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To All My Dear FRiends:
Thanks awfully much for your thoughts and prayers during this rather difficult time for myself and my family. I arrived home at approx 11:30 AM Central today and have more or less been relaxing and pondering all the events since last Wednesday and at the same time, trying to get some strength back. Reading this thread reminds me of a person who has attended his/her own funeral. Having been given this second chance, I'll try and endeavor to be more worthy of the comments made. ;-)

A very brief synopsis of events (since I know some are curious):
About 2 PM central on Wednesday, I started getting an annoying pain in my chest and figured it was just stress/anxiety.
About 2:30 PM - I started sweating a bit much, followed by clammy hands. Not good - and now I'm just a little more than annoyed. Figured if I lay down - I'd feel much better. Soaked my side of the bed pretty good.
About 3:00 PM - My arms ached as if I'd been swinging a 200Lb baseball bat for a few hours. Decide to take a shower and relax a bit. Didn't help much. It was about this time I figured I was in trouble, but being a proud (and very stupid) guy - decided against doing anything drastic - like trying to save my own life. ;-)
Approx 3:30 PM, decided to google "Heart Attack Symptoms". As the list of symptoms were displayed, I checked them off one by one. Much to my chagrin, I soon realized that I was in deep doo-doo. Being a proud and stupid male (again) - I just couldn't decide what to do. Imagine the embarrassment if I had made the wrong call and put everybody out because I had made a bad call on my self-diagnosis.
Approx 3:45 PM, I said, "Screw it" and called my wife at work. Within 35 minutes, my wife had me at the emergency room where I was promptly placed at the front of the line. Now, why I had to walk to the wheelchair is still a mystery to me. "Seriesly"...
The ER folks sat me right down and start firing the questions off which I answered to the best of my ability. The Doctor in charge was looking at the EKG machine and much to my suprise stated that yes - I was in fact suffering a heart attack.
Fevered pitch activity around me, getting needles, electrodes and more questions. Everybody is calm, cool, collected - no problem. I was even sitting up, talking and cutting up with 'em. I really didn't feel that awful and had come to the assinine conclusion that "this really wasn't so bad after all" and "people actually die from this?".
Then, well it happened. Again - much to my astonishment, I started to pass out. I announced this to the ER staff and layed down.
I then woke up with a nurse holding an oxygen mask over my face and about 6 people holding me down. I was mildly upset at my predicament and demanded to be let alone, and that I had wanted to go home - now. They demanded that I calm down and well suffice it to say we had a disagreement, and they won.

After a few anxious moments where I decided that they were actually in control, they literally ran my gurney to the catheter lab, my wife running beside me and crying. I was kinda tired and tried to figure out why she was crying. I figured I was probably in trouble and gonna die. It wasn't until I was wheeled into the catheter lab that I found out that I had indeed "been there and done that" and that was why the orderlies were running and my wife was crying. Now, how long I was out, I still don't know. And no - I had no visions, no light at the end of the tunnel or anything like that. It was very fast, very hard and at the same time, very pleasant and peaceful. All I can definitely say is that it didn't bother me too much.

I want to say to the staff of Huntsville (Ala) Hospital, "Thanks!" for their help, experienced and courteous staff.
And that I'm sorry for yelling at the ER staff when they revived me.

But most of all I want to thank ya'll. Knowledge, science and technology are amazing things and it is good that we have them. But they are not everything. Our Heavenly Father knows what's best and it is by His will that I'm alive. And there is no doubt in my mind that your intercession was heard. As I said earlier, I'll try and make it more worthy the second time around. ;-)

I sit here no just a little bemused by the turn of events. I wonder why I was given a second chance. I wonder why others aren't. I wonder why it took me almost 2 hrs to decide to do something, and then after all is done, I really only had minutes to live. If I had waited 6 more minutes, I'd be on the FR Memorial page. Plenty of Doctors and Nurses paused and asked me if I really knew how lucky I was. And it was only after reading your comments and prayers that I truly understood and appreciated just how damned lucky that I am.

Thanks, and I love each and every one of you like a brother and sister.

I'm kinda worn out right now, so I think I'll go lay down and think about the 8 cartons of smokes my wife threw out today...;-)
I may have to make a short trip again to the hospital tomorrow (looks like I *might* have a little complication with the catheter wound), but in any event I'll talk to ya'll real soon...:-D

TomServo.