Had a BIG SCARE.....

McClellan Made Blades

Well-Known Member
Hey Dawgs!
I probably should have gotten this on here sooner, but I know just how wonderful my Knife Dog family is and because I'm fortunate enough to have a job that has great benefits, (not great pay), I stay just for the benefits! I also know there are so many people out there in so much worse shape than myself, (BTW Fred my heart breaks for you, with the loss of your Grandson), with all that is going on everywhere else I decided to wait until things got calmed down a bit here and everywhere else. Last Sunday morning March 6th, roughly 2 A.M., I wasn't sleeping well, had spent the day working on the shop, I've been doing some renovations in the shop, building new benches, replacing broken plywood wall sections from when it was a horse barn, epoxy coating the floor, I had so many things I was doing and the shop is a wreck! Me and the Pup worked a lot last Saturday, should have been able to sleep easily, around 2A.M. I was still trying to doze off, when I got this weird pain in my chest, then it really scared me, the pain quickly intensified and spread under both armpits and I couldn't breath right, I woke my wife and told her we needed to go to the hospital, in an attempt to make a fairly long story shorter, I was having a heart attack. Several actually, I found out that I had 2 major arteries that were 90% blocked. Later that Sunday (March 6th) I was rushed from one hospital to another one for an emergency Heart Catheterization, around noon that Sunday.
All in all, I'm doing pretty well now. Unless I have an evil Cardiologist, that wants to bore me to death, I should be right as rain when I go back to see him this Wednesday, it seems working my butt off in the shop doesn't replace exercise! My regular job is sedentary, working in the shop ALWAYS made me feel good, if not better. None of my aches and pains ever bothered me when I was working on a knife, when I get in the shop and get focused on the task at hand and enter that "Space/Time Continuum" we call "The Knife Shop", I feel better there than anywhere! That's not saying that I had a lot of notice, I had no idea I was in the shape I was in, I've had blood pressure problems for years, cholesterol was elevated a couple of times during physicals, I had just seen my Doc 2 weeks prior, and he did listen to my heart, I know he couldn't or wouldn't be able to diagnose this without some major tests, that at the time were unwarranted.

A week later, I'm still a little sore, you always hear how they do a heart cath, how they "go in through the leg", right? My butt! They go right up the crotch! Right up the groin, it's still pretty painful, but I'm moving pretty well now. I just wanted to take a minute to let you all know why I've been so quiet, I've still got to finish my thread on my forge build, that sadly will have to wait a little while, I still have a couple things to do to it before I can fire her up, and I will get it done, with pics to go along with it! I should take a second and Thank my lovely wife, she only left my side 2 times the entire time I was in the hospital, to take care of the kids, my Mom stepped up and helped everywhere she could, and my mom-n-law, offered her services as well, it's truly wonderful to have a family that jumps in when something like this happens! I knew if I had let y'all, my "Knife Dog Family" know about it, you all would have jumped in for us as well, I'd much rather those resources be used for someone in much worse condition than myself! If everything checks out on Wednesday, I should be able to go back to work Thursday! Oh, and Thanks to those that are my Facebook friends that wished me a happy Birthday as well! Birthdays are so much better ABOVE ground than under it!!! Rex
 
Good to hear you are well my friend. I guess it's time we all start putting our treadmills in front of our grinders.
 
Rex I am glad to hear that you’re alright. That is a scare when it happens, but you’ll be better now than you have been in years. Listen to your new Doc, follow his instruction on diet and exercise. You’ll find that you will like the new diet. You’ll eat much better food and I mean taste better. Well with the exception of fake bacon.

They do go into the right leg,

Area:biggrin:


When the nurse shaved me just on the one side I told her that I would walk in circles for weeks and that she needed to do it all.
Clean as a whistle :what!:

Now it is a must that you spend more time in the shop with the pup.
Tell the wife, Thanks from all of us for keeping you around a while longer.

Man I miss bacon.

Todd
 
Glad you're doing better Rex. The alternative really sucks...no knife making ever. Keep us informed and don't wait for things to calm down to tell us.

Pat
 
Rex,

Good to hear everything is going well. We could all get the message from your experience and get off our duffs and do a little real exercise.

Take care,
Carey
 
Hey Rex! Glad to hear you gonna be ok. You take care or yourself. You going to Batson's this year? I am not going to be able to make it. Gotta work. Tell the PUP I said hello.
 
Good to hear you are well my friend. I guess it's time we all start putting our treadmills in front of our grinders.

Hey Murph, That's a great idea..., just remember, as my Cardiologist said to me, "exercise is exercise and work is work", part of why I love making knives is that it's just physical enough, the pace is up to me, as well as the amount of time I spend doing it. My day job is spent behind a computer, I can't count how many times I've said to my co-workers, "This job is going to kill me", fortunately it's not a high stress job...most of the time. Besides, stress effects everyone differently, my work can't be rushed and completed adequately, it can be half-a$$ed, but for the most part they leave me alone and let me do my thing.

The main reason I wanted to share this health scare with all of you guys is because anyone can be at risk, well, that and I feel like you guys are like an extended family, we laugh together, we help each other out like a family does and sometimes (probably not publicly) we cry together. With that said, please take this as a wake up call, if you don't know what your Cholesterol count is, at the very least, have it checked! It's a simple blood test, and the worsted they'll do is give you some meds to treat it. What I've come to understand is that it isn't ALWAYS about being fat or your diet, there is a genetic correlation that can raise your risk factors dramatically. If you couple that with any other risk factors you may have such as diet, tobacco usage (of ANY KIND!), weight, and then your heart can become a ticking time bomb. I had few if any symptoms that I had 2 arteries that were 90% blocked, I wasn't overly tired, even after putting in 16 to 18 hour days, my resting heart rate has always been fairly low, before I turned 43 years old, it usually stayed about 58, even now it's around 62, as fat as I was, (and still am) that was pretty incredible, my blood pressure has been high for years, I dropped a significant amount of weight in an attempt to not be put on meds, which didn't work. If I....errr, I mean WHEN I lose more, just maybe I can correct that as well. My goal is to lose 50 pounds, hopefully that and a huge lifestyle change will be enough to get me healthy enough to hang around here bugging EVERYBODY for a long time!
Please, take a minute and stop by your Doctor, or any of the
Doc-N-A-Boxes, and get it checked, plan it for early in the morning so it's easier to fast before you go. That's important to get an accurate reading, they can do it if you weren't fasting, but the test costs more, and I'm not sure how accurate it is and some insurance companies may not cover the costs.

This incident woke me up, I basically ate anything I wanted to, rarely got enough sleep and didn't exercise at all. I guess I was under (what I now call) an assumption, I assumed that because I worked so hard in the shop, that replaced exercise, that because I would put in an additional 30 to 50 hours a week working in the shop (+ my regular 40) that the time there would be "considered" my exercise, I was thinking that because it wasn't sedentary like my day job. Because of my knife making, I didn't think I had a sedentary lifestyle. You need to spend an hour a day walking, one solid hour, distance doesn't matter, pace and time are the main factors, get your heart rate up and keep going for one hour. My Doc says 3 times a week, I think I'll do it more at first to make it a habit. Making the time to do this will make time for so much more....LIFE! It takes 28 days to create a good habit, usually less than 2 or 3 to break good habits, keep that in mind if anyone decides to make any changes to their lifestyle.

If it's necessary to keep everyone here with us, I hope and pray you all do it! Thanks Guys, Rex
 
When the nurse shaved me just on the one side I told her that I would walk in circles for weeks and that she needed to do it all.
Clean as a whistle :what!:

Now it is a must that you spend more time in the shop with the pup.
Tell the wife, Thanks from all of us for keeping you around a while longer.

Man I miss bacon.

Todd

Todd,
That's so funny, I don't know why, I guess they weren't sure which side the Doc was going to invade, so the chick with the clippers AND razor did both sides of my err, well, lets say that she cleaned both sides and left me a little Marine style hair cut up the middle! I'm NOT looking forward to the "re-growth"!

Spending time with the Pup is always top of my list, when he's available! This boy is wide open, he's always been involved in something and if it's off season for anything, he's trying to either play paint ball, having air soft wars and every now and again I get him in the shop, the boy loves to weld and aint too bad. And I did tell the wife y'all said thanks, and now I say THANKS, for the great advice, I'm going to show this to Ty, I meant the Pup, and maybe he'll listen to some other folks saying he needs to spend more time with his Dad! He has so many interests, so many friends, and is always wanting to do something! I can't knock him for that, I'm just an old guy and probably pretty boring most of the time! Thanks, Rex
 
Thanks Guys,
I appreciate all the well wishes and prayers, from everyone! It's been rough, mainly because I have been locked in the house since I got out of the hospital last Monday, Doc's orders were not to pick up anything over 20 pounds, which basically means EVERYTHING! I finally went to the shop last Thursday and put up a few outlet boxes stayed about an hour. Before all this happened I was in the middle of a shop renovation, the entire shop is destroyed! We've so far replaced all the walls with new OSB, painted the walls a gloss white, and went with the Behr Epoxy Acrylic floor coating, and got one set of table legs built. All of this was done before the heart attack. For the most part everything has been sitting since. I'm going to go out and work on one of my new work benches for a while, might even let the Pup do some welding. He'll be going fishing later on today, so I need to get busy, as he'll be doing the heavy lifting! I've got to get through this, there is so much I need to do, so much that is half done, and once I get the shop done, I've got to get my new forge finished! The list goes on and on!

Again, Thank You all, your encouragement, thoughts and prayers are appreciated more than I can ever say, hopefully we'll be seeing most of y'all at BLADE! Rex
 
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