The book gives you a look at heart disease, and gives a look at different kinds of alternative treatments for heart disease and ways to change your diet without loseing taste, you get lots of delicious receipts that meet the criteria set forth by the AHA.
"How To Survive After Open Heart Surgery For a Meat and Potatoes Guy."
By Ralph G. NighAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2012 Ralph G. Nigh
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4634-2790-0Chapter One
THE DIAGNOSIS
The date was December 5th 1996 and I was working the night shift on a war fighter exercise at Fort Hood, Texas, it was about midnight and I felt these really strong chest pains. The First Sergeant saw me rubbing my chest, he asked, "What's wrong?" I answered," I am having chest pains and I don't know why, but probably just heartburn." The Top said to SSG Alonzo "Take SSG Nigh to the Hospital."
SSG Alonzo rushed me to the Hospital that was only a few blocks away. When we walked in and told why we were there, they sprang into action. First they put me on an emergency room bed (if you can call that a bed, more like a table with sheets on it and wheels under it) and stuck Nitro Glycerin under my tongue (sub-lingual).The next step was to stick connectors to me with little snaps on them so they can hook up an EKG Machine (Electro Cardio Gram) to them. The Nitro did no good and the EKG showed nothing, so they admitted me to the Hospital for more tests.
Those of you who have been in the hospital on a cardiac diet know how tasteless the diets are, so here is your 1st tip. If you know that you are going into the hospital for cardiac testing take with you a blue 3 & 1/8th oz shaker of Morton Salt Substitute for salt free diets. It has an aftertaste if you put it in you hand and taste it that way. You can taste the salty taste, and when you put it on food the aftertaste goes away. You get a good salty taste that will make the cardiac diet a little more tolerable.
Next they did a stress test to see how my EKG reacted to stress. It took me over 30 minutes to get to the target heart rate they wanted and it showed nothing. Then, I was sent for CT (Computerized Tomography), which also showed nothing unusual.
After 3 days in the hospital at Fort Hood Texas I returned to my duty on the night shift in the War Fighter scenario with a bottle of Prilosec and was told that my chest pain was gastric. Since then I never had a problem physically doing anything that I wanted to do including running fast enough to beat many of the young people in my unit. On our semiannual Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) and in January 1996 I turned 47 years old.
The Drs. have always asked has your Father, Mother, Sisters, Brothers, Aunts or Uncles ever had heart related problems. My answer always was (and had to be) no. It wasn't until I was in the Hospital after being cut open to have the triple bypass on June 1st 2002, that I realized that many things had different names medically in the 1920s and 1950s than they do today. I remembered that my Grandfather Nigh died of hardening of the arteries at the age of 70 and that my Grandfather Tritten had hardening of the arteries and died of a stroke at age 53, which is how old I was at the time of the surgery. Remember to think about your grand parents and the changes in terminology.
After completing my reserve training at FT. Hood I returned home to my house in Savannah, MO, and returned to work at the Maryville Treatment Center, MO Department of Corrections and on 15 February 1997 I had chest pains at work, while in the patrol car on perimeter patrol. I felt like I could drive to the hospital and notified the shift commander. The shift commander called the hospital and asked them to send out an ambulance. The ambulance came and when they decided to transport me to the hospital I said I couldn't pay for an ambulance. The shift commander LT. Burton said, "Don't worry about anything, the Department of Corrections will pay for it because you are at work and you don't have a choice in the matter." When the Superintendent (Prison Warden) received the bill he said they aren't paying for an ambulance ride for a personal illness. I then explained what had transpired and what LT Burton said. The Superintendent then said that if LT Burton would confirm that he said that, the Department would pay the bill. To date the bill still isn't paid, almost 7 years later. My point in bringing this up is don't trust anybody with you health or payment of your medical bills, cause when push comes to shove most people only wanted to give lip service and aren't going to get involved.
The Cardiologist at the hospital checked me out in the emergency room and after about 3 hours sent me back to work with an appointment with a Dr. at Northwest Missouri Cardiology for more extensive testing. When I arrived at his office he said that he was going to send me to the hospital for a cardiac stress test and an echo cardio gram. I went to the hospital and had the tests and was later told that they couldn't find anything wrong.
Soon my Dr. then said he was going to send me to a cardiologist in St. Joseph, Missouri to look a little deeper into the chest pains. The Cardiologist he sent me to was a young Cuban Dr. who seemed to have a lot on the ball he looked at the information from the test the other Drs. had done and said that he was going to order a stress echo. The other tests didn't show anything wrong and the gastric tests that I had taken didn't show that my stomach was that bad either. The Dr. kept canceling the test because he had to go home to Cuba and to Florida a lot to visit relatives. After about 4 months of cancellations I received military orders to go to Ft. Dix, New Jersey for the summer for Active Duty Special Work. When I came back I got very busy and my chest pains didn't seem so bad, maybe I just learned to live with them and kept taking my Prilosec.
After returning from Fort Dix in September of 1997 I changed duties with the Missouri Department of Corrections and became transportation Officer, which was quite a change of pace from standing on the hard concrete all day watching the Inmates activities. Now transporting them to and from Dr. appointments and doing prisoner exchanges with other institutions and transporting them to and from funerals, county jails and court appearances. In April 1998 I was promoted to SGT and applied for the E-Squad, this was the department's version of the SWAT team or as some states call them the CERT team. I made it after taking a Physical fitness test and scoring the second highest score of anyone in this testing group.
In the ensuing months we had some very vigorous training, and as a SGT it was up to me to set the example for the junior officers, so I worked physical harder than many of the others. When fall came I was sent to Instructor training for Chemical Agents for the Department of Corrections. The third night after training my pager went off just after I got to bed. I got up and called in, we have an emergency situation at the Institution the control room SGT said you are to report to the E-Squad building as quickly as possible in camouflaged utilities. On the way in I listened to my scanner and had my flashers on moving as fast as legally possible. On the scanner I heard that there were hostages being held in medical.
Upon arrival at the Institution I grabbed my bulletproof vest and all of my equipment and we marched to the gate some officers drew weapons and surround the perimeter while my CERT team entered the institution and smartly moved in formation to the medical area. On arrival at the medical area we poised in the stairwell waiting for Intel reports. Finally we moved in and took down the hostage taker.
We then proceeded to the control center and drew weapons and took up positions with the rest of the E-Squad to search for the other two escapees. On the way to join the others there was a call over the radio to move to the west center of the perimeter, Man down. When we arrived at that location two officers had an inmate on the ground. The inmate was bleeding from wounds received from the razor ribbon wire when he climbed the fence. We quickly learned that only one more inmate was on the loose and outside. The wounded inmate was immediately taken to the hospital along with the two officers who found him and rendered first aide. The inmate was treated for his injuries and the officers where treated for blood exposure.
We set up a perimeter around the institution and began searching in a systematic manner. Daylight was beginning to pop up its head when we located the inmate in a brush pile, hidden under some boards in a hand-dug hole. All secure and all is well. We spent a couple of hours doing reports and listen to after action reviews this exercise was over.
I then proceeded to the university to attend the remainder of the chemical agents class. In all this I had no physical problems and kept up with kids half my age, something I have been doing with the U.S. Army since 1989.
My regular duties with the department of corrections had me serving as a housing unit SGT, Zone SGT and Visiting room SGT, jobs that would normally be held by 3 people. Even with all that additional stress I was being told that I was doing an outstanding job by all 3 of my supervisors. I was not feeling any adverse physical problems from the added stress.
In July 1999 my best friend, who was on active duty with the U.S. Army Reserve stationed at Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin, called me and said if I was still interested in active duty to get my packet in for it, now, as there were several positions coming open soon.
I followed Chucks instructions and sent my packet to the Full Time Support Management Team for consideration by the AGR (Active Guard Reserve) board for Active Duty. The AGR Board met in October and I was told in November that I had been accepted. In December SGM Burg called me from USARC to give me my options. He offered me several places I could go; the one that sounded the best was Ft. Hunter Liggett, CA, because it was warm year around. SGM Burg said you got it we will get your orders submitted quickly and we'll get you into the program as soon as possible. January rolled around and I was contacted by FTSMT and told the first class I could attend to get started would be 18 March 2000.
On 18 March 2000 I began my AGR career and soon arrived for duty at Ft. Liggett, CA. as the Installation Chapel NCOIC/Chaplain Assistant. My duties include physically maintaining the Chapel, Chapel administration, ministering to enlisted soldiers by listening to there problems and making referrals to the appropriate authority and make reports to the Chaplain including doing pre-counseling interviews for the Chaplain. My duties also included other duties as directed by the Chaplain.
In June of 2000 I attended a school at Ft. Jackson, SC for Fund Clerk training. Upon returning I added Chapel Non-Appropriated fund clerk to my duties. I immediately was task with preparing the fund files from the past 1½ years for an audit at the end of August. By the time the auditor arrived, after only 2 weeks, the fund was in such good shape that we passed the audit/inspection with no discrepancies.
In January 2001 I attended a school at Fort Knox, KY to become an Equal Opportunity
Representative. This was another responsibility that was added to my duties when I became the Installation EOR. My duties were to hear complaints of sexual or racial harassment and take a report then make referral to the appropriate authority, such as the JAG, the Military Police, the Chaplain or the Equal Opportunity Advisor or other authorities as deemed appropriate.
In February 2001 I attended a special staff meeting to discuss plans for a movie that Mel Gibson's production company wanted to film at Ft. Hunter Liggett. Upon learning that I was a Vietnam veteran the production company became very interested in finding me a part in the movie. The filming started in late March. In April I took 2 weeks leave to play SFC Houston, one of the "Three War Men" who landed at Anzio with the 3rd Infantry Division and Jumped into Normandy on D-day with the 82nd Airborne, then fought in Korea at Pork Chop Hill and is about to earn a second star for his Combat Infantry Badge. The Movie was a lot of work crawling up and down the lines in the dark, jumping out of helicopters and running up and down mountains. I learned that I could still keep up with the kids in combat and could still be a grunt. I was proud to have been in the only film made that got Vietnam Right.
The Morning of 11 September 2001 I woke up and turned to Good Day LA, as was part of my morning routine. Immediately I was shocked to see an airliner in one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. My first thought was a tragic accident until I saw another plane coming around and crash into the other tower, I then new we were at war. I told my wife what was going on and took off for headquarters. When I arrived at headquarters the Installation Commander was the only one there and he said that he was calling a meeting at 0900 to set up emergency procedures. He said go home, have a good breakfast you may be vary busy by lunchtime.
We all converged on headquarters as 0900 rolled around and we met in the command conference room. I was assigned to help set up and work in the emergency operations center. I wound up working without any sleep for the next 48 hours. For the next 2 weeks I worked the 12 hour night shift in the emergency operations center from 2000 hundred hours (8 PM) to 0800 (8 AM) and attended the morning briefing at 0900 each day except Sunday when I worked all day at the chapel doing my regular duties. The stress levels got very high and after 2 weeks I started working back at my regular job except Thursday, Friday and Saturday when I worked with the Installation security with the Fort Hunter Liggett Police. Sundays were back at the chapel. Sometime in November we went back to regular duties when the California National Guard took over our Security functions.
In December 2001 I was having increased heartburn and went to the clinic on post and they told me that I should have my esophagus checked because GERDS can damage the esophagus enough to cause esophageal cancer. I went to the Navel hospital in Lemoore and had a camera put down my throat. The result was there was no cancer but I was put on Nexium to heal the Damage even though the Dr said it wasn't that bad.
In April 2002 I was coughing and having chest pains with a lot of head congestion. I went to the Clinic and talked to the medics they and the Physicians Assistant listened to my heart and lungs. They said they didn't hear anything wrong with my heart. My lungs were clear so they decided to do and EKG which they couldn't see anything wrong with my heart. Because my lungs were clear and I was having chest pains they decided to send me to Dr. Sinph at the Presidio of Monterey Military Health Clinic.
Dr. Sinph listened to my heart and ran an EKG, and couldn't hear or see anything wrong. Dr. Sinph decided that because of the chest pains that he would send me to a cardiologist. He then put me on a no Physical Training Profile from 30 April to 30 May, which is when my appointment was scheduled with Dr. Harlan Grogan at Central Coast Cardiology.
Chapter Two
TRIPLE BYPASS
I drove to Salinas, about 80 miles away and walked into the Central Coast Cardiology office on 30 May 2002 for a Stress Test Cardiogram. When they took me into the EKG room I was told to sit on the table and the technician would hook me up to get a base line. He got me hooked up, ran a strip and said I don't like what I see lay down, I'm going to do and Echo.
Soon he said I don't like what I see I'll be right back. In a matter of seconds he returned with Dawn Tamagni Nurse Practitioner and he again moved the Eco stylist around on my chest. Nurse Tamagni then said I see what you mean. They sat me up and said "Mr. Nigh your heart isn't beating symmetrically" and she was going to talk to Dr. Grogan and would be right back. In a matter of moments she returned. Nurse Tamagni said she was going to get someone to take me in a wheel chair a block down and across the street to the emergency room.
Upon arrival at the emergency room of the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital the nurses began hooking me up to cardiac monitors and putting in I.V.s. Soon the emergency room Dr came in an said asked if I was having any chest pain, to which I replied, "Just the pressure and heartburn that I have been feeling for the past 6 years. He then started and I.V. of saline and nitro glycerin.
After a half hour or so Dr. Grogan came in and said that he was going to send me up to the cardiac care center as soon as they had a room ready. Dr. Grogan then stated that in the morning at 7:30 they were going to take me into the cardiac catheter lab and do a heart catheter to get a good look at what the problem is. He said if they couldn't find any blockage they would pursue other avenues but if they found any blockage that they would try to do a balloon angioplasty to take care of the blockage. He also said that if they found blockage that was too bad that they would be able to do the balloon and would discuss my options as soon as I was coherent.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from "How To Survive After Open Heart Surgery For a Meat and Potatoes Guy."by Ralph G. Nigh Copyright © 2012 by Ralph G. Nigh. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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