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| The beautiful (and vast) campus of Cleveland Clinic in Weston, FL - where I had heart bypass suregry |
It seems like it was a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far,
far away – when really it was just 6 weeks ago in Surco ,Peru – just 3500 miles
to the south. I had just been hiking
with my Peruvian pal Dasio at about 11,500 ft above Ayas, Peru – looking for
Matt Nahrstadt’s reforestation project – which we never found. It was a long
and hard hike, very much like one I’d done 3 years earlier at that very site
with my WATSAN 18 training group. But, then we hiked all the way back down to the
village, caught a ride in the back of a pickup and dashed to catch the combi
bus, down at about 9000 ft.
That was when “it” happened. I felt a sudden tightness
across my upper chest and shoulders and got VERY out of breath. “It” lasted
only about 30 seconds and may have saved my life. I continued on home to Lima,
thinking little of the incident. I simply figured I had hit a wall of
exhaustion at altitude and was out of shape from living the easy office life in
Lima for a year.
I had felt very good about my health in Lima. I’d been
walking home (3km) from the office every day and had stopped my BP meds with
just that 50-60 minute walk each day. The walk was never tiring, especially
when summer weather arrived and the young ladies graced the streets with their
very short , tight shorts and leggings.
Shortly after that, I had my COS chat with our dear PC Medical
Officer, Jorge Bazan about my health issues during 3 years of Peace Corps
service in Peru. I just happened to mention “it” to him and suggested that maybe
my lungs were not functioning as well as they might be and he got me a lung x-ray,
which showed nothing abnormal. He still felt that “it” still needed investigation and
sent me to a cardiologist, which is when things started to take a southern turn . When
the doctor saw the EKG, he asked for it to be redone. He then turned to me and
said “You have a very serious problem, my friend.”, which I took for typical
Peruvian melodrama at the time, feeling as good as I did.
But, further sonograms, stress tests and dye scans confirmed that
I had very little arterial blood flow to my heart. They guessed the blockages
were almost complete. That was about a week before I was scheduled to return to
the US as an RPCV. I had my flight and was all packed and ready to go.
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| Cleveland Clinic entrance - Valet parking, no less |
