I don’t think I’ve written before about the heart concerns I’ve had for the last ten months. It started last June 1, when we were driving back to Arkansas from Orlando FL. We stopped for the night at a hotel in Meridian, MS. After checking in and getting the luggage to the room—which involved a lot of steps but no heavy lifting, I took a drink of tap water, and almost immediately felt pains on my right side, in the shoulder, armpit, going down my arm, and on the right side of my neck and under my jaw. The pain started slowly, I think about 8:00 p.m., and expanded its territory slowly.

I know enough about heart attack symptoms to know this wasn’t good. But here I was in a strange city for the first time, not knowing where a hospital was. Lynda was very tired from the trip and was out like a light as soon as she got in bed to read. What should I do? The pain was obvious, and disconcerting. But I had no pain in my heart or on the left side. My heart wasn’t racing. I took my pulse as best I could and thought it was normal. I decided to not go to the ER, but to sit up and monitor it. I couldn’t find my low-dose aspirin (though I had it with me). I found my Aleve, which is aspirin-like, and took one, thinking it couldn’t hurt and it might help.

As I sat there at the small desk in the hotel room, reading, monitoring my pain, it didn’t seem to be getting worse. At times, it seemed to be lessening. Then it might get a little worse for a brief time then less again. This went on for two hours. I drank some water, got up and walked around in the room, and prayed a lot, and messaged our kids to let them know what was going on and to be praying. I probably should have gone to the ER as a precaution, but didn’t.

Around 10 p.m. I moved from the desk chair to an easy chair and read there. I found myself dosing and fought it. The pain wasn’t changing much, but with each cycle of lessening and intensifying, the peaks seemed to become less intense. At some point I dosed off. I woke up around midnight, and the pain was almost gone. I decided the danger had passed and went to bed. Lynda had slept through all of this. I fell right asleep, I think, waking up around 4 or 5 a.m. and having no pain. Not a bit of residual pain. When morning came, it was as if nothing had happened.

We continued our drive home with no further episode. Of course, I called my cardiologist right away. Why do I have a cardiologist? Well, some years ago I learned I have a genetically different (should I say defective?) aortic valve. It is constructed differently from the standard heart valve. It functions fine, but it’s not as it should be, not as it is in most people. Back in 2017, my doctor ordered a carbon scoring test, which showed some build-up on the valve. But he retired, and the follow-up was lost. My current PCP was aghast that this hadn’t been followed up on and referred me to a cardiologist back in 2020. That cardiologist had some tests done, all of which showed my heart was fine. The report was written in what I call “medical-speak”, but at one point it broke out into plain English, saying “Strong Heart Muscle”.

They re-ran the tests after my latest incident, found the heart still strong, but some parts of it not getting enough oxygen. It was a change from the 2020 tests. The cardiologist decided to do a catheterization, see if I have a mostly blocked artery and, if needed, put in a stent. That happens Tuesday, tomorrow, at the hospital. If they find no blockage, I’ll get out that day. If they put in a stent, I’ll have to stay overnight.

When I posted something about this on Facebook last week, my cardiologist friend from high school and college called me. He said this was nothing to worry about. He’d done lots of them in his career, even had one done on him. I read to him the reports in medical-speak, and he said yes, I would probably get a stent. Easy-peasy. He also said my heart was in better shape than his.

That will mean I’ll be on restricted diet and movements for a few days. No driving. No walking. I’ve actually had to cut back on my walking. When I walk uphill (and you can’t leave our house without walking uphill), I get the pains in my throat/neck. When I walk on level ground or downhill, the pains go away. So obviously something is wrong. I’ll miss two writers’ meetings because of that, one on-line tomorrow, and one in person on Thursday. I regret that, but that’s how it must be.

So that’s where I am. I wish I were 20 or 30 pounds lighter going into this, but I love food too much and have lacked the discipline I need to lose more. Maybe after this I’ll be more careful.

So, I’ll report back to you on Friday with how it went, earlier on Facebook. That’s assuming I’m not that one person out of a thousand for whom the procedure doesn’t go well. My cardiologist friend said not to worry about those chances, that in his long career he had only three of these not go the way intended. I said good, but I’d rather the odds were 1 in 10,000.