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I am 47 and going stronger than ever. For the past 17 years I've been in the gym working out. For three of those years I trained and ran marathons. Sometimes while I was training I would get a little jaw pain. I believed it was due to my heart rate rising too high. When I cooled down, my heart rate would return to normal and any pain would completely disappear.

A few years ago I had a stress test and passed. My resting heart rate was 42 bpm my doctor said I had an athletic heart. Although I had slightly high cholesterol, I had stopped taking my cholesterol meds because of my level of fitness.

A few months later I started having a cough went to the doctor and got some meds and it went away. About a year later, August 2007 I was repairing some cabinets and started to cough again. I went back to the doctor. This time the cough wasn't going away and I lost some weight. I returned to the gym routine and put on the lost muscle plus. A few weeks later I ended up with a small pain on the right side of my back. I thought it was from working out too hard.

A few days later I started feeling like I had the flu. I went to the doctor three times that week. Each time I noticed my blood pressure had increased and it felt strange. I never had high blood pressure before. The doctor wrote a prescription for blood pressure meds but instead of going the pharmacy and then home I told my wife to take me to the hospital.

The flu and strange feelings would come and go. During the ER visit they performed several EKG reading. The first one indicated I was fine. The second one did not. An ER doctor saw a small funny bump at the top peak of my reading and decided to admit me. Four days and a bunch of tests later the decision was made to perform an angioplasty. The test showed three severely clogged arteries. I was immediately transferred to another hospital. I was met by a team of doctors at the new hospital and was told upon my arrival that I was going in right now for bypass. I kissed my wife said I will see you in a minute.

The next thing I remember is hearing several these people saying my name telling me to wake up. Everything was a little foggy, but I think I told them all to be quite, opened my eyes and everyone was gone. I went back to sleep. I woke up the next morning feeling great told the nurse I was starving she got me a tray of food. When the food arrived I asked if I could sit in a chair and eat. She hesitated but agreed. After eating I felt great. I was telling jokes, laughing and felt great. The nurses had to remind me that I just had major surgery.

A day later I was doing real well until they pulled out the drain tubes. I started bleeding from one of the sutures. Two packs of gauze every 20 min for the next 12 hours and a couple new stitches and I was fine. A few hours later my heart went into A-Fib. This made me feel a little sick and scared. After getting some close and compassionate care everything returned to normal. I was told that it happened because the heart doesn't' like being messed with. I received some plasma and medicine and rested for another day.

Recovery at home was difficult. There was a lot of time to think. The pain medicines kept me awake at night. I had to sleep sitting up for several nights. My family really helped me through it all. I felt terrible and so grateful for my wife. She really saved me. I thought I would never be normal again.

We started walking the first week I came home and I returned to work two months after surgery. By the sixth month I really had to watch myself because I was better than normal and had so much energy. I had to learn to pace myself. 1 year and 5 months later, I can't stop doing stuff. I am currently building a small shop to make knives and repair computers. I am running again passing all doctors follow-up perfectly. I occasionally still have some anxiety but realize it is normal. When I get down I think of my mother. She had bypass 19 years ago and is still going strong at 83.

My advice is to take your medicines, eat right, stay physically active and live your life. I was lucky to not have suffered severe heart damage. If I had to I would do it again for my family. I plan to still be running, making knives and repairing computers for another 50 plus years.

Frank B.