since those tests.

The EKG and other data that accompanied the stress test all came back positive as well, so we were running out of what the potential source could have been. The alternatives are ulcers, esophagus seizures (typically due to severe acid reflux, which I’ve never experienced before) and some other things that don’t lend themselves to testing that would allow us to find out what caused the episode. The thought of leaving without knowing what caused it was initially frustrating.

12 hours after we arrived at the ER, we were finally anticipating a discharge with some basic cover-all type follow-up directions. Then our doctor came in and sat down and told us that the final part of the nuclear test shows that I may have some damage to my heart and that my heart is functioning at a far below normal level (ie. Normal people have a heart that pumps 50-60 and mine was pumping 40). They also said that someone of my age and apparent fitness should be even higher than that. Next they called for an echo cardiogram that is essentially an ultrasound of my heart to get more details.

That was one of the scariest times of my life. The doctor was basically telling me that I either had a heart attack at age 31 or that some sort of virus had made its way to my heart and caused some damage that in his words “could get better, could be permanent and stay the same, or could get worse”. He also cautioned me that they may want to admit me for further tests if the echo came back with concerning results.

Well, about an hour after the echo the doctor came back and delivered some of the best news of my life in that they found that the detail in the echo provided convincing evidence that my heart wasn’t damaged, that my heart was pumping closer to 55 and that they all but ruled out a heart attack and viral damage. Of course, they did tell me that 55 is still on the low-end of normal for someone my age and that they can’t rule out that my heart (or some adjoined organ/vein/artery, etc..) caused the pain, but they were confident in saying that I’m not in immediate danger of having a potentially life-threatening cardiac event occur anytime soon.

Finally, after 14 hours at the ER, I was discharged with the very same uncertain diagnosis that I had hoped to avoid just hours before. The cardiologist said that there is only one more test that they would run if I were to stay and that it had a small chance of complications, so he said that in his mind since the risk of a dangerous cardiac event was so low that he felt that the risks of the additional test outweighed the risks of a heart attack.

The whole process helped me clearly understand that any frustration from not knowing exactly what caused the episode is significantly better than leaving knowing that I just had a heart attack or there’s a virus wreaking havoc on my heart.

I feel pretty good. Most of the negative feelings are probably mental, as I’ve been very sensitive to any abnormality with my body since I’ve been home. I plan on getting back to life as usual next week and am going to focus on continuing to improve my diet and exercise routine. I’m also going to follow-up on my cholesterol levels and keep a close eye on my cardiac health going forward.

Sorry for the long e-mail. Hopefully if you became bored, you quit reading awhile back.

Again, thanks for all the support and I’ll see you soon. I don’t even look different...

Dave