On tonight's show, I delivered the news and revealed that on Monday, I will be going into the Hospital for an Angiogram of my heart arteries. That's where they insert a small camera into my Aorta at my groin, and move it up into my heart to take a look at what's going on with my arteries, and to measure blood flow.
I had a Myocardial Infarction heart attack back on April 20, 2019, went to hospital by ambulance, was admitted. Testing found I had three, possibly four, badly clogged heart arteries. But while they would normally do stents for such clogs, my clogs were NOT small and round; my clogs ran almost the entire length of my coronary arteries. I needed open heart surgery, and Christ Hospital in Jersey City didn't do that type of surgery.
My regular medical Doctor is Harvey Gross, who's been my Doctor now for 32 years. He has privileges at Englewood Hospital, so they called and found that Englewood DOES that type of surgery and they had a bed available for me. I was transferred up there.
In anticipation of me getting stents, Christ Hospital had administered a "load dose" of a medicine called Plavix, which prevents blood clots. While Plavix is great for stents, it's not great at all for open heart surgery because they NEED me to clot after that. So I had to stay in the hospital five days to wait for the blood to clot normally so they could operate.
On April 25, 2019 they operated and did four by-pass grafts. Five days later, I was released from the hospital, and over the next 6 to 8 months, recovered fine.
Seventeen months later, On October 24 2020, WHAM, I got hit again. Major pains in the chest, just like the first M.I. I went to the hospital, they did an angiogram and found that TWO of the four by-passes had clogged with blood clots. While I was on the table getting the angiogram, I went into heart failure. I actually FELT myself dying.
It's not scary, or painful . . . it just . . . happens.
I felt the death rising up in my legs from my feet, and from my hands inward up my arms.
Now, I had never experienced "death" before, but let me tell you, it is a very discernable feeling. You KNOW it when it's happening.
Thankfully, I came out of heart failure and survived. But the damage from that second heart attack was much -- M U C H - worse than the first. Doc said I had the heart function of a ninety year old man. My "ejection fraction" was 30%. He said it would improve over time . . . and it did . . . but my body was never really the same after that. Very easily winded. No stamina. Loss of muscle and physical strength.
As I mentioned on the show tonight, for about a month, I've been getting sudden, noticeable, little twinges of pain in my chest near my heart, and intermittent bouts of dull ache in my heart like the ones that I got before the first heart attack, but ignored. This time, I'm not ignoring it.
So Monday, I will go in for another angiogram to take a look at what's going on in there.
This is not a "big deal." The procedure is very safe and it is used hundreds of times every day all over the world. But, as we all know, things can . . . happen. If anything . . . . unexpected . . . happens, I want all of you to know it has been the honor of my life to serve you. The idea that thousands and thousands of you tune-in to me five nights a week, is the honor of my life and I am so grateful.
My Thanks to each and every one of you.
Hal
