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Getting A Second Chance

I recently lived though a heart attack and subsequently had two stents implanted in two different arteries of my heart and I want to share my story so that others may benefit from my experience.

The stents that I had put in were rather easy procedures compared to what may have required open heart surgery in the past.  The cardiologist told me that these modern stents can radically assist in longevity and quality of life.  I can live a long time.  And I feel like I’ve been given a second chance in life.

I was in the intensive care unit for two nights and another two nights in standard care.  When the doctor came by to talk to me, he said that was lucky that I came into the ER as quickly as I did.  He also complimented Kay’s presence of mind to give me an aspirin before we left our house to come to the ER.  He said that even in this day and age, with all the communications we have, that 30% of people who have heart attacks don’t go to the hospital, and that most of them die.  Also, most of those are men.  It seems that men have an elevated sense of self denial.  I can relate to that.  I was denying my own heart attack.  It couldn’t happen to me.  As a matter of fact, I had a tread mill test and a sonogram of my heart only about 6 months ago.  I had elevated blood pressure at the time and the cardiologist wanted to check my heart out.  I passed the test with flying colors which surprised even the Doctor.  So my immediate response to my on coming heart attack was that this couldn’t be happening.

Now, in my situation, I needed two stents.  I was told that one of my arteries was 100% blocked and I received a stent for that artery that first night.  Apparently another of my arteries was 95% blocked but they felt that inserting two stents into two different arteries in the same procedure presented a risk of inducing another heart attack.  So after 10 days, I went back to the hospital for a second, elective procedure to receive my second stent.  The stent procedure itself was effortless for me.  I didn’t feel a thing and I woke up feeling just fine.  For the second procedure, I stayed just one night in the intensive care unit, then went home the next day.  The doctor says that after taking it easy for about 3 weeks, I can get back onto a regular exercise program

So here’s my story.  On Friday night of Oct 16th, after enjoying a wonderful seafood meal in celebration of our 45th wedding anniversary, my wife Kay, and I stepped out into the parking lot to walk off some of the meal before driving home.  Very soon after we started strolling, I felt an ache creeping up into my lower jaw.  I then started feeling slightly light headed and needed to sit down.  After a minute or two of sitting, the pain was not going away, but starting to intensify slightly.  At this point, it was in the back of my mind that maybe I should go to the hospital, which was only 5 minutes away, but I couldn’t accept that I could be spending the rest of my anniversary night in an emergency room and besides, I’m thinking that the pain really wasn’t THAT bad.  I was thinking that if I could just lie down for a minute, it would go away.  So Kay drove us home.

When we got home 30 minutes later the pain had increased quite a bit, so I laid down.  After 10 minutes, the pain had crept down into my upper chest and was so intense, I had no choice but to have Kay drive me back to the hospital, which was another 30 minutes.  When we got to the ER, the pain was an agonizingly deep, dull pain and I found it difficult to walk.  I had never felt so helpless in my life.  When we stepped into the ER, it was packed with people and there were two people in line to talk to the receptionist nurse.  I sat down and Kay politely waited her turn.  When she told the nurse she thought that I was having a heart attack, and pointed me out in the crowd, the response was immediate.  It was like someone had yelled “FIRE”!  Within seconds there were 2 or 3 nurses and a wheel chair being brought out for me.

They whisked me into a small room where they gave me a quick EKG, which measures the beating of the heart.  I remember them asking me how much pain I was in and my response was on a scale of 1-10 with me being dead at 10, my pain was an 8.  I was then whisked off to a staging room and surrounded by nurses putting IVs in both arms and them asking me more questions like was I allergic to anything etc.  I became aware of a very compassionate older nurse who presented herself as the head of the nurse’s station.  She was talking into my ear explaining what was going to happen next.  She said that I would be going into another room where they will put dye into my blood so they can see what is going on with my heart, and probably have a stent put into one of my arteries.  Then she said that if need be I may have to have bypass surgery.  And THAT’S when it really hit me.  I looked at her and half jokingly said, “OK, now you’ve got me scared.”  And to be truthful, I did feel fear start to creep over me.  This had all happened so fast.  After all, an hour and a half ago I was enjoying a perfectly good seafood anniversary dinner with my lovely wife and feeling no pain.

Then something wonderful happened.  After hearing me express my fear, the head nurse took my hand in hers and looked squarely into my eyes from about a foot away and said “It’s OK, you’re going to be alright.”  She repeated those words over and over, maybe 10 times, all the while looking straight into my eyes.  After about the 6th or 7th time, I realized that she was right.  And I got on board, so to speak, with the concept and repeated back to her that  “Yes, I’m going to be alright.”  At this time I also noticed a twinkle in her eyes that reminded me of the twinkle in J-R’s eyes and I knew that he was looking through her eyes to me.  I then felt any fear that was building up, leave me.

I’m now into my second chance in life and I am just incredibly humbled by all the Light, Love, Caring, Seeds, phone calls, flowers and get well cards that I have received from so many MSIA friends and family.  I really felt, and continue to feel the power of all that caring in my life.  I am extremely grateful to everyone who was concerned for me.  THANK YOU.  I am also extremely grateful for having the Peace and Loving of the Traveler in my heart so that I can share that with others, and continue the expansion of my awareness of loving God.

I’m loving you all

Lee Clausen

6 thoughts on “Getting A Second Chance”

    1. Lee – God has Blessed You with longer life! Wow, that is an amazing story. I would have missed you had you gone. I’m so glad you are sticking around! Thank you Kay for your wisdom and love and keeping Lee alive. Love you all

  1. Thank you for sharing this story with us all. A heart full of loving to you, Lee, and gratitude for your healing, and greater well being than ever 🙂 Happy Anniversary, and remember, the best is yet to come 🙂 xoxo

  2. I had no idea Lee! I am SO grateful you are still with us! All my love and blessings to you and Kay. I love you guys.

  3. Laurence Hamblen

    Lee: Thanks for the report……I can relate. On August 31, my heart electrical system failed. When I got to the ER, my heart stopped and they used the paddles to get it going. I immediately went into surgery and a pacer was implanted. I now feel better than I have in many years. LL, Laurence Hamblen.

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