I am back home now.
3/2/2009 in the afternoon I went to see my Doctor and while walking in I noticed a slight difficulty in catching my breath.
I went to my Family Doctor and he did an EKG which showed some changes which could have been a problem so off to the ER I went and arrived at 5pm.
While in the ER they performed 3 EKGs and did several blood tests. The first test showed ever so slightly elevated cardiac enzymes.
Somewhere close to 8pm the heart made a sudden change in the EKG and the cardiac enzymes indicated a heart attack.
They rushed to pump me full of the medications and I was being transferred to another hospital Cardiac Cath Lab that was waiting for me.
No heart vessel blockages found at all during the cardiac cath procedure and I had the best Cardiologist in the area performing it so he double checked everything.
A follow up Echo Cardiogram the next morning showed hypo-kinesis (low movement) in a portion of the heart.
The final diagnosis was a stress related cardiomyopathy. The long term stress on the heart from the Lialda inflammation, plus the stress at work, and the stress of the colitis flare up, all combined to trigger the heart attack.
Had I not been in the ER at just the right moment and already had the preventative medications in my body, it would have gone into full cardiac arrest and I most likely would have had major damage at that point with the heart going into fibrillation.
My advice to anyone with any form of Colitis or other long term Chronic illness which can significantly impact your life, please keep a log of your heart rate and blood pressure, if you start having changes in your heart rate and blood pressure that lasts more than a day, please see your Doctor earlier rather than later.
I want to add one last note, because I was seeking treatment before full cardiac arrest, I am looking at very little to no permanent damage to the heart muscle and will likely have 100% recovery of heart function in a couple of months. The early treatment in my case saved me from a much more serious outcome.