Norv's Story I'm not sure whether it was a type A or B but here goes....

I'm a 45 year old guy from Nottingham, who is currently unemployed and I had what i call my episode really on the 24 Nov 2009.

I was at home chatting to a friend on the phone, and felt like i had been hit hard between my shoulder blades and in my chest, this lasted for 5 mins then went away. I told my friend about it but we both concluded that this was probably indigestion. About 10 minutes later the pain returned times 10, I could barely stand and had broken out in a cold sweat, I managed to lie down on the floor in the recovery position and shouted to my housemate. My housemate Jon came down the stairs and asked me what was up, to which i replied " I have no idea mate I just feel weird" He thought that i was over heating and helped me to my bedroom. Where i spent the next 10 hours alternating between thinking that i was being a complete wuss and struggling to the loo to vomit.

At about 6.30 the next morning i managed to gather myself together enough to have a look on the NHS website and after answering some questions thought I should ring them. The lady on the phone was very helpful, and she suggested that I might be having a heart attack. That's when I started to get worried, she arranged for an ambulance to come my house, and when it arrived the paramedic took one look at me and said "naah you're not having a heart attack, you don't look ill enough". He still did an ECG and took my blood pressure, and said that my ECG was abnormal and my blood pressure was very high. So I was blue lighted to the A and E at the Queens Medical Centre, were during the course of the day, I had blood taken, my blood pressure many times, a chest x ray and finally a CT scan. After the scan the doctor who was looking after seemed to know what the problem was, and i was given drugs to bring my bp down and told that i was being transferred to City Hospital where thay had a Cardiac Centre.

I was blue lighted across Nottingham to the hospital and taken straight to the Cardiac Intensive Care, Where they started taking details from me and shaving my chest. During the whole day i had been ring my brother and telling him what was happening, Which i suppose to him was very strange as I was very calm considering the seriousness of it all.

The last I remember was the nurse taking my brothers details from me, Then the next 2 days really didn't register with me. my chest was opened up after the operations due to a problem with blood clots and i really only have fleeting memories until the friday evening.

For about 2 weeks I couldn't talk to anyone about it, without breaking down in tears. and even now i still find it hard to cope with. Here I am not exactly old, and I was quite fit for my age.I had already given up smoking and barely drank, yet i find myself having open heart surgery. I found myself questioning my mortality, something I never previously did.

Its been 7 weeks since my op, I am getting better. My bp is still a little erratic and that is a slight worry. I am starting to get sensation back to my chest, though it still feels weird to touch. I'm taking beta blockers and ace inhibitors as well as aspirin and paracetamol.

Norv.