Overnight then 2 weeks taking it easy. I've called it a cardiac incident, Mrs. BB05 prefers attack. Felt like muscle stiffness from yard work previous day, but 90% blockage.

I had 99% blockage. I wasn't days away from a massive coronary, but hours. I have low blood pressure, so I hardly felt a thing. The guy who put in my stents said I was the luckiest guy in Europe that day, and even used on phrase in English: "just in time."

It was actually the two class German medical system that saved my life. When I felt something was wrong, I called up a cardiologist in my town (just looked in the phone book), and asked to come in and get examined. They said they had an opening in two months. I knew their system though, and said the magic words. I said I was visiting from the USA, not on any standard German insurance, and would pay immediately upon receipt of invoice. Oh, in that case I could come in that afternoon. The doc did an EKG, immediately saw something was wrong, and asked me to come in 2 days later, when they did echo stress tests. I did, and 24 hours later, my stents were in. He stopped the echo test, said "in my office NOW." He said he was calling up to the Krupp cardiac clinic in Essen (25 minutes away by car), told me to get my wife to drive me up there immediately. The surgeon who put in the stents the next day said the alert cardiologist had saved my life, which probably otherwise would have been over by the end of that week.

Woke my wife up to let her know something wasn't right and she drove me to our nearest hospital. She dropped me at the ER and went to park. By the time she got back, was in a room with an EKG started. They called in the cardiologist (it was a cardio center) and my stent was in place within 90 minutes of me getting there.

So I did mine in reverse, had the procedure then all the tests afterward.

for the "magic words." I.e., smarts stepped into the breach.

CPR failed, and I was brought back with a defibrillator.

That was August one year ago.

To get an idea of how much of a lasting effect it's had on my health:





The low average speed is a consequence of having to stop to change a flat tube.

But congrats on still being with us in any case!

in more ways than one!

Talk about taking control of a grim situation. Well done!