Summary: My eyes were shut and I could hear a lot of activity going on in the room.<br> <br> <br> <br> I was laying on a bed. I felt weak and disoriented.<br> <br> I could hear my wife talking to a man with a deep voice and a handful of other voices moving around the room.<br> <br> I finally dared to open my eyes.<br> <br> I was clearly in a large hospital room. There was a lot of medical stands and devices around the bed, some making very light noises.<br> <br> My wife was talking to a tall doctor when she noticed I was awake.<br> <br> They looked at me, concerned. She looked like she was going to faint…<br> <br> The doctor told me I had been through 2 major heart attacks. <br> <br> I was in the ICU and I’d be taking a bunch of pills for the rest of my life. My heart would be very damaged and I wouldn’t be running around playing soccer with my two daughters again anytime soon.<br> <br> Overwhelmed, I shut my eyes.<br> <br> The last 2 days came flooding back into my mind.<br> <br> The massive chest pain on Christmas night, with my entire extended family around me.<br> <br> The ambulance coming, my family crowded in the front window, watching, Christmas tree lighted up behind them, as I was rushed to the local hospital.<br> <br> The rest of the time was a blur as I remember chest pain so bad I passed out in the ambulance.<br> <br> Hours later I had to be moved to a larger, city hospital and I remember the chest pain being so intense that I thought I was about to die.<br> <br> I passed out, again.<br> <br> That is when I work up in the room with the doctor and my wife and about 5 nurses or so, all busy doing who knows what.<br> <br> I was numb.<br> <br> I was only 28. No history of heart problems in the family. I didn’t drink, smoke or do drugs of any kind. I had a fairly low-stress office job and had risen through the ranks, making it out of the cubicle farm into an office.<br> <br> Why me?! How did this happen?<br> <br> My mind was racing and then I felt it. Like a UFC fighter punching me in the chest with all his power. Consciousness faded as did the massive strike of sudden pain.<br> <br> I woke up again, in another room. It looked like a simple hospital room instead of a packed, state of the art ICU room I was in before.<br> <br> No one was in the room.<br> What if I had another heart attack and I simply died?<br> What would my family do?<br> Was this life I had what I had really wanted?<br> <br> Have you ever heard Tony Robbins talk about the rocking chair thought exercise? It’s where you pretend you are at the end of your life, sitting in a rocking chair, thinking<br> <br> It’s where you pretend you are at the end of your life, sitting in a rocking chair, thinking about all the decisions and actions you had taken or not taken in life. Would you be proud of your life or completely regretful?<br> <br> I spent about an hour going through that exercise, with what I thought could really be the end of my life.<br> <br> I realized I was proud of a few things and totally regretful about many others and I wasn’t even 30 yet.<br> <br> Long story short, the doctor came in and told me that they had called a specialist.<br> <br> They didn’t find any blocked arteries, I had no health risks, I was young, and the cardio unit couldn’t figure out why I had had 3 massive heart attacks in 2 days.<br> <br> The specialist did a simple test and found that I had a virus in the sack around my heart. It was no worse than getting the flu virus. I wouldn’t have to take all the pills the rest of my life and my heart was NOT damaged. The virus SIMULATES a heart attack, with no lasting damage.<br> <br> I was to take some antibiotics and I’d be fine in 7 days…<br> <br> I was completely shocked, again.<br> <br> I felt complete relief.<br> <br>
