Open Heart Surgery at 42 - What Happened?

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age it's just part of the story

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whether you're getting a head start

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or reaching new heights later on

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it's all about what you do with your time

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these are the stories of people

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proving that it's never too early

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or too late this is just another

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hello one and all

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I'm Daniel Steinfeld and this is just a number

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it's the inaugural episode

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and I am pretty jacked

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to get going with a brand new podcast that uh

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has been a little while in the making

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uh and this is where it all begins

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you might have listened to me and my wife

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Katie in the past we did have a podcast

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where we went over 200 episodes strong

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called Level Up

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it's still out there and ready to be listened to

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um that was focused on the real estate community

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uh which is where I work now

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I run a brokerage in the Toronto area

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but since ending that

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there's been some things and some stuff going on

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and since then I've got the itch once again

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to get out there and talk with a whole new premise

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behind this particular podcast

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just a number now to tell you a little bit about me

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I grew up in the 80s a teenager in the 90s

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I was into alternative music

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I was there when hip hop started

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the start of the internet and now I'm a dad of four

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I was the CFO and VP of a professional

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football team here in Toronto

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as I said

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I currently own a real estate brokerage with my wife

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I sit on a couple of boards and oh yeah

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I'm recovering from a current

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or recent triple bypass art surgery in my early 40s

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and so life has had a series of eye openers for me

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some high highs some low lows

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but the premise behind this podcast

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really was brought on by personal circumstances where

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by all accounts I'm sort of a youngster

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for going through some of the good and some of the bad

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that I've been going through

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most notably uh

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the health issues I've had in the last six months

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and there's a whole lot I wanna talk about

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over the course of this series

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over course of all these episodes

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a lot to explain but the best thing is that

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I am definitely the least interesting person

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you're going to meet in this podcast

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this is also the only episode of just a number

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where I'll be the only one chatting with you

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so rest assured

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you're going to meet a whole bunch more people

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I'm going to meet a whole bunch more people

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I am pretty excited about that

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and I'm really just a blip in a world of stories

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about people who take the concept of normal

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when we're talking about age

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and they turn it right on its head

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so the idea for this show really

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is to dispel the myth that there are limitations

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that

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there are boundaries to our own successes and failure

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um any risks we face

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heights that were climbing

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really anything is possible

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and I couldn't be more excited to learn from the people

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who have done those things

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had the experiences endured

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and worked through challenges

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and really

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have just lived lives that wouldn't be expected

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at their age now to be clear

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this isn't at all just about people who are maybe

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younger than what you might expect

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and have done things uh

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that you think would be meant for much older folks

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in fact

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I really wanna dispel this myth across the board

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talk to people who might be considered old or older

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for the things that they've done

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and ultimately the goal here is to again

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highlight achievements

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highlight challenges and really motivate

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inspire and educate the listeners that are out there

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and selfishly along the way

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do exactly the same thing for me

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because I think that it's super important

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um in the past life we had podcasting

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it was all about educating others

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um in the podcast

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my wife and I did for over 200 episodes strong

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and recently ended about six months ago

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when some of my health challenges started

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and really

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when we had reached the end of that particular road

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um but I've got that itch and I really love doing this

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I love being out there um

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talking to an audience and again

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learning more for myself

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it's a great way to keep myself accountable

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to have great experiences

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and what better way to do that

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than to meet a whole bunch of interesting people

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who are doing things that a lot of us would never

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necessarily think possible

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or maybe just have the feeling well

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that could never happen to me

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or I'm too young or I'm too old well really

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I think for 99% of the things out there

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that's all just a bunch of bullshit

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there's no such thing as too young or too old

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and that's why this podcast is called just a number

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that's where that came from because really

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our age is just that and we make life uh

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what we choose to make it and in a lot of cases

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things in life choose us

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that we never would have seen coming

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because again we thought hey

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this is never going to happen to me

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so today for the first episode again

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it's the only one where you're gonna be talking to me

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but I'm going to jump into a bit of the the uh

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crazy stories and things that have happened to me over

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the last six months and

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and prior to that as it relates to these health issues

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um while a lot of these episodes are

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hopefully going to be really built around the positive

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and and motivating that way

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I do think there is a considerable

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motivational element to what I've been dealing with

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and one of

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the big motivating factors for talking about this here

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is the moment that I started to

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very subtly share what I had gone through

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after I had my surgery the outpouring of feedback

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support

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and stories that I heard from people in a similar boat

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or who are nervous and thinking about

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the fact that they might be in a similar boat

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was overwhelming to me

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and it was comforting in a lot of ways

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but it opened my

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eyes to the fact that there's a lot of us

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out there who might be asking the questions

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and curious about things

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that they just don't know where to go with

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and so um

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I did start writing a book about my experience

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um that really

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again was meant to answer a lot of these questions

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and speak to uh

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the process

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I'm still working on that and it's coming together

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but the more I wrote the more I thought

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you know what

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this is the sort of thing I'd like to talk about

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openly and honestly and explore

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with others who have gone through similar things

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as well so I'll take you back um

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a few years ago um

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it was I guess October

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November of 2021

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it was the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon in Toronto

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um I am not by any accounts a runner

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uh I'm not an athletic

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but I'm definitely not an athlete by any stretch

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um but one of the things that I wanted to do was

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to set a personal goal

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and I did for myself of running a 10K

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so it was the Scotia Bank Marathon

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which is considerably longer than 10 km than 10 km

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but I also knew my limits at the time

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and I knew ironically that running was not something

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that I was ever that comfortable with um

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as much as I like playing sports

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in those sorts of things

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endurance wasn't a thing for me

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spoiler alert

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I kind of found out why towards the end of this

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but for a few months prior to that

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I did everything I could to try to train

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teach my body what running a longer distance is like

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and in all of my practices leading up to that 10 k

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I think I had only actually hit 10 km running one time

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in several dozen attempts leading up to it

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but that day was really important to me

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I was also inspired considerably by my wife Katie

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who I'm sure I'm going to talk about

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and maybe have on the show um

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quite a bit as well um

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but she had run an actual Marathon a couple years prior

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which was amazingly inspiring to me

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and to others out there as well

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and help me get off my ass to try to

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do a little bit of running myself

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so anyway it was 2021

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which right now is about three years ago

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and I did the 10K was a great

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great weather no no real complications

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I think by all accounts

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anybody else who was running was

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was thanking their lucky stars that it was easy haha

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I put that in quotations um

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but I did it and I ran through and

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and you know what it didn't go terrible

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I finished the 10 km um

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that's not the exciting

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or the relevant part of the story

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but what was really clear to me was

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the moment that 10 k was done

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and I stopped and I slumped over and grabbed my knees

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there was clearly something that was off

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um I had a feeling in my chest

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I was short of breath

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and this wasn't your typical out of breath

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I just pushed myself um

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and I'll come out of this soon

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this was a very new and

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and scary pain that was going on in my chest

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that told me something's not right here

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um over the course of the day um

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I think I was able to shoot that off

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due to the fact that I had

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so much support from the people who are proud of me

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for doing the 10K you know

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through our through our sharing on social media

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through our whatever you know

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high fives and all that in the hours that

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that came afterwards

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that pain pretty quickly dissipated

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and I didn't think much of it

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um I also

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really wasn't in the mood to do much more running

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as I had figured I'd reached the top of

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of my personal mountain at that time

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and we'd cross future bridges

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if and when they came down the road um

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all that being said um

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I wasn't out of the woods clearly and um

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over the course of the next weeks

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things that I was doing

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that seemed relatively easy to me

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in the past were starting to get a little bit more um

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uncomfortable so nothing was a struggle to do

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but it was becoming pretty clear that in doing a lot of

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uh seemingly easier types of physical activity

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you know a jog

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um you know

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playing with the kids things like that

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more and more

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I was starting to get that recurring chest pain

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and I went to my family doctor at the time

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and I'm not a doctor goer

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historically or prior to that

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I wasn't someone who would ever really cry wolf um

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I wasn't really a hypochondriac

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I wasn't somebody who would be

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nervous about every little thing

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or at least I didn't pursue it

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if I was I think a lot of us have feelings and have uh

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pains and and

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and concerns that we shoo away again

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just because

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you know either we feel that we don't have the time

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or we're not important enough to look into it

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or it's not important enough and it's all in our head

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um or we just rely on

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you know Doctor Google

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which is terrible and I think a lot

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of us would concur that

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that's not your best avenue to take

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um but in this particular case

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I finally did

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after a few weeks or maybe a couple of months

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go to my family doctor and say listen

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you know it doesn't feel right

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chest is hurting and the doctor

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you know check the levels and

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and did all the things and ultimately said

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you know what it's

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it's stress that's pretty common

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you're healthy you're not overweight

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none of your levels are out of whack in

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in a way that's too considerably crazy

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so you know what

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just take it easy try to calm yourself

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you know you seem to lead a busy life

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you've got the four kids

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you've got all this stuff going on

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you own a business um

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so maybe um

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you just need to take it easy which uh

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you know now 20

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20 hindsight uh

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you know

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stress is one of those things that a lot of people

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chew away almost every symptom too

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it's a very easy excuse and in a lot of cases

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it might be accurate um

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so in this case

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I took it away and started to try to take it easy

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in a way that I knew how which wasn't very take it easy

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we all we also were still sort of in

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in the midst of of the pandemic at the time um

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so life wasn't entirely normal

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although relaxing and not being too active might have

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been a little bit easier at that time

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cause there weren't a lot of people gathering and

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and doing things that were wild and crazy

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all that being said nothing really improved

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nothing um got any better

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so I reluctantly took the family doctor's advice

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um understanding that it could just be in my head

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or it could just be a stress thing

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and again I didn't want to be a

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strain on an already strained medical system

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from what I've been seeing out there

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although I hadn't used it much to that point

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um as a 40 or 41 year old seemingly healthy young man

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I basically said okay stress it is and I went home

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uh and that really didn't sit well with me

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as things didn't get better

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I did um

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take it easy but that didn't really change

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the fact that even

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the lightest of activities were not feeling great

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so it wasn't long before I went back

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and insisted with my family doctor that

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you know what

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even if it is stress there's gotta be a better test

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uh

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maybe a stress test that I could do or something to uh

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to take a better look at this

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I think um

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that was the first understanding that I had

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and definitely

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a common thread among people that I've talked to

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is that you don't feel good not having an answer

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and it's not that you wanna get bad news

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but when the only

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explanation you have is something that's pretty vague

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and doesn't actually address the problem

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it doesn't make you feel any better

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and if stress was in fact the issue

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um me not knowing why it still hurt

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and it just being deemed to be stress

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really just made me more stressed

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so it was a bit of a cyclical issue

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and at that point that's what I thought it was

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is that sure I'm stressed because this hurts

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and I don't really like it being that way

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and chances are

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if I wanna maintain a lifestyle of being pretty busy

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and and trying to be all things to all people and all

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all that uh

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stress is probably going to come with the territory

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for a pretty long time so anyway

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uh my family doctor did

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agree to refer me to a cardiologist

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which was the the next step um

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and it took quite some time to

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to get an appointment

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but when I did go with the cardiologist

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it was much the same diagnosis uh

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or or expectation that I heard from him um

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everybody was very nice

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this wasn't a patronizing approach to me

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so I didn't take anything as I must be crazy

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but it was more of a you know

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we don't disbelieve that it hurts

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but the reason for that based on what we're seeing

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is you're just leading a very busy

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and stressful lifestyle you need to take it easy

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so I I did do a stress test

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it didn't show anything abnormal um

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which again

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was not the most comforting thing in the world to me

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because I kind of wanted it to show something abnormal

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but not dangerous um

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but anyway this

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this continued for a little while

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and I'd say about 6 months

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from the first moment after that 10 k

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I did convince the cardiologist to order up a CT

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for me um

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because I needed to see what was going on in there

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or have someone look at what's going on in there

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and just rule out the big stuff for me

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: 00:16:36

um I had a pretty strong sense of comfort

396

: 00:16:39

that there was nothing wrong

397

: 00:16:40

cause that's what everyone was telling me um

398

: 00:16:42

but I wanted that comfort myself

399

: 00:16:44

um so it took a great deal of time to get this CT

400

: 00:16:49

if you are a listener in Canada

401

: 00:16:51

you probably understand that with free healthcare

402

: 00:16:53

comes longer lines

403

: 00:16:55

and more people who are trying to take advantage of it

404

: 00:16:57

and a very again strained healthcare system means um

405

: 00:17:01

those with more urgency are going to be seen first

406

: 00:17:05

which is understandable and I can respect that

407

: 00:17:07

again I didn't really feel a

408

: 00:17:10

a reason that there was urgency

409

: 00:17:12

other than the fact that it kept being uncomfortable

410

: 00:17:14

which was kind of a piss off to me

411

: 00:17:17

um and the CT was agreed to be ordered up

412

: 00:17:22

really when the pain was starting in things

413

: 00:17:24

as simple as walking the kids to school

414

: 00:17:27

so when everyday activities were generating

415

: 00:17:32

not debilitating but pretty uncomfortable chest pain

416

: 00:17:35

it uh

417

: 00:17:36

it LED to my need to have something like this done

418

: 00:17:39

and then while I was waiting for the CT

419

: 00:17:41

which did last that was a waiting period of over a year

420

: 00:17:44

to put it into perspective

421

: 00:17:46

the pain was getting slightly worse

422

: 00:17:48

and um

423

: 00:17:50

when I started feeling it

424

: 00:17:51

not just in my chest but down my left arm

425

: 00:17:55

that's where I mean

426

: 00:17:56

TV drama and medical

427

: 00:17:57

things that you hear and read about

428

: 00:17:59

started to go through my head

429

: 00:18:00

because I am definitely no doctor

430

: 00:18:03

but now I'm starting to think

431

: 00:18:05

you know

432

: 00:18:06

these are all the signs and things you hear about

433

: 00:18:08

that have to do with the heart

434

: 00:18:09

there must be something going on

435

: 00:18:11

and I couldn't wait um

436

: 00:18:13

much longer for the CT to take place

437

: 00:18:15

so I did get the CT

438

: 00:18:18

which for those of you who haven't seen it

439

: 00:18:20

it's one of those big machines that you

440

: 00:18:23

sort of lie on your back and you roll into

441

: 00:18:25

it looks very 2001 a Space Odyssey

442

: 00:18:28

um and it takes pictures of the inside

443

: 00:18:31

so it's kind of like an X ray

444

: 00:18:33

but it's not for your bones

445

: 00:18:34

um and it starts to get a feel for what's happening

446

: 00:18:37

with the flow with the way that um

447

: 00:18:41

your arteries in this particular case

448

: 00:18:43

are or aren't blocked up maybe they're thin

449

: 00:18:46

maybe they're not um

450

: 00:18:47

and does anything look abnormal

451

: 00:18:49

so the CT took place um

452

: 00:18:52

as is the case with any medical test

453

: 00:18:54

I didn't really have any information from

454

: 00:18:56

the technicians working there

455

: 00:18:57

nor could they give me any

456

: 00:18:58

so as much as I thought I could read people

457

: 00:19:01

I couldn't really read the room

458

: 00:19:02

as to whether anything was good or bad

459

: 00:19:04

but again um

460

: 00:19:06

I had a lot of discomfort

461

: 00:19:07

I probably had a little bit more worry than I did

462

: 00:19:10

going into all this that something was actually wrong

463

: 00:19:12

but still to this point everybody was telling me

464

: 00:19:15

there's really nothing to worry about

465

: 00:19:16

and I just lead a stressful life

466

: 00:19:18

and I'm not listening to the doctor's advice

467

: 00:19:20

to just take it easy um

468

: 00:19:23

it wasn't 48 hours before I got a call back

469

: 00:19:27

to go see the cardiologist for a follow up

470

: 00:19:29

um so it wasn't the next day

471

: 00:19:32

which made me think it wasn't anything devastating

472

: 00:19:34

but it also wasn't a week later or a message that said

473

: 00:19:37

we don't need to see you so I was a bit nervous

474

: 00:19:40

and I went into see the cardiologist

475

: 00:19:44

and I just remember him coming into the room

476

: 00:19:47

and he's a man who is my age basically

477

: 00:19:50

and also has I don't know if it's four kids

478

: 00:19:52

but has kids and

479

: 00:19:53

and I think um

480

: 00:19:56

for both of us it was important that we kind of

481

: 00:19:58

saw each other on an equal

482

: 00:20:00

sort of life stage

483

: 00:20:02

level um

484

: 00:20:03

and so I could see the discomfort in his face

485

: 00:20:06

when he came in the room and he basically said

486

: 00:20:09

you know I don't know how to tell you this um

487

: 00:20:11

I thought I was dying

488

: 00:20:12

I thought there was a major problem um

489

: 00:20:14

which at that point there really wasn't

490

: 00:20:16

but he said you've got coronary artery disease

491

: 00:20:19

and coronary artery disease sounds

492

: 00:20:21

well it is a very bad thing

493

: 00:20:24

but it sounds like the kind of thing that

494

: 00:20:27

without context you're like

495

: 00:20:28

holy shit like I had a heart attack

496

: 00:20:30

I had this my heart's gonna explode

497

: 00:20:32

what's going on um

498

: 00:20:34

but basically it just means that there is um

499

: 00:20:38

a significant enough blockage in your heart

500

: 00:20:42

that prevents or impedes

501

: 00:20:43

the blood flow

502

: 00:20:45

that should be flowing through your heart

503

: 00:20:47

obviously the heart is the um

504

: 00:20:49

you know

505

: 00:20:49

it's the central station for blood flow in your body

506

: 00:20:53

and blood flows necessary to power everything in you uh

507

: 00:20:57

not the least of which being your brain

508

: 00:20:59

but everything else around you

509

: 00:21:00

it's there to keep you alive

510

: 00:21:01

so if something's impeding the flow in any way

511

: 00:21:04

um that's something that needs to be addressed

512

: 00:21:06

so he said you know

513

: 00:21:08

that's something it doesn't have a cure necessarily

514

: 00:21:10

um you're going to have that for the rest of your life

515

: 00:21:13

and you're gonna

516

: 00:21:14

probably be on some drugs the rest of your life

517

: 00:21:16

but let's get this addressed

518

: 00:21:18

because you didn't have a heart attack

519

: 00:21:20

um and from what we can see in the CT

520

: 00:21:23

you've got one or two arteries that are 70% or more um

521

: 00:21:28

blocked up which is pretty substantial

522

: 00:21:32

but not untreatable and the good news is at my age

523

: 00:21:37

it's actually something that's a little easier to go at

524

: 00:21:40

because my body can deal with

525

: 00:21:43

with the procedures and things that

526

: 00:21:44

that need to take place in a in a pretty

527

: 00:21:48

easy I'll say loosely way

528

: 00:21:51

um so I was scheduled to do what's called an angiogram

529

: 00:21:55

and an angiogram is where um

530

: 00:21:59

a surgeon will go through one of a couple places

531

: 00:22:03

in this particular case it was my wrist

532

: 00:22:05

and they can feed through your wrist um

533

: 00:22:08

a die and a camera of sorts

534

: 00:22:12

it's almost like an ultrasound

535

: 00:22:14

um if you've ever

536

: 00:22:15

you know been pregnant or

537

: 00:22:17

or you've known somebody's pregnant

538

: 00:22:19

and you've gone for the ultrasound

539

: 00:22:20

and you can see the little screen next to you

540

: 00:22:23

it's got a similar vibe to it

541

: 00:22:24

only it's your heart and so uh

542

: 00:22:26

it's a procedure you're actually awake for

543

: 00:22:29

and I remember lying on the table very vividly

544

: 00:22:32

where the plan was they were going to go in

545

: 00:22:35

look at uh

546

: 00:22:37

the arteries that were blocked according to the CT

547

: 00:22:39

and very likely uh

548

: 00:22:41

if they could during the same time

549

: 00:22:43

of making sure they see what's in there um

550

: 00:22:46

they would stent it which is basically a little balloon

551

: 00:22:49

that gets put into the blocked arteries

552

: 00:22:51

and just opens up

553

: 00:22:53

and it opens up to do just that for your arteries

554

: 00:22:56

to open up the artery

555

: 00:22:57

and let blood flow through a little bit easier

556

: 00:22:59

um and it might be one or two stents

557

: 00:23:02

because that's what the CT saw

558

: 00:23:04

and provided no other complications

559

: 00:23:08

more or less in and out not

560

: 00:23:09

not you know

561

: 00:23:10

not without discomfort

562

: 00:23:12

not without some recovery time attached to it

563

: 00:23:14

definitely still a procedure

564

: 00:23:17

but not anything that would cause much alarm

565

: 00:23:21

and it should be stated that to this point

566

: 00:23:23

I hadn't really opened up about this to virtually

567

: 00:23:27

anybody definitely not

568

: 00:23:28

none of my friends um

569

: 00:23:31

but um

570

: 00:23:33

really just close

571

: 00:23:34

close family were all who knew about it at this point

572

: 00:23:38

really because for me

573

: 00:23:40

this was still being brought on by stress

574

: 00:23:43

for some reason

575

: 00:23:43

that was the story I still had in my head

576

: 00:23:46

and nothing would stress me more than

577

: 00:23:48

more and more people knowing about this

578

: 00:23:51

going on

579

: 00:23:52

and as much as I appreciate support and all that

580

: 00:23:56

it would have been a stressful situation

581

: 00:23:58

prior to having it addressed

582

: 00:24:00

um to have more and more people knowing about it

583

: 00:24:02

and asking me questions

584

: 00:24:03

so I was pretty tight lipped about it

585

: 00:24:05

and the plan was to go in

586

: 00:24:07

have this angiogram get it all looked at

587

: 00:24:10

get it all stunted up and move on with life

588

: 00:24:14

so I'm on the table

589

: 00:24:15

and the surgeon is there with a couple of other um

590

: 00:24:19

doctors alongside and there's a big like HD

591

: 00:24:24

bigger than I have at my house television right to my

592

: 00:24:26

uh left

593

: 00:24:27

as I'm lying there

594

: 00:24:28

and I'm watching my heart in real time

595

: 00:24:30

and it's a pretty cool thing

596

: 00:24:32

I'm awake it's just my arm is frozen

597

: 00:24:35

um really wasn't that uncomfortable

598

: 00:24:37

was actually all things considered

599

: 00:24:39

I'm like this isn't terrible

600

: 00:24:40

um

601

: 00:24:42

but it wasn't long before the surgeon who was in there

602

: 00:24:45

who was talking and I was conscious and aware

603

: 00:24:48

he basically said oh shit

604

: 00:24:51

we've got to close you up

605

: 00:24:52

that's not what I wanted to see

606

: 00:24:54

and that's not what you wanna hear

607

: 00:24:56

when you're lying on a table

608

: 00:24:57

with somebody in your heart

609

: 00:24:59

at the time and you don't know what you're looking at

610

: 00:25:02

and you don't know what what's going on

611

: 00:25:04

but the doctor did that close me up

612

: 00:25:08

there were no stents the angiogram as a procedure

613

: 00:25:12

takes a much more detailed picture

614

: 00:25:15

because it's in there and it's 3D and it sees it all

615

: 00:25:18

and the things that a CT

616

: 00:25:20

might not have seen taking a picture from one side

617

: 00:25:22

so if you picture

618

: 00:25:24

you know taking a picture of a forest from one side

619

: 00:25:26

you're not going to see the trees on the other side

620

: 00:25:29

or you might not necessarily see that there's a deer

621

: 00:25:31

halfway through so on and so forth

622

: 00:25:33

maybe a bad analogy

623

: 00:25:34

but that's the idea and so in this particular case

624

: 00:25:37

the angio uncovered that it

625

: 00:25:40

wasn't just one or two arteries with a 70% blockage

626

: 00:25:43

but in fact I had eight blockages in my heart

627

: 00:25:47

and one of them was 100%

628

: 00:25:50

and several of them were more than 70%

629

: 00:25:53

which is considered um

630

: 00:25:55

basically critically in need of being addressed um

631

: 00:25:59

I was effectively a walking time bomb um

632

: 00:26:03

because there were spots in my heart

633

: 00:26:05

that the blood flow was limited

634

: 00:26:07

if at all and it was a very clear explanation why

635

: 00:26:12

every time I exerted

636

: 00:26:13

even the smallest amount of energy uh

637

: 00:26:15

my chest would start hurting

638

: 00:26:17

because my heart was working to pump blood

639

: 00:26:20

through narrower and narrower hallways

640

: 00:26:23

some that had been shut off almost entirely

641

: 00:26:25

and because of that it would hurt

642

: 00:26:28

because it was working

643

: 00:26:29

really hard to do something that

644

: 00:26:30

shouldn't have been that hard

645

: 00:26:33

and so at this point um

646

: 00:26:36

it was time to move on to Plan B

647

: 00:26:40

which is

648

: 00:26:41

I don't think an angiogram instance are going to work

649

: 00:26:44

it was very likely the case

650

: 00:26:45

that I'm going to need bypass surgery

651

: 00:26:48

and that is open heart surgery

652

: 00:26:50

that's the the big deal that

653

: 00:26:52

that you hear about where they've got to

654

: 00:26:55

and I won't get too graphic

655

: 00:26:56

but they've got to go in there

656

: 00:26:58

they've got it

657

: 00:26:59

basically crack your ribs open and do the work uh

658

: 00:27:03

from the outside in and bypass being taking um

659

: 00:27:11

one pipe from one place and repiping

660

: 00:27:14

the way that the flow is going in your heart

661

: 00:27:16

because

662

: 00:27:16

the pipes that are in there are not working too well

663

: 00:27:19

so it's not about clearing out the blocked stuff

664

: 00:27:22

it's about creating an entirely new passageway

665

: 00:27:24

a bypass if you will that lets the blood flow uh

666

: 00:27:28

more freely through new parts

667

: 00:27:30

that are being taken from other parts of my body

668

: 00:27:33

so

669

: 00:27:34

not withstanding how much of a stress and discomfort

670

: 00:27:37

and fear and all that

671

: 00:27:38

that went through this

672

: 00:27:40

I do need to acknowledge how cool science is

673

: 00:27:43

how amazing it is that one day

674

: 00:27:45

some doctor somewhere decided

675

: 00:27:47

maybe this is a way that

676

: 00:27:48

a problem like this could be addressed

677

: 00:27:50

because it blew my mind what the procedure was

678

: 00:27:55

um I will say that I didn't want to know

679

: 00:27:58

or I didn't know most of what the procedure was

680

: 00:28:00

till it was over

681

: 00:28:01

cause it probably would have scared the crap out of me

682

: 00:28:03

and and

683

: 00:28:04

and made things more uncomfortable and stressful than

684

: 00:28:07

me than they ultimately already were maxing out at

685

: 00:28:11

um

686

: 00:28:12

but uh

687

: 00:28:14

it was in a really weird way

688

: 00:28:16

it was validating to me because as I mentioned before

689

: 00:28:20

you just wanna know something's wrong

690

: 00:28:22

and you wanna know it can be fixed

691

: 00:28:24

can't always be fixed but um

692

: 00:28:27

just because I was a seemingly healthy 40 something

693

: 00:28:32

with no real known history

694

: 00:28:35

which came out later I did have some history

695

: 00:28:38

um in my family

696

: 00:28:39

but um

697

: 00:28:41

really nothing that would point to this

698

: 00:28:43

people even the medical community

699

: 00:28:46

assumed

700

: 00:28:47

that it couldn't possibly be something like that

701

: 00:28:51

and it took a tremendous amount of self advocacy

702

: 00:28:56

to just get it looked at and for this particular story

703

: 00:29:02

the biggest lesson I can give to anybody is

704

: 00:29:04

you know yourself better than anybody else does

705

: 00:29:08

and whether or not you're paranoid

706

: 00:29:10

it doesn't matter if something makes you uncomfortable

707

: 00:29:13

if something doesn't feel right

708

: 00:29:15

you're going to rip yourself up about it

709

: 00:29:17

and you're going to get more and more into a downward

710

: 00:29:19

spiral until it's addressed

711

: 00:29:21

so you need to ask the questions

712

: 00:29:24

you need to you know

713

: 00:29:26

do what might feel like bothering people

714

: 00:29:28

pestering

715

: 00:29:30

and you need to keep doing that

716

: 00:29:31

until you have the answers that make you comfortable

717

: 00:29:34

uh

718

: 00:29:35

because there's nothing more important than your health

719

: 00:29:37

the help of your family um

720

: 00:29:39

and in my particular case

721

: 00:29:41

it took multiple levels of self advocacy

722

: 00:29:44

and I wanna give shout outs also

723

: 00:29:47

to the people I did bring into my circle

724

: 00:29:50

and bring into the story the tougher that this got

725

: 00:29:53

because I did abruptly cut off the story

726

: 00:29:55

um I'm going to go into much more detail

727

: 00:29:58

I'm sure talk about it in future episodes

728

: 00:30:01

if it's relevant

729

: 00:30:02

with other talks I'm having with people

730

: 00:30:04

but one thing that was super helpful

731

: 00:30:07

and can't be understated

732

: 00:30:09

is that when I did start to bring people in

733

: 00:30:12

and let them know

734

: 00:30:12

and that happened after the angiogram

735

: 00:30:14

when I knew I needed a triple bypass um

736

: 00:30:17

well I didn't know it was a triple bypass

737

: 00:30:18

but when I knew I needed a bypass

738

: 00:30:20

it became scarier

739

: 00:30:22

to the point that it was overwhelming

740

: 00:30:23

to just do it on my own or just myself and my wife

741

: 00:30:26

um

742

: 00:30:27

and so a couple of close trusted friends um

743

: 00:30:31

knew about it as well and without me asking

744

: 00:30:35

they brought professionals into the fold

745

: 00:30:39

with whom they had connections

746

: 00:30:41

I was able to have more detailed conversations

747

: 00:30:43

with more doctors

748

: 00:30:45

with more people with no skin in the game whatsoever

749

: 00:30:48

other than just understanding

750

: 00:30:50

that this is a stressful situation

751

: 00:30:51

and people who had expertise from different areas

752

: 00:30:55

um it made me a lot more comfortable to know

753

: 00:30:59

not just that I had a second opinion

754

: 00:31:00

but that I had a focused opinion of

755

: 00:31:03

not even my own surgeon my own surgeon was great

756

: 00:31:06

um but there is a certain automation to the process

757

: 00:31:11

and an impersonality that doctors need to have

758

: 00:31:13

in order to do their jobs

759

: 00:31:15

and

760

: 00:31:15

when I was able to have some other people to talk to

761

: 00:31:19

who could give me advice and opinion

762

: 00:31:23

without overwhelming me and in a lot of cases

763

: 00:31:26

validation um

764

: 00:31:28

it was super helpful um

765

: 00:31:30

and I do believe that that

766

: 00:31:32

although

767

: 00:31:32

they might not have been advocating directly to the

768

: 00:31:35

people I was working with

769

: 00:31:37

or getting the procedure done by

770

: 00:31:39

um it was a big help

771

: 00:31:41

there were connections made

772

: 00:31:42

and opportunities that I probably otherwise wouldn't

773

: 00:31:45

have had if I didn't ask more questions

774

: 00:31:47

and engage more people on

775

: 00:31:49

on my journey to getting better

776

: 00:31:51

so the procedure did happen

777

: 00:31:55

obviously it happened February 1st, 2024

778

: 00:31:59

um

779

: 00:32:00

there's a lot to it it was and continues to be uh

780

: 00:32:05

not an easy road um

781

: 00:32:08

recovering afterwards the hardest of it was

782

: 00:32:10

most certainly

783

: 00:32:11

in the days and weeks that followed the procedure

784

: 00:32:13

now being about six months removed um

785

: 00:32:16

I'm virtually good as new

786

: 00:32:18

I'm really happy to say um

787

: 00:32:20

the prognosis is great um

788

: 00:32:22

the nice thing about um

789

: 00:32:25

a procedure like this and

790

: 00:32:27

and it happening even so young

791

: 00:32:29

um is that a

792

: 00:32:31

I didn't have a heart attack

793

: 00:32:32

and it was addressed before

794

: 00:32:34

anything that was permanently damaging happened

795

: 00:32:37

b I can make the lifestyle changes

796

: 00:32:39

and have an understanding of what um

797

: 00:32:43

LED to it in the first place

798

: 00:32:45

and also what I can do to prevent it going forward

799

: 00:32:48

so I am on a lifetime full of

800

: 00:32:50

of all kinds of drugs and and

801

: 00:32:52

and you know

802

: 00:32:53

a prescriptive cocktail every day

803

: 00:32:56

but it's all there to uh

804

: 00:32:58

address that which we know is off um in in

805

: 00:33:02

in and around the heart area right now

806

: 00:33:05

so nothing is you know

807

: 00:33:07

knock on wood going to get worse

808

: 00:33:09

if I take care of myself and continue um

809

: 00:33:12

taking this medicine and the other great thing is that

810

: 00:33:15

this wasn't just a Band Aid

811

: 00:33:18

or a stop that kind of maintains me at discomfort

812

: 00:33:23

but not you know

813

: 00:33:24

chronic pain this

814

: 00:33:25

in fact reverses the pain that I was having

815

: 00:33:28

because now things are flowing again

816

: 00:33:31

and things I could not do prior to the surgery

817

: 00:33:33

I'm able to do again so

818

: 00:33:34

the only thing right now I'm not yet doing is running

819

: 00:33:38

but I'm back to you know

820

: 00:33:40

doing things I like to do

821

: 00:33:42

I'm drumming quite a bit which is the cardio

822

: 00:33:44

I'm in rehab once a week

823

: 00:33:46

and it's funny when we talk about just a number

824

: 00:33:49

I am half the age of everybody else who's in this

825

: 00:33:53

cardiac rehab program everyone in there

826

: 00:33:56

their ages start with an 8 generally

827

: 00:33:59

and I'm the youngster in the room

828

: 00:34:01

and sure I'm doing today

829

: 00:34:03

I actually I had rehab this morning

830

: 00:34:05

and I actually slowed down what I had been doing

831

: 00:34:09

versus the last several weeks of rehab

832

: 00:34:12

because I've been told I'm overdoing it

833

: 00:34:14

and as much as I want to push myself and I want to

834

: 00:34:18

you know act my age

835

: 00:34:19

um you need to have an understanding of what is best

836

: 00:34:22

for you and in a lot of cases

837

: 00:34:25

um it's amazing that now that my fears were validated

838

: 00:34:31

and it's been understood what the problem was

839

: 00:34:34

and it's very clearly the problem

840

: 00:34:37

people take me a lot more seriously now

841

: 00:34:41

and are treating it

842

: 00:34:43

with a little bit more of a respect

843

: 00:34:45

and a care which is unfortunate

844

: 00:34:47

but fortunate in that I'm able now to get the advice

845

: 00:34:51

that is it's not sort of with an asterisk on it

846

: 00:34:55

it's not people saying you know

847

: 00:34:57

we don't think there's anything wrong with you

848

: 00:34:59

but fine if you're nervous

849

: 00:35:01

here's stuff you can do now it's

850

: 00:35:03

oh shit you went through this

851

: 00:35:06

we know that there is you know

852

: 00:35:08

a problem in there that's being fixed

853

: 00:35:10

and it's our job to help you get there

854

: 00:35:12

so here are the steps

855

: 00:35:13

and we're going to take things seriously

856

: 00:35:15

um you don't need to

857

: 00:35:17

and I hope none of you have to go through um

858

: 00:35:20

a major surgery or or event like that

859

: 00:35:23

in order to get the help that you might need

860

: 00:35:26

or that you're looking for

861

: 00:35:27

but you do need to press hard

862

: 00:35:29

especially in the time prior

863

: 00:35:31

to something being identified

864

: 00:35:33

which again hopefully it never is

865

: 00:35:35

but if something's bugging you

866

: 00:35:37

continue to ask question

867

: 00:35:39

and don't settle until you have the answer

868

: 00:35:43

that's important to you um

869

: 00:35:45

this is kind of an example with a podcast like this

870

: 00:35:48

when I talk about the negative still being motivational

871

: 00:35:51

I'm hoping that the stories that we go through

872

: 00:35:55

over the course of this series

873

: 00:35:57

are motivating you

874

: 00:35:59

not just to understand what your potential is

875

: 00:36:03

whatever your age is

876

: 00:36:04

and that anything's possible at any time

877

: 00:36:06

if you put your mind to it

878

: 00:36:08

but also that you know

879

: 00:36:11

just because you are a certain age

880

: 00:36:15

it doesn't leave you immune

881

: 00:36:17

two things you might not expect

882

: 00:36:21

but there's ways to address it

883

: 00:36:23

be prepared for it

884

: 00:36:24

and come out stronger on the other side

885

: 00:36:27

so I'm proud to say again

886

: 00:36:29

things are going really well

887

: 00:36:31

I'm really happy to start a podcast like this

888

: 00:36:35

going forward again

889

: 00:36:36

this is the only episode

890

: 00:36:38

it's only gonna be me that you're talking to

891

: 00:36:40

but um I'm excited to continue

892

: 00:36:44

dialogues like this with other people

893

: 00:36:46

both inside the podcast and especially out of it again

894

: 00:36:49

the number of people I've been able to talk to

895

: 00:36:51

and hear their stories

896

: 00:36:53

and get their help

897

: 00:36:55

and give them help wherever I can has been incredible

898

: 00:36:58

and I really um

899

: 00:37:00

my eyes have been open to the value of people sharing

900

: 00:37:04

and being able to

901

: 00:37:07

just be comfortable with the uncomfortable

902

: 00:37:10

this was a vulnerable moment for me

903

: 00:37:12

when I went through this I did ask myself quite a bit

904

: 00:37:16

you know the why me stuff and all those cliche things

905

: 00:37:19

it definitely is a natural part

906

: 00:37:21

of going through something like this

907

: 00:37:23

um but I can tell you it has been very liberating

908

: 00:37:27

even though all I ever did was put out one message

909

: 00:37:29

with a thumbs up on Facebook

910

: 00:37:31

when the surgery was done

911

: 00:37:33

that in itself has introduced me to dozens

912

: 00:37:38

and probably

913

: 00:37:39

maybe even a couple hundred different people

914

: 00:37:42

who are going through things

915

: 00:37:43

and are nervous themselves

916

: 00:37:45

and are now comfortable to talk about

917

: 00:37:47

the stuff that they didn't think

918

: 00:37:49

you know would be taken seriously

919

: 00:37:52

because of their age or because of their seeming

920

: 00:37:55

you know healthy lifestyle

921

: 00:37:57

which it is um

922

: 00:37:59

but

923

: 00:37:59

shit happens in the same way that good things happen

924

: 00:38:01

so anyway that is episode 1

925

: 00:38:06

that is all that I wanted to go through today

926

: 00:38:09

is giving you a little bit of an insight

927

: 00:38:11

into some of the challenge that you can go through

928

: 00:38:14

at any age um

929

: 00:38:16

we're gonna meet lots more people who have had

930

: 00:38:19

some good some bad

931

: 00:38:20

some ugly but in all cases

932

: 00:38:22

it is inspirational

933

: 00:38:24

and I can't really wait to get going

934

: 00:38:26

I invite you if you haven't already

935

: 00:38:29

please subscribe

936

: 00:38:30

and join us when we're chatting with all these folks

937

: 00:38:34

because age is just a number

938

: 00:38:37

and I can't wait to learn more about

939

: 00:38:41

the kinds of things people do

940

: 00:38:43

despite what people think they should be doing

941

: 00:38:46

I'm Daniel Steinfeld and I'll talk to you next time

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