Typing on phone at work but will try to be detailed.

Almost a year ago out of the blue my wife experienced what is called SCAD which stands for Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection.

The most simple explanation is that your arteries have layers like an onion. SCAD occurs when the inner lining detaches. In most cases the patient may have a heart attack or chest pain and they can often put the patient on beta blockers and maybe put wires in to keep the blood flow open and watch them in the icu for a week and the dissection will re-attach.

In more severe cases they will need to stent. In a very small percentage of cases they will need to perform Bypass Surgery (CABG).

In my wife’s case her left coronary artery dissected and then tore. The tear continued Into all major arteries on her left side and resulted in complete blockages of all 3 arteries.

She experienced a massive heart attack at home during which she called 911 ( I was at work). She then walked to her car and laid down in her car with emergency flashers on so paramedics could find her if she lost consciousness.

They showed up quickly since they are down the street and through her into the ambulance. While we live less than 5 miles from an ER, that Hospital did not have a trauma center or cardiology lab so they transported her to one 15 mins away. Fortunately on the way there the paramedics called ahead and the trauma doc called the interventional team who immediately suspected SCAD and had her sent straight up:

Apparently she was ran through the Er where they cut off her clothes straight into the elevator to the interventional cardiology lab where apparently all hell broke loose. She suffered another massive heart attack on the way there and all three of her arteries were crumbling. They have her massive amounts of plavix to try and stop blockages and also tried to get wires into each artery.

Unfortunately when the arterial walls break down you get lots of holes which are basically false positives for the actual arterial flow, called false lumens. If u put wires in those you simply extend the tear.

She had over four interventional cardiologists working on her trying to get wires in. They were finally able to get wires into 2/3 of the arteries.

t that point there was a discussion over whether they could stent or if open heart surgery was the only option. The summary is that everyone thought she would die no matter what so they didn’t want to be responsible.

The risk of stenting was the arterial walls were so far gone that they would need to be stented in their entirety and any rupture would cause her to bleed out as a result of the plavix.

Surgeon didn’t want to operate for similar risk of her bleeding out as well as the fact that he believed she was too unstable to survive an operation.

Apparently there was a lot of yelling and the end result was the interventional cardiologists refusing to stent as they believed it to likely cause certain death as risk of rupture was extremely high given the damage to the arteries.

By that point I had gone to the ER where they put me in a private room with her dad and had told us she had had a heart attack but they were doing more testing so I assumed she was stable.

Finally after almost two hrs a nurse took us upstairs where a surgeon met with me separately and told me the situation and that she would likely not survive the surgery. He informed me that even if she did survive there may be brain damage although the fact that she had not lost consciousness before they put her under was a good sign on that front.

Apparently on the way to the OR to be prepped she had experienced another heart attack or some other complication wherein her heart stopped and she “coded out”. They were able to revive her at which point he ran out to talk to me.

He was very concerned about her bleeding out even if they completed surgery successfully due to all the blood thinners.

I asked if there was any kind of backup option and he said well not really, we can try to get a transplant if someone dies in the next 24 hrs, otherwise I may be able to keep her on the pump so you can see her one more time and say goodbye although she’ll be unconscious and that very well may not be an option.

Said s planned open heart takes 2-4 hrs but this was emergency situation and they could not really give me an estimate except on.

The entire conversation was probably 5 minutes and he then went straight into surgery.

The surgery took 8 hrs and they were able to successfully bypass 2/3 arteries. They did not know how damaged her heart was from the heart attacks but suspected she would likely be in heart failure for the rest of her life.

After 8 hrs surgeon came out and looked utterly exhausted. He told me everything was completely fucked when they got her open but we’re able to bypass 2/3 and believed that if they held there would be adequate blood flow to sustain the heart. He said he had cauterized the shut out of everything but was still very worried about her bleeding out. Said to sit tight and I could see her soon.

About two hrs later they brought us into ICU where she was intubated but alive with approximately 5-7 doctors around her. The surgeon was next to her for at least 3 more hrs till around 12:30/1 until she was slightly more stable from drugs, the balloon pump was working and she did not appear to be bleeding out.

They took her off the breathing machine at 3 which was interesting to watch and the first thing she said was who the fuck has a heart attack at 34.

She was pretty touch and go for the first few days but finally stabilized.

We’re just under a year out and she is now completely back to normal and out of heart failure.

She was extremely healthy and fit before the surgery which they credited with saving her along with us having one of the best surgeons I. The country randomly available when she came in. He had an or prepped for an open heart that afternoon that cancelled at the last second so it was ready to go when she came in.

Taking questions and abuse.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141547)

First had they not bypassed her to the hospital with the full OR it would have delayed serious medical intervention by several hours.

Second the hospital they took her too was brand new with a brand new state of the art cath lab and operating room. It had just been completed a couple years prior.

Third was the fact that one of the top CT surgeons was chilling because a scheduled open heart had just cancelled was very fortunate.

Neither my wife or I are religious and this did nothing but further our atheist beliefs. To provide context the 1.5 - 2 years prior she had 4 separate miscarriages and the week before she was scheduled to have another uterine surgery to fix what they though may have been causing the problems she had this.

To the extent their is a god, I don’t want to support a being that would put someone through that much.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141604)

We’re ok with it, we may adopt. I’m a firm believer in not giving a fuck about much in life. Things happen and you deal with them, no point in dwelling on your lot in life. Plus she’s alive and thriving so we’re happy.

We’re considering adopting in a few years.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141684)

In that sense it’s probably good I can’t have biological kids with her.

Am actually going out on my own in a month so your prayers are needed brother.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141688)

I guess there’s the quote God doesn’t give you what you can’t handle but the 4 miscarriages the previous couple years plus this just seems cruel and not something I’d support.

The days after the surgery also did not make me feel like god existed. She was in tons of pain and couldn’t move due to balloon pump in her heart. It looked incredibly uncomfortable and that was with her maxing our fentanyl.

And then some of the things you see in the ICU of people dying all over the place, etc.

I would get annoyed when people would tell me they were praying for us or that god was involved in saving her. The only thing that saved her was her unhinges surgeon who had the balls to do the surgery with an insanely high risk that she would die on the table.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38145210)

I concede and lay my fedora at your feet, good sir

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38148164)

Actually she has very low blood pressure.

SCAD typically affects healthy younger women with no risk factors. It is very rare and they don’t know what causes it although it’s believed to be associated with hormones to some degree.

For example approx 40% of the time it happens postpartum.

She had no risk factors including pregnancy and hers was one of the more extreme cases ever seen. I believe her case has already been presented at several medical conferences.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141625)

Biological kids are off the table now due to her heart but we may adopt down the line.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141662)

Life throws a series of fucked up curveballs and you deal with them as best you can while trying to stay positive.

I’m happy my wife is alive, I’m happy I have all my limbs and can spend weekends grilling, drinking beers and going to the beach.

We can always adopt too.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141703)

Plus seems unnecessary given that there’s tons of discarded kids who need homes with loving mothers and distant but loving fathers.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142370)

She called me and said she was feeling nauseous and couldn’t cool down and she was gonna go home. I said Yeah go home and attributed to the bldg being hot. Hindsight nausea and overheating can be a symptom of SCAD.

Anyway she went and got an açaí bowl, ate it at beach and then went home and was doing laundry when she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

It got harder and harder to breathe. She initially called her dad and then hung up to call 911 because she thought she was going to pass out.

Around that time she also start having experiencing chest pain that was across her whole chest and felt like someone was squeezing her really hard.

Put home at the time did not have AC and she thought it may still have something to do with heat and went to her car and turned on the ac full blast and told dispatch she had her flashers on if she lost consciousness.

This helped them find her very quickly.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141652)

I have a history of dealing with some emergency situations as well which makes things easier to handle.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141713)

Also she’s now doing great so I’m pretty confident she’ll be alright. Plus the upside to the bypass surgery is that veins aren’t subject to dissection like arteries so even if she were to dissect somewhere else it probably wouldn’t kill her.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141673)

Crazy that you can just drop dead at any moment.

Well, back to wagecucking.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141675)

Going back to wage cucking after that was quite hard. Plus at my year end review my autistic boss had the audacity to comment on my low hours for the year and my poor work product that I had submitted right when I had gotten back to work. “It’s improved since so I know you can do better and the hours need work for next year.”

At that time he was referring to my wife was still having weird rhythms and shit and we were in and out of ER for the month and every time we’d have to stay the night for observation.

I lasted about 2 weeks after that review before I decided fuck this and began planning to go out on my own. Doing that next month and am anxiously awaiting the day I get to give notice in a week or so.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141737)

It was like the guy had no clue what happened. Goes “you always did really good work then it dropped off in July/August but has since improved again. Is there anything going on we should know about?”

I stared at him dumbfounded and then just shook my head and said no... nothing. Wife’s heart attack and surgery’s were in mid/late July.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141986)

Feel bad for the dude, he’s a minimal real estate partner at a small civil lit firm and lives his life like a senior associate in biglol gunning for partner and gets walked all over by clients and gleefully eats their shit.

While there’s no reason for shit to roll downhill he’s a pathetic clit dick of a man striving as hard as he can do nothing to get worked up over.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142708)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141716)

Mainly she gets scared she’s gonna die again but that fades as she gets away from the incident and progresses.

At the risk of fully putting myself I have a background of some emergency situations. When I was 17 I dragged a guy in through the surf who had gotten washed into a jetty when it was big and knocked unconscious. I ended up having to give him cpr on the beach with an off duty firefighter until a helicopter landed to take him away. I was a lifeguard at the time but was off duty.

A couple years later, I assisted the coast guard for boats in distress where I would be dropped off on a jet ski and swim to the boat to secure everyone and get boat towed or coordinate offload. That would require me to swim in some pretty sketchy conditions and so I’m pretty calm under pressure.

Now I move commas around for a living and have an autistic overweight boss who comments about my hours.

What a life

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141809)

John Ritter died of aortic dissection I think. Same thing?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141721)

We’re all just little insignificant specs spinning through space anyway. Might as well enjoy some cold beers along the way.

With respect to her heart though it now has veins instead of arteries and veins don’t dissect like arteries. Different structure entirely. So she could dissect on right side or somewhere else and may cause heart attack but probably wouldn’t kill her.

Now s

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141838)

This is why I really like it here.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141818)

Even CT surgeons make a pretty shit wage if you look at it on an hourly basis. That dude was an utter machine. We love him and still visit him routinely. He has a daughter around the same age as my wife so I think it was a pretty special case for him.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141856)

Instead like a month later she went into SVT which is super fast heart rate like over 200 and they had to restart her heart three separate times wirh adenosine to get it to break. That shit is not pleasant, she’s more scared of adenosine then another surgery.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141878)

Her eating an acai bowl by the beach-- like a commercial for acai granola crap or something.

Oh and also doctors ripping her clothes off

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141876)

I should also note that she puked the açaí bowl all over the cath lab and the docs working on her.

She was going I’m going throw up and everyone was too busy trying to save her so they were just like go ahead and she puked everywhere,l. Anesthesiologist was like I guess bows a good time to put her under!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38141885)

Rate her looks.

Quit work already. The only reason to keep wage cucking is for kids.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142033)

She’s not bad for 34 but has gained some weight post surgery. 5’2 119 because she wasn’t able to work out for a while. Probably a 7/10 with clothes on, 5/6 out of ten clothes off. She’s back at it now and was cleared to go back to spin. Has been back at Pilates for a while. Body is steadily improving.

I have my exit date and am looking forward to working for myself. Actually met up with CSLG the other weekend and am hoping he’ll send me some overflow.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142096)

Spent over 7 days living in ICU next to almost det wife and there’s was a lot of funny shit that happened.

1. ICU nurses are insane. They work incredibly hard and have to deal with patients going through insane shit and who can literally be maddening to deal with. My wife didn’t really sleep starting day 3 as she was pretty conscious at that point and in tons of pain. By day 5 she was completely insane. Most of the nurses were incredibly kind and patient with her.

2. We were the youngest people in the ICU but a solid 40 years. Many boomers in there hanging out after their second or third bypass surgery high giving each other etc.

3. Walking by people in clearly vegetative states or who probably wouldn’t survive every day was heart wrenching and pretty rough.

4. More people seem to die at night then during the day. Also the effect sunlight has on body is incredible. Very pronounced there.

5. We had a flamboyantly gay nurse who was incredible. He would watch bravo with my wife and tell her if she wasn’t nice to me he’d steal me. Dude was hilarious and would go prancing around the ICU.

6. They were measuring my wife’s urine to check for signs of infection and other things and on at least several occasions she overflowed the measuring pan and it would drop to the floor spraying piss everywhere.

Gay dude would just walk away and call for a clean up lol. Refused to deal with it himself.

7. Surgeons would roam halls like lone wolves while doctors always wanted to wait for the whole “team”. Surgeons would also do all kinds of kooky random shit whether or not the “team” was onboard.

For example at one point my wife was scared when they were going to take her off the balloon pump and the surgeon was like look, if I was worried you’d know, ask your husband. Plus worst case is we just open you back up and I can fix you that way. No big deal.

8. Surprising amount of hot nurses in ICU given how hard the work is and how many disgusting bodily fluids you need to deal with. Old boomers were hitting on them right and left.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142063)

Look here’s how’s its gonna work, we’re going to do x, if she survives that we move to y, and so on. There’s not a good chance of survival of any of these things but we’ll do our best. I’m also worried because she’s on more plavix then anyone ive ever operated on but nothing we can do. She may also have brain damage but the fact she was awake till we put her under is good sign.

Dude was the man. My wife works with a ton of surgeons and all of them were like oh that dude is the man.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142263)

My wife and I saw him a month after surgery and my wife started crying when she said thank you and he gave her a hug and started crying too and he was not the crying type.

I think him having a daughter her age and the fact it was like a high point surgery for his career really connected him to her.

Tearing up in my office thinking about it brothers.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142302)

Interesting breakdown of the dying process here though:

https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4w9it6/eli5_so_how_does_the_body_die_also_what_does_it/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142285)

Sounds like a PEAK experience

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142516)

She said it was unlike anything she had ever experienced before.

Then she had three rounds of adenosine about a month later which also makes you feel like you are going to die and she said the adenosine was worse. She’s terrified more of having to do adenosine again then emergency open heart. And the days after emergency open heart are very unpleasant.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142956)

Ps - impressive flame

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142291)

I think any doctor can prob confirm that I could t flame on this unless I was a doctor given my knowledge of SCAD.

Also CSLG got the cliff notes of this story the other weekend and can confirm NOT FLAME.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142308)

I talked to him about starting my own practice and hoping he’ll kick me some work.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142361)

I wish this would happen to my ex-wife... but they weren't able to revive her.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38142307)

If you ever want to grab a beer let me know when. Any MWF after work is good for me if you ever head over here.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38143551)

They have to inject as close to heart as possible meaning far up on her arm or in her neck and her body would legit come off the gurney and tense up to an extreme and like 5-10 seconds later she’d be crying because she felt like she just died and would be asking me to hold her.

Apparently you can feel it travel through your vein and into your heart where it then abruptly stops your heart for a few seconds while everyone holds their breath hoping it starts again.

Apparently it can feel like falling down an elevator shaft AND hitting the ground. https://www.reddit.com/r/medicine/comments/46hnqt/adenosine_is_one_hell_of_a_drug/

From googling around two rounds isn’t super common let alone three and she had very high doses each time as her heart rate was well over 200 bpm and it being so close to surgery they were worried about it prompting some other head problem.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38145198)

Lol at trying to get life insurance on her now.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38598336)

Fortunately my wife is a nurse at the very hospital that saved her so total out of pocket was like 300 dollars lol.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38598322)

I had a childhood friend who died from SCAD last summer. She had symptoms like your wife, told her family she was going to take a nap, and never woke up. Left behind a husband and three young kids.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4248647&forum_id=2#38148238)