Fear is a great motivator.

My life changed forever last weekend. Friday evening after my husband had pulled the transmission out of his friend's El Camino ( For you young folks that is a half car, half truck.) We went to our favorite public pier.

We walked all the way to the end of the pier, stopping to talk to people along the way. We watched as one guy got in a small boat and headed out in the high winds and rough waters to retrieve his remote controlled model sail boat. It seems the water was slick as glass when he put the sail boat in the water but the winds picked up really fast and the waves got high. In those high winds the boat stopped responding to the remote control. We both commented that we would not like to be in those waves in that small boat as we watched him go up the bay and come back. He managed to retrieve the sail boat from the water but could hardly hold onto it in high winds.

We talked to a couple of people who were fishing and watched with delight as two small children caught fish. The children were 5 and 6 years old and got so excited when a fish got on their line. They did all kinds of dances and jigs because the excitement was too much for them to be still. We loved watching them and hearing their squeals of delight.

It was a good day. When we got home we ate some pot roast cooked the previous day. That is when the trouble began. My husband started having one of those choking, trouble breathing, weak episodes he has had a few times over the course of the past year. They always happen after he eats a big meal. The difference was that this one would not subside.

He hates all things medical. I have begged him to go to the emergency room when he had these attacks before. He did go to the doctor to be checked out after having one and was given a stress test, but not a nuclear stress test, and was given the all clear on his heart. His new cardiologist says a stress test without the nuclear “not worth a dime”. His exact words.

This time he got scared and volunteered to go the the ER. We went to the hospital where his doctor practices and upon arrival saw the ER was just full of people and there were about twelve police cars and police everywhere. I thought, well, something terrible has happened and they are all here. I began to navigate to a lane where I could head for another hospital. About the same time my husband said: “Don't stop here. I might not ever be seen here. We headed for another hospital.

Upon arrival at the next one I filled out the reason we were there as: trouble breathing, nausea, weakness. Note: He did not and has never had chest pains or pains in his arms or face. They got him into a triage room right away and on back to a room in the ER to be treated. His heart rate was too high, his blood pressure was too high and his blood oxygen was too low.

They put him on a drip right away and drew blood tests to test for evidence of a heart attack. They x-rayed his chest and took him for a ct scan of his lungs to check for blood clots. No blood clots but the blood tests were not completely normal.

If you haven't been in one of the treatment rooms in an ER lately, I can tell you there is no comfortable place for you to be if you are not the patient. There was one hard resin chair with scooped up edges and arms of narrow metal tubing. That was one uncomfortable chair! I paced the floor, sat in that awful chair, got up, stretched, sat down, squirmed, up again, stretching, pacing, hurting, it was a long night. My back was hurting so badly I had to keep praying for myself as I prayed for my husband. I just asked God to allow me to do what I needed to do without being overcome with pain and all the while I was praying for my hubby. My husband told me to go home so I would not get in too much pain, but I was not going anywhere.

About 3 am. the ER doctor came in telling us he would like to keep my husband overnight to monitor his heart. He said his blood tests were not quite normal and he wanted to run tests to find the problem.

God has a way of working things out. My son was in town filming a bar-b-we competition. He only needed to film one competition and had planned to film one of the bar-b-que competions in Florida on previous weekends. He was only here because he could not make it to those events. He was able to finish filming and then stayed with me until his dad was released from the hospital five days later. We were both so glad to have him with us during a difficult time. That was only one thing of many things that I recognized as blessings from our Heavenly Father

On Monday he had a heart catheterization. The waiting room for the this procedure had chairs even worse than the ER. As soon as I sat down I knew I could not sit in those chairs. I opted to stand outside in the hall instead of sitting in the torture chairs. My son was nervous and he paced the hall.

During the heart weatherization, the heart surgeon installed a stent. When he talked to us after the procedure he said my husband has a really weak heart and he would have to let him rest and regain some strength before installing the next two stents. He goes back in two weeks for the additional stents and possibly a defibrillator. It was hard to hear that he was so sick and his condition was so dangerous. I was glad my son was with me.

The next day the cardiologist told him to avoid salt to avoid going into congestive heart failure. He told him to quit drinking anything with caffeine because he has too many extra heart beats and caffeine makes it worse. He told him to quit eating bacon and sausage, eat nothing fried, and only eat lean meat. He said to eat lots of vegetables and fruit. He said all people should eat this way but it was imperative for my husband and my son because this is a hereditary illness.

I've been trying for years to get my husband to quit eating so much bacon and sausage. He otherwise eats well. The man LOVES his bacon and his sausage and never imagined he could do without them. Now, he is glad to be alive and is happy to do without them. Fear is a great motivator.

He has been home since Wednesday is feeling better and thinks he will feel better than that when he gets the other blockages cleared.

I made it through all of the long hours at the hospital without going into a flare. I did have a lot of pain and came home to rest in bed a couple of hours during the course of the day when I could. A few months ago I could not have stayed at the hospital. I am so thankful this did not happen when I was down before and after my spine surgery.

I am also thankful that we now know what was causing those attacks my husband was experiencing and it is being treated. It is so much better to be aware and to have a plan of action to become healthier.

People should not wait until they are faced with such a serious condition to change to a better, healthier lifestyle. Do it now. Perhaps you will be spared heart disease, strokes and other serious conditions. Please listen to me on this one. DO IT NOW.

Note: Here is a link to a good on this subject article by Mardi: http://www.lumigrate.com/blog/heart-and-cardiovascular-health-whats-love-and-erectile-dysfunction-got-do-it