Keep an eye on your body

[big_jaygee]

Ok folks... Here is an idea of what has been going on with me for the last 2 years or so.

Currently I am 36 and 295 pounds and at the beginning of this year I was 330 pounds.

I cannot stress enough to everybody to keep an eye with what is going on with your body. If in the back of your mind you think something is wrong, go to the doctor.

Two years ago around this time, I started drinking more water than usual; I was urinating a little more often. I was thirsty, so I would drink more water, I would urinate more often, I would be dying of thirst so I would drink more water, and as a result I would peeing more often. A never ending cycle that would even wake me up at night to drink more water, make multiple trips to the bathroom. I had a feeling I knew what the problem was, must I tried to justify it by saying it was the middle of summer and I was always out in the field checking on job sites, out in the sun, working out... etc. etc.

When I couldn't make a 30-45 minute drive home without having to stop to use the restroom, I knew there was a problem. After a little bit of blood work, I was diagnosed as Type II Diabetic. I knew this was the case but I was in denial for about 4-6 months before I went to the doctor.

Fast forward to 12/27/2015 approximately 11:30 pm. I wake up with a pain in my jaw, a bloated feeling in my upper GI, and a lot of belching. I was thinking I was having a gas build up and for the life of me I couldn't burp it out. I tried to drink a warm ginger ale and while producing burps, the pain wouldn't go away. After a couple of hours of burping, I decided to go to the hospital. As I was looking for my phone, I released one of the biggest and baddest burps I have had without being beer induced. I was proud of that one. After that burp I felt a wave of relief and decided I was going to go to sleep instead of going to the doctor.

12/31/2015 11pm. I just finished eating a couple of chicken tacos and was enjoying a nice glass of Four Roses Single Barrel watching the family pop off fireworks and running around... I get the pain in my upper GI and gas I could not burp up. I finally decided to go to the hospital to figure out what the hell was going on.

1/1/2016 12:01am. The take some blood and give me an EKG. The EKG shows a normal heart beat, they then send me back to a room and hook me up to monitors and watch me for a while. From my description of my problems they emergency room doctors think it is also an upper GI problem and order up a GI cocktail. Two hours later, they wake me up to tell me I had a heart attack recently because they found elevated levels of creatine kinase (CK), and the proteins troponin I (TnI) and troponin T (TnT). (Thanks Google)

36 years old and I have had a heart attack. Shocked the sh!t out of me and gave me a major wake up call.

So there I am, in the hospital on New Year’s Day (couldn't happen at a better time for insurance purposes, I hit all my deductibles on the first day of the year). So they order up a cardiac catheterization, but since it is a holiday and a holiday weekend, no doctor was available until Monday 1/4/2016. Monday comes around and they go in to my heart and find an artery 100% blocked up and they still managed to stick a stint in there to open it back up.

March was my 3 month check up and they heard doctor said everything looked great. I asked about smoking cigars and drinking bourbon and the doctor said I can smoke 3-4 cigars a month and a couple glasses of bourbon won’t kill me.

April I went back to the endocrinologist and my A1C levels are 5.8 (anything below a 6 is considered normal) but he is still keeping me on pills until I can lose more weight.

So while I have cut back on smoking I have not completely given up on them, it just means I will now go for quality over quantity.

Bottom line is keep an eye on your health and if something does not feel right go to the doctor. Only you know your body and you will know if something is not right. Do not put it off.

[CigarNut]

Wow, Jason! I am sorry to hear about the heart attack, but I am glad to hear that you are getting everything under control.

I've lost too many friends lately and I would like you to be around for a long time.

[stearns]

Glad you're doing better Jason, scary stuff indeed

[pnoon]

Scary stuff, Jason.
Glad things were diagnosed, you're under treatment, and on the road to recovery.

Certainly, a wake up call for all of us.

[big_jaygee]

Scary indeed. So this was just a little PSA and seeing Michael's post about losing his friend made me want to share my story.

[AdamJoshua]

I find one find it easy to ignore little pains and "obvious" things, doctors scare the crap out of me but then again you don't get better if you don't go. Glad you are on track and getting better!

[icehog3]

Glad that you stopped ignoring the "signs" and got checked out, Jason...hope your improvement continues as well.

[Steve]

Damn! Glad you're ok brother!

[yourchoice]

Jason, glad to hear everything is pointing in the right direction. Scary stuff, brother!

[big_jaygee]

Also know all the symptoms of a heart attack. I never had the "we'll know and popular" symptoms. I never had the pain in the left arm or a heavy pressure in my chest.

My neck muscles tensed up, my jaws got tight, and I had the pressure underneath my diaphragm. Never thought it was a heart issue.

[longknocker]

Glad You Caught It Early, Brother! Keep Up With The Weight Loss & Daily Exercise! You Can Do This!

[kelmac07]

Glad you caught it in time Jason. Kellie bought me a FitBit and I've been doing my best as well. Stay with it brother.

[hotreds]

Scary stuff! Glad you are on the right path, and I wish you health, brother!

[Stevez]

Man, you did an outstanding job of describing it. I had an extremely similar experience and outcome two years ago. It's been hard for me to describe, but you did it wonderfully. Glad you are healing and working on it; I say I am but haven't made much progress in the weight loss area. You just motivated me more. Best of luck for continued progress and thanks for sharing.