Top Best And Pro Tips For Stop Smoking

Top Best And Pro Tips For Stop Smoking

 I always intended to quit smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. When I had a heart attack, that could have been the end of me. I was four miles from the ER it gave me CPR. I was 71 miles from the nearest trauma hospital that could provide emergency surgery. There were regional thunderstorms. I am deeply grateful to everyone involved in saving my life. It was a wild dash through a stormy night in rural Tennessee, with sirens, ambulance lights, lightning, thunder, and torrential rain. It's been seven days since I almost died and I sit here knowing that words cannot express my deep relief that kind compassionate men and women were there for me, they didn't give up, they cared for me, they cared for me, so now I'm home, my recovery planned, registered nurses scheduled to visit to guide me. For a few weeks, I had stomach pains that came and went, sometimes bad, sometimes not. Sometimes I had pain on the right side of my shoulder. 

At 73 I thought I had a stomach ulcer. It was Tuesday afternoon, thunderstorms were in the forecast, and the pain returned with excruciating intensity radiating up to my shoulder. My call for an ambulance resulted in me being at the local hospital in Copper Basin within twenty-five minutes. I remembered being lifted from the gurney onto the operating table in the ER and didn't notice again until I was reassured, back in the ambulance, the siren, the lights, and the raging storm outside, when I was told I had leveled four. several times in twenty-five minutes they couldn't get a helicopter to take me to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. They took me down the road. I knew it was over seventy miles. Time seemed condensed as I was wheeled to the ER in Erlanger, wheeled in for questions, catheterized, and passed out. I woke up in the intensive care unit, with frequent beeps of various kinds, noises in the hallway, voices, cardio nurses there for me, and conversations. 

I felt calm. I was told I had a massive heart attack. After five years of abstinence, I started smoking more than two years ago, smoking two packs of light cigarettes a day. In addition, I had a healthy lifestyle in the garden with nutrition and exercise. My lipid profile was excellent. I ate a lot of butter and thought my low triglycerides, memories of my childhood in Ireland, and more cows in Roscommon than people were making it possible. My first two heart nurses were Bonny and Russell, with years of experience, quietly powerful, light humor, and always right outside the room. There were shifts. Two sisters at once. Time is up. Oral medication twice a day. I couldn't eat much. Cardiac surgeon Dr. Huang explained to me where the artery was blocked, at the top of the heart, where he inserted the stent, the platinum-chromium stent, and of course, I would have to quit smoking and adopt a healthy eating pattern and take other medications. I was completely willing. Someone came up and said I had to be tough, not have broken ribs from pounding and electric paddles to keep me alive. Maybe it was said to make me smile. That worked. I wish I could now remember the names of all the heart nurses who care for me, all the wonderful, selfless, warriors for health, and barriers against gloomy thoughts.

 After two days in the intensive care unit, I was well enough to be moved to a private room on the main floor, quieter, to be prepared for discharge. I was still receiving constant attention, heart monitoring, blood draws, blood pressure readings, and medication twice a day. I was doing well, my mind cleared, and I remembered with deep gratitude the names of my last heart sisters. They had a profound effect on me, they gave me confidence, Josephina was like a sister to me, and Katie and Tasha were like cousins. Dr. Huang came to discuss my medication and to arrange an appointment with a cardiologist in Copperhill. I still had to prepare for another hit. There was another occlusion, eighty percent, in an artery near the base of the heart. My friends Jean and Scott drove 120 miles from Atlanta to pick me up, then to my home in Copperhill. In the coming months, I will have frequent visits from registered nurses to guide and prepare me for the future.