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Monday, December 7, 2009

We Have Crappy Hearts


So I guess it's the Steinlein AND Kuyper side, which sucks. So many in my extended family have died young because of heart attacks. A few just dropped dead. What the heck...

I just got back home from being at a hospital in N.C. for my Uncle Andy, the youngest of the five siblings. He's been having chest pains, extreme fatigue and discomfort, so bad he had to go to the emergency room on Friday night. On the scan they saw an abnormality in the same exact spot they saw in my Uncle Paul's heart. Well, during the cath they discovered that one of his arteries is abnormally small.
Only 20% of the population have this condition. Oma has it also. Also, one artery had only 30% blockage, another only 20% blockage, so that's not that bad.

What's scary is that when the doc went to scope the abnormal artery his heart didn't like that very much and stopped beating. They had to shock him several times, and he has burn marks on his chest... Uncle Andy said he remembers not feeling any pain, and then, all of a sudden, the worst pain he's ever experienced. He said it felt like someone grabbed his heart and squeezed, and then suddenly all these people ran into the room and everyone was screaming. The doctor said that they were having a conversation and then Uncle Andy stopped talking. They shocked him several times and he came to and he continued talking, like nothing had happened. It's weird hearing the different perspectives.

The doctor said it might just be an infection of some sort, but they're not really sure why he's been experiencing the pain and fatigue. Too bad Dr. House is a fictional character...