Heart-stopping start to the new year

As the old saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and men...

After finally settling in to the new home and completing the unpacking and DIY just in time for a break over for the holidays, I started 2026 with a sudden surge of creative energy. I started outlining novel number 2 and was feeling enthusiastic and motivated to get stuck into it.

Then early on the 9th a squeezing pain in my chest woke me up around 3.30am. I debated calling an ambulance, but it really wasn't that bad and I didn't want to wake my friends and neighbours to come look after my dog so I got up and sat in my armchair and after an hour and a half it eased off. I got on with my morning as usual though I still felt some lingering discomfort so figured I ought to get it checked out, just to keep a record of it more than anything else.

I called the local GPs and they told me to go to the Dannevirke clinic (which was not an option since I don’t have a car), or call an ambulance. I was rather reluctant but they threatened to keep calling me back if I didn't, so I made the call.

Other than elevated blood pressure in the ambulance and emergency room, everything was pretty normal and I felt rather silly for all the fuss - I also had a chest x-ray and CT which were both normal. Blood test showed my troponin (protein the heart produces when under stress) was moderately elevated, but on second testing had decreased, so they were somewhat stumped.

They kept me in for observation and in the early hours of Sunday morning when the nurse came to do my vitals I had finally fallen asleep (the obs unit was as loud as heck with monitors continually beeping etc) that when she woke me I got a huge fright. Within 15 minutes I started feeling nauseous and the chest discomfort returned with pins and needles shooting up my neck.

My blood pressure shot up again and I developed a temperature. A further blood test showed my troponin had increased and it continued to increase. As my condition continued to be stable I was transferred to the cardiac ward and on the Monday morning I underwent angiography and within a couple of minutes the doctor found the issue - I had a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection. I'm very lucky it occurred lower down in one of the minor arteries. If it had been higher up or one of the larger arteries I probably would've died at home.

I was discharged on Tuesday afternoon and am now awaiting a more detailed full body CT scan to check for Fibromuscular Dysplasia - another condition common in Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome where the arteries are more like strings of sausages than tubes, ie having bulges and narrowings.

I was so moved by the kindness and care of everyone who looked after me from the paramedics, nurses and doctors to the catering staff, technicians and orderlys. I was also so fortunate to be placed in a room with two older gentlemen whom I got along well with and for three days from sun up to sun down we chatted and laughed and joked around. It felt like being on a school camp - sneaking out of our beds without permission (we had mobile ECG monitors that we could carry on us like a cell phone) and talking past lights out. I actually had so much fun I was sad to leave and came away with new friends in them and their partners. If I had been in one of the other rooms (one patient told me she was envious of our 'party room' as her room felt like a 'funeral home') I think I would be in a much darker place when I got home.

It's taken me a good month to get my energy back and I'm still not quite back to where I was. This is probably my new normal now. With what could have been a brush with death, I know I should be carpe dieming, but I am finding it hard to get my motivation back. My new book is going to be a huge project and standing at the starting line with several swords hanging over my head it feels like an impossible task.  Still, one step, one day at a time...