[John Rogers]

I figure the issue was actually showing up back when I was still racing the 914-6 vintage car when I would be driving very hard such as trying to keep up with Wayne Baker, my chest would hurt from the heavy breathing so I generally would only drive at 80% or so. In 2010 I sold the race car as my arthritis was getting worse and it was unsafe to drive with the pain meds. Last September I had a non bleeding mini stroke with little loss of actions and over a couple months fully recovered. The neurosurgeon had me get a cardiologist appointment which I did at the end of April. He had me schedule a heart stress test that was done on 5/8 at 2:00 PM and at 3:00 PM I was admitted for a heart catheter as I had a heart attack about 20% of the way into the test!

So on Friday 5/9 I was knocked out and was checked and when I was told I could go home right away AFTER the heart surgeon talked with me, I figured things were not well? I was right and he said at least 3 of the passages at the heart were 70% or so blocked and asked if I wanted the bypass surgery and I said yes. He already had me on his calender for 5/20 and so I spent the following week getting pre-op tests and exams done and all went well as expected.

By 6:16 AM on 5/20 I was getting told I would be getting some meds in one of the 4 IVs to help me relax and the next thing I remember was waking up in the ICU with all my daughters there trying to say high, crying, trying to hug me, etc, etc and the nurses trying to make sure that none of the pacemaker wires, EKG wires, drain pump lines and chest pressure sensor tubes would get pulled loose. The next thing I remember was waking up Thursday morning and seemed to have missed Wednesday completely somehow?! Anyways they starting unplugging me and the doctor came by and went over what was done to me. He actually did 5 bypasses as all looked pretty bad and closed an atrial-septal defect which had never fully closed as I was growing up. He said the hole was small and easily patched once they put my blood flow on a machine and stopped my heart! That made me think I had been a pretty lucky boy all those years racing motorcycles, bicycles and running 10ks, etc. He noted I was at probably 90% of the best blood flow possible so I could probably have won more races than I did!

So on Memorial Day I got to come home and the sunshine never has felt so good as when the "mover" wheeled me out to the car and we drove all the way home with the windows open, no A/C as I wanted to enjoy the San Diego air. In thinking back, my cholesterol levels are 80% of the limits and have been for years, my blood pressure is normally 120/65 and better at most times, why the plugging? The surgeon said it could also be genetic and be glad we caught it before a real heart attack happened and he hates to have to do these surgeries in a big rush and we had plenty of time?! Some medical humor there I guess.