596 | 3 Heart Attacks and 1 New Life

My eyes were shut and I could hear a lot of activity going on in the room.

I was laying on a bed. I felt weak and disoriented.

I could hear my wife talking to a man with a deep voice and a handful of other voices moving around the room.

I finally dared to open my eyes.

I was clearly in a large hospital room. There was a lot of medical stands and devices around the bed, some making very light noises.

My wife was talking to a tall doctor when she noticed I was awake.

They looked at me, concerned. She looked like she was going to faint…

The doctor told me I had been through 2 major heart attacks.

I was in the ICU and I’d be taking a bunch of pills for the rest of my life. My heart would be very damaged and I wouldn’t be running around playing soccer with my two daughters again anytime soon.

Overwhelmed, I shut my eyes.

The last 2 days came flooding back into my mind.

The massive chest pain on Christmas night, with my entire extended family around me.

The ambulance coming, my family crowded in the front window, watching, Christmas tree lighted up behind them, as I was rushed to the local hospital.

The rest of the time was a blur as I remember chest pain so bad I passed out in the ambulance.

Hours later I had to be moved to a larger, city hospital and I remember the chest pain being so intense that I thought I was about to die.

I passed out, again.

That is when I work up in the room with the doctor and my wife and about 5 nurses or so, all busy doing who knows what.

I was numb.

I was only 28. No history of heart problems in the family. I didn’t drink, smoke or do drugs of any kind. I had a fairly low-stress office job and had risen through the ranks, making it out of the cubicle farm into an office.

Why me?! How did this happen?

My mind was racing and then I felt it. Like a UFC fighter punching me in the chest with all his power. Consciousness faded as did the massive strike of sudden pain.

I woke up again, in another room. It looked like a simple hospital room instead of a packed, state of the art ICU room I was in before.

No one was in the room.

What if I had another heart attack and I simply died?

What would my family do?

Was this life I had what I had really wanted?

Have you ever heard Tony Robbins talk about the rocking chair thought exercise? It’s where you pretend you are at the end of your life, sitting in a rocking chair, thinking

It’s where you pretend you are at the end of your life, sitting in a rocking chair, thinking about all the decisions and actions you had taken or not taken in life. Would you be proud of your life or completely regretful?

I spent about an hour going through that exercise, with what I thought could really be the end of my life.

I realized I was proud of a few things and totally regretful about many others and I wasn’t even 30 yet.

Long story short, the doctor came in and told me that they had called a specialist.

They didn’t find any blocked arteries, I had no health risks, I was young, and the cardio unit couldn’t figure out why I had had 3 massive heart attacks in 2 days.

The specialist did a simple test and found that I had a virus in the sack around my heart. It was no worse than getting the flu virus. I wouldn’t have to take all the pills the rest of my life and my heart was NOT damaged. The virus SIMULATES a heart attack, with no lasting damage.

I was to take some antibiotics and I’d be fine in 7 days…

I was completely shocked, again.

I felt complete relief.