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AHealedLife Survival Stories

Ryan D. Morrison and Joan Morrison

On November 6th, 2008 I suffered a severe heart attack. Thank God for my loving wife Joan who refused to listen to me and instead raced me to the ER. The ballet of staff in the ER and Cath Lab at Tomball Regional Hospital were heroes. I was informed the following morning that I needed bypass surgery urgently. I still had several nearly total blockages.

The doctors elected to give my heart a week’s rest. On November 14th I went through the surgery and started my recovery. At the age of 43 this all came as such a surprise. God clearly was getting my attention. Now I just needed to listen and not miss His message. During my recovery in the hospital I met an 82 year old angel and fellow bypass patient named Howard.

Howard’s time with me and his experience gave me courage. It was a blessing to talk with someone that God had carried over something I was going to have to cross. I still thank God for His grace, mercy, and perfect timing very day. The first few weeks were tough obviously. There was a lot of resting, reading, movies, and boredom. After a few weeks I decided to go grocery shopping with my wife. If you are not aware, all heart patients should have a pillow with them for the first 30 – 45 days. The pillow protects and softens sneezes, coughs, and even laughs.

So, with my pillow we went to the grocery store. It was an education I will never forget. We spent nearly 2 hours (about half of that was me resting) picking out groceries that met the new low sodium, low fat, low everything requirements. Just because an item indicates it is good for the heart, does not necessarily mean it is. You have to read and compare everything.

Eating well, working out in cardiac rehab, and continuing to rest accounted for the next several weeks. I ended up returning to work on January 16th in the middle of our economic storm. This probably was not the best time to return to work, but I really had no other choice. Our business severely needed reorganization to survive and move forward and I needed to contribute to that effort. Surprisingly I felt great. It was wonderful to be back and engaged, challenged, and busy again. My mind enjoyed the activity.

I felt so alive and limitlessly capable. I had more energy than I had in years. With everything going well, I scheduled my first trip away from home. It was a quick meeting in southern California and I would only be gone for 24 hours. I packed my nitro, cloths, and headed off. It felt great to be back traveling again. On Friday, February 20th I landed back in Houston and headed home. I was tired from the travel, but invigorated by it too.

At 1:00 am Saturday, February 21st I was awakened from a sound sleep by a dense chest pressure and my arms ached. This is not how I would describe the debilitating pain of November 6th at all. This was different. All I knew was that something was different now. My wife had the flu the entire week before and I chose not to wake her and worry her about something I thought was nothing. Not knowing what to do, but knowing something was not right I did take my nitro as instructed. After the second pill and approximately 20 minutes the dense pressure subsided and I drifted back to sleep.

When I woke up Saturday my arms did not hurt at all but there was still a small amount of pressure on my chest. I convinced myself it was pain from rehab and working out and was just normal for where I was in the process of healing. Saturday was uneventful. We finished the day and went to bed.

Saturday night around 11:00 pm I woke up again from a dead sleep. There was not pain or pressure in my chest, only my arms ached terribly. I took some Advil and tried to sleep again. This ended up becoming progressively more impossible as the pain continued to escalate throughout the night. I did manage to get a couple hours maybe. The pain finally went away Sunday just before noon. Again, I had chalked this up to soreness and pain from working out.

Monday I woke up feeling like I was coming down with the flu. I told my wife about how I felt at different times during the weekend and she convinced me to call my cardiologist for a quick check up. I was able to get in on Monday afternoon. The normal tests were run and I was ready to head home, jump in bed and suffer with the flu. Something apparently did not look right in my EKG and my doctor sent me to the ER for a blood test to check my troponin level and for a flu swab. Like many ERs on a Monday in the heat of flu season it ended up taking a while. I was called back for one piece of the puzzle at a time. It seemed to take forever. For the fourth time a nurse came out to the waiting room and called me back. I was very irritated and just wanted to get home and crawl in bed. I felt feverish, head ached, and my muscles just were worn out.

“Sir, please take off your shirt and put on this gown.” This did not compute. I quickly explained that I thought I had the flu and did not understand why I needed to take off my shirt and that I was only in the ER for a flu test and blood test. “2.3 sir. I need you to take off your shirt, put this gown on and lay down on the bed. The doctor will be right in.” The 2.3 referred to my troponin level. I had suffered another heart attack sometime over the weekend.

My cardiologist arrived in the ER a few minutes later and the decision was to perform an angioplasty first thing Tuesday morning. The next morning I went through an angioplasty and received two more stents to correct the problem from the graphs collapsing. My troponin levels continued to be elevated for the next couple days and I just never seemed to regain my energy. After the doctors further studied pictures it was determined that I would need another procedure to address further narrowing and plaque issues downstream from the collapsed graph on the RCA.

The follow-up angioplasty was performed on March 4th. I received four more stents in the RCA. It has only been a few hours since being released from the hospital and I am feeling wonderful. In a few days I will have a follow-up appointment with my doctor.

Thank God for my life, my challenges, and my continued recovery.