MY SYMPATHETIC HEART (A Private Trip) by Stan Icen

It's amazing how a person's entire life can change in a split second. We can go into the wilderness for 20 years without incident, bicycle thousands of miles, and walk the streets and trails, happily unaware of our destiny. My "split second" of destiny didn't occur on a peak, a trail, or a city street on my bicycle. It came in a doctor's office when I had just completed my first stress EKG. I thought I had done fine. I stayed on for a full 10 minutes. I was rather proud of myself. Then, the doctor, a highly recommended cardiologist, asked, "When did you have your heart attack?" My lifestyle flashed in front of my eyes. Right away, I suspected a way of life was coming to an end. I was stunned. "What heart attack? I don't recall ever having had a heart attack." He described the symptoms for me and I honestly did not ever recall feeling them. Then he told me that 25% of all heart attacks go undetected. It was a blow to my ego. I had climbed over 400 peaks, bicycled thousands of miles, and, didn't even have high blood pressure. I was overweight and the cholesterol level could have been better. He recommended that I have an angiogram as soon as possible. This is a procedure that requires two days of hospitalization. I went, with the attitude that there must be some mistake. Maybe, It was a faulty EKG. Maybe, they're going to find nothing wrong. During the angiogram a dye is injected into an artery using a local anesthetic. They view the progress of the dye through X-rays, and the patient has to be awake during the whole show. They told me I had to cough at various times. The coughing helps to move the dye move, apparently. So, when they said cough, I coughed and I tried not to look at all the "living color" TV screens showing my Insides. (I DID say that this was a private trip!) Everything went fine until I was told to roll over on my left side and cough. I did and I coughed. They said cough harder. Instead, I went bye, bye. I went into a beautiful deep sleep, with beautiful dreams, and beautiful feelings. But, I don't remember what the dreams were about. I remember that I dreamed, that it was wonderful, that there was nothing to fear, that I was in good hands! When I woke up, I saw all these friendly faces, and said, "HI, everybody!" Then I realized where I was and saw a nurse with defibrillator paddles standing over me. I found out that I had been zapped four times with the

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