Near Death Experience

Six years ago, I went shopping in the local dollar store with my friend Billy near my apartment in my town. It was across the street from where I live. I was walking through the ailes and Billy was in another aile. Suddenly a terrible pain shot trough my chest area. The pain got stranger and stronger. I thought I was having a massive heart attack, I was a 60 year old male with just hypertension and not history of heart trouble.

I was doubled over in pain. I came out of the store with Billy and told him about the bad pains. I saw my older neighbor Fred and he offered to drive me home. He drove me home and I got home and still felt bad pain in the chest. I called my doctor and told me to call 911 and get right over to the ER at the medical center.

I called 911 and the police and EMT's came and the ambulance and rushed me to the ER. My doctor met us at the hospital. They admitted me to the observation floor and gave me a CT scan with contrast. I thought I was going to be ok. The nurse came to me and said your doctor said you are not going home. You have clots in your lungs and have a pulmonary embolism. She said this is serious. They sent a top lung doctor to see me and put me on coumadin. Coumadin is rat poison for those who don't know it.

The lung doctor said to me this is a waiting game. He said you were very close to death in that store, The clots could have come loose and gone either to your brain or heart and given you a stroke or heart attack. My doctor had saved my life for the second time in my life. When I was in the dollar store, I felt like I was dying and saw a tunnel with a light at the end of it. I thought that was the end of my life and that light represented the creator. I was scared and so close to death that day.I ended up in the hospital for a month and was on coumadin for a year.

My doctor said the clots were of an unknown origin. I never had clots in my lungs before. It was the scariest day of my life and the scariest month of my life. I never was so close to death. I hope I never get that close again.

We should be all grateful for every day we have left on earth. My doctor who saved my life and the lung doctor who dissolved my clots were the best two docters I ever met. They are the greatest. The medical profession today can keep you going for many years. I am 65 going on 66 and still here after many terrible medical emergencies in my life. I have been lucky to be still living after all I have been through.

I was on coumadin for a year. Coumadin can be a toxic drug in our blood stream. We have to get blood levels done every two weeks to make sure it doesn't got too high. We also have to make sure it is high enough to be therpeutic. I am now on xarelto for a blood thinner for A Fib. Recently, I developed an irregular heart beat after triple hernia surgery and pain. It has to be helped by a blood thinner to prevent a stoke. I see a great cardiologist who saved my life once before.

I have been very lucky with the doctors I have now in the area where I live. It is important to have a good team of doctors as one gets older. They can keep you going. My grandmother's older sister used to say the body is like an old car. The parts wear out and need replacing or need to be taken care of by good doctors.