I have written about this a few times, but as I woke today I
was thankful for life again. For those who do not know my story on May 17th
I came in from a run said hi to my wife and hit the floor. My heart had stopped
working, I was dead. This event is “affectionately” known as the “widow maker”
since there was no warning and it hit immediately. May 20th I woke
up and cracked a smart ass joke to someone asking me a “logic question” to see
how I was thinking. I then got the story.
My daughter called 911 and they immediately went into action
with a stroke, since that was the more logical condition based on recent family
history with Veronica. I had no CPR for 5 minutes as I turned blue! The EMT’s
from station 13 in Gwinnett and engines from 13 and 21 showed up and stated to
work. I was paddled 7 times and they got a heartbeat after 45 minutes. By then
we arrived at Emory John’s Creek ICU where I was put into an induced coma.
Now take my family, they were not being told when he pulls
through but rather don’t expect him to survive and if he does he will be brain
damaged. So for three days after following the ambulance and watching the EMTs
perform CPR all the way to the hospital everyone waited for the inevitable. I
came to and freaked, they figured I was having some episode but rather noticed
the date on the white board was 5/20/15. So once the ventilator was pulled I was
peppered with question, the first asking if I had rubber boots and was standing
in a puddle would my feet be wet. Of course I had no idea why they were asking
me dumb questions so I retorted back, “How deep is the puddle”. To that Katy’s
pent up angst was relieved, I was back.
One story that I recently learned was two close friends from
our church 12 Stone had come to pray over me. God had coordinated these two
coming together to pray. I was out and they started to pray fervently over me.
Well during this time I started to come out of my induced coma. The nurse
freaked told them to stop praying and to leave. Then she started to load me up
on the drugs to keep me in the coma. An hour later I was being asked silly
questions.
Now all was not over since I bounced back and forth between
ICU and surgery, but 2 weeks later I walked out the door weak but alive. Now one
year later I have taken the doctors serious and changed many things. I am
running again, I am eating well and am actually losing weight now. I PR’ed for
a 5k and my triglycerides went from 686 pre-death to 85!! So things are progressing in the right
direction!!
Now what have I taken from this after a year? First, I
experienced a miracle. Not just a miracle of timing, but a flat out miracle. In
the months since I have heard story after story about many who went through
what I did and lost the battle. This was not an “easy win” for God, everything
had to happen perfectly. If something dropped out of sequence and if God had
not have thrown in that “special sauce” I would have not made it. So I am
humbled to have experienced this.
Second, is my diagnosis of what happened leading up to this.
Sure hindsight is 20/20, but my eating sucked. I was eating organic when
possible, like Cliff Bars, Organic Ice Cream and Organic cookies. I was
drinking energy drinks for life support; a minimum was 1 or 2 a day. If that
did not work a Redline was added to the mix. Sodas were ok as well.
It’s amazing how unfettered access to healthy food is not
always good. Couple warning signs I had. First, I was cramping on short runs
and having done marathons, a cramp at 1 mile was something wrong. Doctors
figured it was nutrition or Compartment Syndrome, little did they know it was
Intermittent Claudication or an early indicator of a heart blockage. Another
sign was slower metabolism. Everyone complains about that as they get older, so
I figured it was normal. Guess what, eat crap and your metabolism slows down.
Doesn’t matter if it’s “diet”, “organic” or “energy” too much will literally
kill you.
So my warning to those who are experiencing slow metabolism,
eat better and get checked out. Since my “event” I am losing weight, eating
well and experiencing a metabolism from my 20’s. Keys are RAW and ORGANIC!
Those few times I dabble into something outside this, it’s packaged organic.
And note Monday’s are Mexican Coke Monday (since they do not use HFC’s),
Thursday’s are Krakatoa (an expresso drink) Thursdays and Sunday’s are Ice
Cream Sunday, so I do treat myself, just not once or thrice a day.
Other health tips are avoid GMO’s, and not those like
“seedless grapes” that have been genetically modified through breeding to get
there, but rather Monsanto Corn that cannot be handled since it’s been spliced
with toxins to kill pests and be immune to Round-up. Sorry for the long
sentence, but this is critical!! I don’t have a problem using nature to
naturally evolve new strains of food, but using chemicals to evolve new toxic
strains is dangerous! Enough of the health rant.
Every day I wake up and thank God for life, this is no
longer a cliché for me. Second I thank my family for getting the ball rolling
and acting fast to get EMT’s here quickly. Third, the EMT’s led by Dave Yarbrough
(who has become my running buddy) who did NOT give up on my when many would
have. Forth, Emory and the crew for putting up with me and making sure I am
back on my feet. Also, for picking up the tab!!! Fifth, the many people who
helped and prayed for me, that made a huge difference. Sixth, 12 Stone church
for all the additional support and post event counseling. Finally, my family
again for the love and support from everyone here and away!
We have moved to a new part of the country into a home that
is a fantasy. It’s exactly what we had dreamed for, only better and we are debt
free now!! I still have not completely come to terms with that and being part
of a miracle while seeing the outpouring of compassion from so many. Why me? If
it’s like any other dealings with God it will all make sense in years to come.