I'm not one that does any "magical thinking". I don't believe any of that "everything happens for a reason" nonsense. Having said that, I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for an odd set of circumstances.

I had a heart attack on May 30th, 2014. It was a Friday afternoon and I was at work. About 4:00 I had a weird sensation. It wasn't how they typically describe it. It didn't feel like heartburn. I wasn't having difficulty breathing... no elephant on my chest or anything like that. The best way I can describe it is this: It was the same feeling I got when I was a kid and I drank a can of soda too fast. It felt like that gas bubble in your stomach that goes away when you finally burp. Only it wouldn't go away. I continued working for a half hour before I realized what it was.

When the pain hit my left arm, that's when I realized what was happening. I immediately took some aspirin and went to one of our first aid huts at work to administered oxygen to myself while contacting our emergency response team to call me an ambulance.

In the ambulance they did a blood draw and an EKG and said everything looked normal. When I arrived at the hospital they did those again along with a chest x-ray and again, it all looked normal.

There was a cardiovascular surgeon that happened to be in the ER at the time. He suggested that I stay another 4 hours so he could do one more blood draw explaining that, if I did have a cardiac event, there would be an enzyme that would be elevated in my blood stream 4 to 5 hours after the fact. 4 hours later they did that. He found the enzyme had increased 1000% since I arrived.

They admitted me and started an IV and put me on blood thinners. The next morning they injected me with a radioactive component and did an MRI. They found a 95% blockage in two of my heart arteries. It's what they call "The Widow-maker". No advance warning. Most people just drop and it's over. The blockage in my case is hereditary. My grandfather died from a heart attack at 30 years of age. They put three stents in my arteries that afternoon.

Here's the weird part...

I shouldn't even have been at work. I was supposed to get off at 2:00 that afternoon. Someone on the next shift had called in sick and they asked me if I could stay late. If I had been at home, I probably would have just taken a nap when I started feeling odd. And, most likely, I would have died in my sleep just like my grandfather.

According to the surgeon, being active at work may have helped save me.

More weirdness... It was my last day at work before a week of scheduled vacation for me. I didn't have any vacation plans. I was just taking a week off. So, I already had a week to recover from the procedure. I went back to work the following week. (Everyone at work now thinks I'm a complete badass. I'm going to allow them to continue thinking that.)

I had stents put in on Saturday and on the following Tuesday I went hiking at 12,000 ft in Rocky Mountain National Park. Because I don't pay attention when the doctor tells me I need to rest. (I'll rest plenty when I'm dead.)