Christmas Eve Heart attack

Where do I begin? How do I say what is on my heart and in my mind?

On Christmas Eve morning I was awakened by severe pain in my left arm that quickly spread to my chest along with profuse sweating, dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath…..heard these symptoms before?

I had the classic heart attack symptoms. After a fast ride to the Bacon County
Hospital where the nurses and staff were quick, confident, and compassionate I was life-flighted to St. Vincent’s in Jacksonville where the doctor was waiting in the Cath lab for me. The heart cath showed 100% blockage in my Right
Coronary Artery that was opened with 2 stents. The staff, nurses, and Dr. Mikulic were so caring and showed great concern. He said due to the quick response of the Bacon County Hospital staff I lived to see another day. Of course, we
all know that my Jesus is the reason I am here today, but I must brag on the Bacon County Hospital. I would not have made it to Waycross or even Douglas, so having a trained staff and award-winning hospital in our town is an amazing
asset! A special thanks to everyone who was at the hospital on Christmas Eve morning to evaluate, stabilize, and make arrangements to quickly send me out to get the much-needed help so I could live to see another day.

The nurses in the ER that morning were the hands and feet of Jesus.
If you are reading this and don’t know my Jesus, I want you to understand that at any moment it could be your turn to die. I had NO indication of anything wrong, all my bloodwork showed good numbers in all areas just 1 week prior to this attack! None of us know what the next day, or even minute holds in our future. Therefore, I want to encourage you to turn to Jesus, ask Him to be your Lord and Savior and then you will have the “peace that passes all understanding.” If I can share Him with you, if you want to talk about Him, I am here, willing and able to share my testimony and my Jesus
with you.

If you think this could never happen to you, think again. My blockage was caused from CALCIUM. That’s right, CALCIUM.

According to my doctor, sometimes your body will take calcium from your bones and deposit it in your arteries. I had none of the usual issues that could lead to such as this: smoking, drinking, diabetes, or even dairy consumption.
Everyone I have talked to since my experience says they have never heard of this before. Well, I am here to tell you about it.

Our local, incredible hospital offers a test for $99 (insurance will not pay for it, why? I will never understand). The test is called the CT Calcium Score and you can call the Bacon County Hospital l Lab and set up an appointment (no doctor
referral needed). The test is simply a Cat Scan that reads the percentage of calcium in your arteries. With this test, you can know if you have an abundance of calcium and need to see a cardiologist. The only prep for this test is 24-hours of no caffeine or nicotine. This test has been effective in some people of finding aorta aneurisms. It only takes about 10-15 minutes. So, what are you waiting for!! This would be a wonderful gift you could give your family by finding and
correcting any problems you might have and never even be aware. I sure wish I had taken the test BEFORE the heart attack.

And lastly, I want to say what an honor and privilege it is to live in Alma/Bacon County where we have so many caring individuals. I have been incredibly blessed by all the prayers that have been prayed for me and my family by folks who saw the helicopter come in and take off (not having any idea who was on it), by my church family (everyone needs to have a church family who will come along side you in these desperate times-church via Facebook is not church at all), by my friends and family who have been so concerned, caring, and loving. You can be sure I am grateful for every call, text, email, Facebook message. I am “highly favored” by God to be here today to share His love, His amazing grace and mercy, and to shine His light of life and love to anyone who will listen.

I went back to the hospital about one month later to discover I had an 80% blockage in the "widow maker" artery.  Two more stents were put in to help relieve that from cause another heart attack or death.

God could call me home at any point, but I know, that I know either walking with Jesus here or walking with Jesus in heaven is a win-win for me.  How about you?