Most of you know that I have some breathing problems that somewhat limit what I can do. They don't stop me from fishing or being active in most ways, or at least they did not. That changed about 2 weeks ago. I was doing a rear brake job on my Tahoe when all of a sudden I could not breath...at all. I went down on the ground, and could not catch my breath. I was sweating profusely, shaking and could not even yell for help. I though maybe I was having a heart attack. After about 15 minutes I managed to get myself together enough to crawl around to the back porch of the house, drag myself up to the door and kick it until my wife heard me. She got her son (my step son) to come over (he lives on the same property in a separate apartment, so he is about 100 feet away) and between the two of them they got me into the house and sitting in a chair. My wife has an oxygen concentrator that she uses at night, so they wheeled that out and I got on oxygen. After 20 minutes or so of that, I was pretty much normal again. We decided that I should go to the hospital. Due to our remote location it was actually quicker for my wife to drive me rather than taking an ambulance. The ride there was uneventful until we pulled into the emergency parking lot, when it happened again. The security guard at the door took one look at me and came running out with a wheel chair,, and took me directly into the cardiac emergency unit. The ran a bunch of tests, but everything looked normal. Blood pressure was 130/70, pulse was a bit high at 90, and blood oxygen showed 89 on room air and improved to 93 as soon as they hooked me up to oxygen. An EKG showed normal, and in fact very good for someone my age. But, I still could not breath. They brought me over to pulmonary and though I had obvious signs of COPD and missing a third of a lung from having it removed due to lung cancer, they could not account for why I was doing so poorly. Things finally settled down (again), and I was pretty much back to my normal situation of being a fairly high functioning COPD sufferer. They checked me into the hospital and started monitoring me around the clock. For two days, things seemed pretty normal...to the point they were thinking of sending me home. Then it happened, this time while I was hooked up to a bunch of different equipment. My heart beat shot up to 260 beats a minute, my blood pressure dropped to 60 over 40, and my blood oxygen went to 51.Then my heart beat dropped to 30. Surprisingly, I felt no pain of any kind, and as long as I remained absolutely still I could breath (well, after a few minutes anyway). Needless to say they got a bit excited by all this and could not understand why I had not completely passed out.....anyway, they continued to keep me hooked up to,as near as I could tell, about every machine know to man. They administered very strong IV antibiotics, some massive steroid doses with an IV push, some pills of various types, and some other shots that I am not even sure what they were. They also gave me breathing treatments with several different compounds, as well as Abuterol and Simbacort inhalers. Long story short(er) after several more days and a few more of these attacks they got the medications balanced and everything leveled off. I was keep for a total of 14 days (boy was I frustrated by the Bass Resourses site being down..I had very little I could do and TV is not my thing). It turns out that I was not, directly having pulmonary problems...I was having AFib attacks which was not allowing my body to process the oxygen that was in my blood, which then caused the breathing problems when my body tried to get more oxygen, which it turn aggravated the Afib...and around and around we go. So the out come of all this is that AFib is very treatable. In my case it can be managed with some meds and blood thinners (so I don't toss a clot and get a stroke), and I will be seeing a cardiologist regularly to keep things under control and they will work hand in hand with my pulmonologist as they breathing and the heart situation are very much interrelated. If things do not stay stabilized, there are other things they can do..like put in a pacemaker and an implanted defribulator, and or go in and kill small parts of my heart muscle to create sort of a short cut of the electronic signals in the heart to manage the beat. The doctors described the situation like this,,,think of your heart like a house. In my case I have a great foundation, great walls, a great roof and nice furnishings on the inside that look great and work well together.....but I have a problem with the electrical system. So, my heart is great, we just need to fix the wiring. I cannot tell you how big a relief it is to know what is going on, and to know it is treatable. With any luck, with careful monitoring, it should have no long term effect on my life other than taking some more medications. I came home yesterday, and other than being very tired and getting exhausted very quickly, I feel pretty good. The doctors say that my stamina should be back to my normal level in a week or so...my body just needs to adapt to all the new meds and find the correct "base level" and this is completely normal. I saw the doctor again today, and they adjusted the meds a bit to balance things out, but everything looks good, I now have my own oxygen machine, and portable oxygen tanks just in case, but it is doubtful I will have to use them much. So, life is good, and things will get better. I am very lucky that I have a wonderful support system both at home in with my doctors. I am really looking forward to getting back out there and doing some fishing.

@Kirtley Howe That seemed like a seriously harrowing experience,

like you haven't already been through enough, man.

Glad you made it through and are home.

Hope you have better days ahead.

A-Jay

Holy smokes that was an ordeal. Sounds like they’re getting you back on track.

Wow, quite the ride there.

Sounds like it will be better moving forward....... good news.

Not the most fun I have had, but not the worst either. I will be fine.

Geeze, what a scary situation at first. Glad it worked out for you and you're doing better!

Very scary situation. Glad you got it sorted out & can get back to normal & go fishing.

Glad to her they found the issue, and it’s treatable. Not being able to breathe would be pretty scary.

Holy cow! What an ordeal. Glad you were able to get help, and get to the hospital.

My wife is a nurse practitioner and used to work cardiothoracic transplant / surgery department.

Lay there for 15 minutes...drug yourself to the door...wife drove you to hospital(!)

You, my friend, are a complete BADASS! I have heard my wife tell many, many stories of people in far better situations than you...and they did not make it.

Hang in there!!! Strength to you! And God Bless!

4 hours ago, DaubsNU1 said:

Holy cow! What an ordeal. Glad you were able to get help, and get to the hospital.

My wife is a nurse practitioner and used to work cardiothoracic transplant / surgery department.

Lay there for 15 minutes...drug yourself to the door...wife drove you to hospital(!)

You, my friend, are a complete BADASS! I have heard my wife tell many, many stories of people in far better situations than you...and they did not make it.

Hang in there!!! Strength to you! And God Bless!

not so much a badass. just stubborn. it is my plan to be extremely late to my own funeral....<G>

Sounds like the Kyle Bush deal, RIP KYLE and good luck to you sir.

Kirtley, you did an excellent job of explaining a complex situation. I'm so glad that your docs have a fix. They don't always.

Kirtley, you did an excellent job of explaining a complex situation. I'm so glad that your docs have a fix. They don't always.

6 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Thanks. It was very scary when it first happened and I had no idea what was going on. Now that I do know and have a treatment plan and a plan of action, it mostly just ticks me off. My big worry now is how to take care of Melody, She has to have her right ankle fused, and major surgery to repair her shoulder where the tendon has completely torn off the bone. The original plan was for her to get the ankle done, spend 1-2 weeks in a rehab facility, then get the shoulder done, do another week or two in rehab, then come home and Mike (her son) and I would take care of her. With my new problem, that seems like bad idea, since I know she will come home and go into "mama bear" mode and worry and try to take care of me, instead of me taking care of her (and if you think I am stubborn, you should get to know her....). So, we are now thinking that she should get the surgeries and go directly into a longer care rehab facility,,,,maybe for as long as 6--8 months. Nothing is set yet,,we have a lot to deal with, What good facility is fairly close? What will our insurance cover? How do we work out getting to go see her, keep her occupied and in good spirits, and get her to stop, or at least ease off, worrying about me. And I am also looking into getting help here at the house. It is about impossible for me to take care of everything on my own...I am going to have to find someone/company to come in and do a deep clean on the house, and most likely do on-going weekly cleaning. I can take care of most of it, but things like vacuuming, dusting and heavy sweeping present a big problem, as they kick up dust which kills my breathing. Anyway, we have some challenges coming up, but we have faced those before, and together we will be fine. I just don't want my new medical problems to worry Mel to the point where she forgets to take care of herself. Thank you for the kind words.

Scary. Glad they got it figured out and got you on the right meds.

Afib is no joke, I am dealing with it. Glad you are OK

9 hours ago, ike8120 said:

Afib is no joke, I am dealing with it. Glad you are OK

So I have found out. I was surprised by the diagnoses and even more surprised that it was so difficult to diagnose. I guess since it is "intermittent" it is tough to find. And in my case, since I have a history of breathing problems they were concentrating on that at first...it took a while to isolate what was happening. How are you doing? Are you more or less controlled by meds, or are you into the next types of treatment?

14 hours ago, Kirtley Howe said:

So I have found out. I was surprised by the diagnoses and even more surprised that it was so difficult to diagnose. I guess since it is "intermittent" it is tough to find. And in my case, since I have a history of breathing problems they were concentrating on that at first...it took a while to isolate what was happening. How are you doing? Are you more or less controlled by meds, or are you into the next types of treatment?

I had a few attacks but didn't go to the hospital. Cardiologist said you need to go when having an attack otherwise the can't see it. I use to just go lay down and it would pass, then I found out it can cause a stroke. Knock on wood only had one attack since 2022, Meds are doing there job. You take care.

Scary ordeal. Glad the docs got it figured out. Prayers for smooth sailing going forward.