For those of you following my social media feeds including LinkedIn and Twitter, you may have noticed something of a hiatus from me over the past two weeks. That's because I had a massive heart attack.
For me it came out of the blue but I suspect there were issues going back quite a few months that I hadn't noticed.
I'm fine now and returned to work on a staggered basis today at Newstalk but I certainly had a very close call. In fact the cardiologist who saved my life at the Beacon Hospital, said that had I not come in to him that morning with chest pains, I wouldn't have woken up the following day.
I'd love to say that I saw warning signs and that I should not have been doing certain things but i’m not sure that would have changed things. I take regular exercise including swimming regularly in the (rather chilly) Irish Sea, go out for a cycle every week and walk a lot. I don't smoke, don’t drink caffeine, don't eat red meat and rarely treat myself to a big Irish breakfast. I’m no saint though either: I love a glass of wine or pint of beer and a proper lunch. I guess it must have been hereditary – thanks dad (RIP).
Once the cardiologist got me on the table for an angiogram, he saw instantly that my "widowmaker" artery was 90% blocked and my smaller circumflex artery was 100% blocked. After he put in two stents to save my life, I felt superb and the incredible pain all but disappeared. The Irish private health insurance system seems to have worked very well and I am not facing a huge bill.
My employer (Newstalk) has also been phenomenal and has even urged me to work that little bit less than I had originally intended. For those of you who found out that I had had a medical scare, thank you so much for all the lovely messages and good wishes. Thanks to my co presenter Ciara Kelly who told me to go straight to the Beacon when I started experience chest pains and thanks above all to my wife Riina who ordered me to leave work immediately and get medical help – when my usual male instinct was to wait and at least finish my shift on Air.
I guess the message for every man out there around my age i.e. Generation X, is to get yourself checked. We are all in snipers alley and a little bit of self-care can ensure that you don't end up Six Feet Under.
I dont intend to sit by the fire and read the paper. I will be travelling more and enjoying my job - after all, no one on their death bed wished they had stayed in more
Joe
