The Lord is My Savior - A Thanksgiving Story
By Mike Blemly
Please learn the lesson I learned, and do what I say and did.
Getting ready for bed at about 12:30 am June 1st, 2022 after watching “The Tonight Show,” I started feeling “off” – with a slight soreness in my surface pectoral muscles. I thought that was unusual, yet I did not ignore it. Since there was no pain or any symptoms warranting calling 911, I said a prayer to the Lord about helping me, and I drove to Fire Station 2 in Ellicott City to get checked out. If it were nothing, I would head back home.
Being a new grandfather, I wanted to make sure I was OK, and not ignore something serious and bad. I was a “walk-in” at Station 2, and EMTs Brooks and Tim took an EKG, showing me matter-of-factly that a STEMI* was occurring. I was loaded into the ambulance, was given an IV, and was taken to the Howard County General Hospital ER. Enroute, they notified the ER a “code STEMI” was incoming, so Cath Lab specialists were arriving at the ER at the same time I was.
In the ER, there was a flurry of activity, but 10 minutes after arriving, the pectoral muscle soreness was gone. I was then rolled to the Cath Lab where they inserted a stent, then I was taken to a room in the Coronary Care Unit.
The amazing thing is that I acted so promptly to unusual signs and got treated so quickly with a stent for a 90% blockage and ended up with zero cardiac damage! This was a minor miracle on multiple levels.
Another sign of Divine Intervention: due to my sweetie’s wrenched back, we canceled our planned European river cruise. Otherwise, my cardiac event would have happened in Vienna, Austria - likely with different results. I thank God for His divine guidance through this entire ordeal.
Bottom line: DO NOT ignore your body, no matter the symptoms. Remember, it’s better to laugh at a “false alarm” than ignore your body and have others mourning your death!
*ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) is a very serious type of heart attack during which one of the heart’s major arteries (one of the arteries that supplies oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the heart muscle) is blocked. It is an abnormality detected on the 12-lead ECG.
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