Warfarinking
Well-known member
Hello everyone. Most of us in this forum have had/know of someone who had OHS. We all kind of have an idea of how it is going through it and at least to me It wasn't a pleasant thing to experience. I had my OHS at the age of 22 (I'm now 24) after I kept passing out every time I would do anything that increased my heart rate (was told not enough blood was going to my brain). I passed out twice. The first time I was at the GYM playing basketball when out of nowhere I get this cold weird feeling around my heart, thought nothing of it at the time. Boy was I wrong not to think nothing of it! couple minutes after that "feeling" came I started to lose vision, it was turning white and everyone was just a swirl figure. As I was passing out I hit my head on a machine and bam to the ground I go! I woke up to the sound of an Ambulance siren and a group of people around me. The medics tried to take me in the ambulance but I refused since I knew how expensive the ride to the hospital would be. My mom ended up picking me up and taking me to the hospital, after many tests I was told I may have to have OHS since my valve was almost shut. I cried on my way home from the hospital, right infront of my mom, something I have haven't done since I was a little kid. Passing out at the GYM didn't just leave me with bad news, I had a lot of anxiety, I was scared to go to places and I always wanted to be near a hospital just incase something would happen. I could honestly say I was crushed that at an age I felt was "the time of my life" would turn out to be one of the worst times. Prepared myself for the worst and to be completely honest with you guys I was ready to leave this world (If I had to). Did I mention I weighed 320lbs throughout all this? yep, so now I was an obese kid with anxiety who's future was to lay in a hospital bed. Sorry Guys, I will have to finish the story in a bit! didn't see the time! I have class in 5mins!
edit: As for my second collapse, I had gone through a procedure that would open my valve without having to have OHS, forgot the scientific name so let's just call it the balloon treatment. About a month after the procedure was done I thought I was fine so I started playing soccer with my older brother in the backyard. Wish I knew at the time but I was not fine. The same little weird and cold feeling was felt through my heart, felt like I had gone through this before, oh yeah! at the gym during my first collapse! I was prepared this time though, I knew exactly what was going to happen in a few minutes so I decided to walk quickly inside the house. I simply sat down in the nearest couch I could see, my brother knew I wasn't okay right away so he rushed up stairs to call my mom who was ironing my dads clothes for a meeting he had that day (later my brother claims he had broken a new record for the fastest time someone has ever gone up a set of stairs, think he may have been exaggerating). I didn't have time to watch my mom and brother rush down the stairs, my vision was clouded and fussy by that time, last thing I remembered was telling my brother to hold my hand and not to let go, I squeezed his hand tightly hoping it would prevent me from being taken away. I can still remember being in this third-person dream state during my five minute feint (felt more like hours had gone by). I felt like my family was all there with me, we were all just hanging around the kitchen talking and doing family-like things. It's really something I can't explain, kind of reminds me of when you have those realistic dreams and you feel like the things in that dream really did happen. As I was waking up I literally got this feeling of a bunch of little things inside of me rushing through my whole body, like If it was being powered up to life again. I almost feel like I'm repeating myself but I woke up to the sound of the Ambulance sirens again, this time they stuck a bunch of little sticky, white-rounded patches all around my body. One of the medics approached me and asked me basic questions that were in the line of "What's your name", "Where do you live", "How old are you" etc. Once I got the questions out of the way I accepted to be taken to the hospital. They ran more tests on me that lead to me having to have another procedure to see how much my valve had closed. This time I had to have most of my body shaved, after the small procedure I was told I now needed to have OHS. Doctors said the valve closed up again and it got even worse since my first collapse. My first worry was that I had no money to pay for this $100,000+ surgery and no insurance would take me in since I was considered too much of a risk. I was given about a month max to find an insurance that will cover the surgery. After digging and looking around, this program called "MIA" took me in and ended up covering most of the expenses. After I found an insurance, I met with my surgeon, who had a very nice office by the beach. My surgeon had set the surgery for 6/12/2010. I spent most of my time reflecting on everything I had accomplished, and as I looked back I was sad to think that my life could possibly end unfinished. There was so much I still wanted to do in my life, regretted all the times I did nothing, regretted wasting time being mad at people, regretted not having had really helped anyone, and what I regretted the most was not living life without a care. Time went by quick for me. I remember the day before my surgery not being able to sleep, I laid in the dark and just reminisced about life. My alarm went off at 4:30AM on 6/12/2010. I got up to do my my bed like my mom had implanted me to do since I was a little kid. Said goodbye to my mom, brother and sister before heading out for the hour drive to the hospital with my dad. Even though my surgery wasn't going to be until 10AM, I was scheduled to be there at 5:45AM to prepare me to go into surgery. As some of you may know, your whole body has to be completely shaved to prevent any possible infection. I had to the honor to have my body shaved by this 6'6 290 pound male Hawaiian, we talked as he was shaving my body, he tells me he used to play football in college (didn't doubt it one bit) and that he had tryouts to play for a top NFL team until a broken disc prevented him from pursuing that career. Few minutes after being shaved completely, this little 4'11 asian lady comes in and pushes me to the surgery room in a rolling bed. As I was being rolled to surgery we bump into my whole family, we said our goodbyes after they reassured me that everything was going to be okay. Will never forget seeing my dad have tears running down his cheeks, especially because he had this old school mentality of "boy's don't cry". I soon after arrived to this freezing room were approximately six white-masked nurses were preparing for my arrival.
will continue story later today, I have to run some errands. Sorry guys.
edit: As for my second collapse, I had gone through a procedure that would open my valve without having to have OHS, forgot the scientific name so let's just call it the balloon treatment. About a month after the procedure was done I thought I was fine so I started playing soccer with my older brother in the backyard. Wish I knew at the time but I was not fine. The same little weird and cold feeling was felt through my heart, felt like I had gone through this before, oh yeah! at the gym during my first collapse! I was prepared this time though, I knew exactly what was going to happen in a few minutes so I decided to walk quickly inside the house. I simply sat down in the nearest couch I could see, my brother knew I wasn't okay right away so he rushed up stairs to call my mom who was ironing my dads clothes for a meeting he had that day (later my brother claims he had broken a new record for the fastest time someone has ever gone up a set of stairs, think he may have been exaggerating). I didn't have time to watch my mom and brother rush down the stairs, my vision was clouded and fussy by that time, last thing I remembered was telling my brother to hold my hand and not to let go, I squeezed his hand tightly hoping it would prevent me from being taken away. I can still remember being in this third-person dream state during my five minute feint (felt more like hours had gone by). I felt like my family was all there with me, we were all just hanging around the kitchen talking and doing family-like things. It's really something I can't explain, kind of reminds me of when you have those realistic dreams and you feel like the things in that dream really did happen. As I was waking up I literally got this feeling of a bunch of little things inside of me rushing through my whole body, like If it was being powered up to life again. I almost feel like I'm repeating myself but I woke up to the sound of the Ambulance sirens again, this time they stuck a bunch of little sticky, white-rounded patches all around my body. One of the medics approached me and asked me basic questions that were in the line of "What's your name", "Where do you live", "How old are you" etc. Once I got the questions out of the way I accepted to be taken to the hospital. They ran more tests on me that lead to me having to have another procedure to see how much my valve had closed. This time I had to have most of my body shaved, after the small procedure I was told I now needed to have OHS. Doctors said the valve closed up again and it got even worse since my first collapse. My first worry was that I had no money to pay for this $100,000+ surgery and no insurance would take me in since I was considered too much of a risk. I was given about a month max to find an insurance that will cover the surgery. After digging and looking around, this program called "MIA" took me in and ended up covering most of the expenses. After I found an insurance, I met with my surgeon, who had a very nice office by the beach. My surgeon had set the surgery for 6/12/2010. I spent most of my time reflecting on everything I had accomplished, and as I looked back I was sad to think that my life could possibly end unfinished. There was so much I still wanted to do in my life, regretted all the times I did nothing, regretted wasting time being mad at people, regretted not having had really helped anyone, and what I regretted the most was not living life without a care. Time went by quick for me. I remember the day before my surgery not being able to sleep, I laid in the dark and just reminisced about life. My alarm went off at 4:30AM on 6/12/2010. I got up to do my my bed like my mom had implanted me to do since I was a little kid. Said goodbye to my mom, brother and sister before heading out for the hour drive to the hospital with my dad. Even though my surgery wasn't going to be until 10AM, I was scheduled to be there at 5:45AM to prepare me to go into surgery. As some of you may know, your whole body has to be completely shaved to prevent any possible infection. I had to the honor to have my body shaved by this 6'6 290 pound male Hawaiian, we talked as he was shaving my body, he tells me he used to play football in college (didn't doubt it one bit) and that he had tryouts to play for a top NFL team until a broken disc prevented him from pursuing that career. Few minutes after being shaved completely, this little 4'11 asian lady comes in and pushes me to the surgery room in a rolling bed. As I was being rolled to surgery we bump into my whole family, we said our goodbyes after they reassured me that everything was going to be okay. Will never forget seeing my dad have tears running down his cheeks, especially because he had this old school mentality of "boy's don't cry". I soon after arrived to this freezing room were approximately six white-masked nurses were preparing for my arrival.
will continue story later today, I have to run some errands. Sorry guys.
