Viet’s Blog

This race was 100% impulse sign up the second I got the OK from the doctor that I wasn’t going to drop dead from my heart condition.   Not being allowed to stand on my own for over a day made me feel like I needed to get outside and be alive again. My hospital episode was on June 16/17 and the next available race was July 4th. So I went for it. Of course the race was sold out but they had a limited number of bibs at packet pick up, so I took time off work to get to the shoe store (foot traffic is a local chain of stores that organized the race) to get one.  My training block is basically blown to bits and I was battling some runners knee in my right leg but I was going to will myself to run this race.  I had yet another setback when I tweaked my lower back moving a mattress the day before. It was so stiff that I had to take some ibuprofen, stretch, and spend 45 minutes in a salt bath. My back was so stiff, I had trouble even getting in and out of bed! Didn’t matter. I was...

How the Concert Started How My Evening Ended I wanted to write something clever for this blog post, but I think the pictures do a good enough job getting your attention. Here’s how i ended up in the hospital. I had collapsed in the middle of June at a Death Cab for Cutie concert. When the medics checked me out, they noticed an irregular heart rhythm suggesting that a heart attack was imminent.  An ambulance came and a second set of EMTs performed another EKG. Since it was at a concert venue, they thought maybe interference from the music or the instruments was skewing the measurements. I t wasn’t. The second EKG confirmed the irregular heart rhythm so they treated me as if I was at risk for a cardiac event. It was puzzling for them because I was an otherwise healthy middle aged man. How could I be at risk for a cardiac event? My evening went from “ Death Cab for Cutie ” to “ Really Expensive Cab to Hospital ”  Upon arrival at the ER they perform a third EKG, which was no diffe...