Survivor

What I thought to be a normal day back in November 2013, quickly turned into my worst nightmare. After being at work for the day and coming home and doing my normal chores of school run and cooking dinner. I then got my kids to bed and proceeded to go for a run with my 7 year old Staffordshire bull terrier. He could quite easily run for 12 miles, but I myself, a previous smoker and a belly that Santa would be proud of, was never gonna achieve that, so I opted for the children's version and ran for about half a mile, in myself I actually felt I had achieved wonders but I probably didn't even burn100 calories, considering I'd already taken in about 3000 that day I wasn't gonna be slimmer of the year anytime soon.

After coming back from my run I then went and had a shower and sat down for the night to watch a bit of Friday evening telly. Seeing as I hadn't spoken to my mum for awhile, I decided to get her involved in the new age tech world and call her on her iPad with a FaceTime call. It was then that the next hours events was something I could never have predicted. I don't remember anything myself but have the memories of others to help, during the call to my mum I for no apparant reason went into a sudden cardiac arrest. My wife was at home at the time ( trained nurse) and she knew after about 10 seconds that what was happening to me wasn't normal, my body lay there motionless in the chair with my eyes rolling to the back of my head and my legs twitching (a bit like frogs legs when you pour salt on them before cooking), she immediately pulled me to the floor and proceeded with CPR, whilst on the line to the local emergency services. I hadn't had a heart attack, just went straight into a VF rhythm. Up to this point apart from the smoking I was pretty much as healthy as you can be for my age so why it happened was a complete mystery. Luckily thanks to my wife's quick intervention and the speediness of the paramedics, I was shocked twice and back into a sinus rhythm. Once in hospital I then spent 7 weeks between Grimsby and Sheffield undergoing all sorts of tests to determine what the cause was, I also had a further 3 arrests during my stay (well you have to keep the doctors on their toes or they drink too much coffee and eat too many doughnuts).

Nearly two years have passed now and since the arrests in hospital I have had no more episodes. I'm now living a normal life, and back to running again trying to keep the weight off, but we all know how hard that is, especially when you have a love of chocolate and beer. I also have one of those clever little devices called an SICD, which if I should go into VF again that little beauty will kick me back into the world. Of course I have doubts and always wonder if it will happen again, but I won't let it rule my world, so anyone reading this who is in the same situation as me, be strong. You may not always end up where you think you were going, but you will always end up where you are meant to be ! And I for one ain't going anywhere soon!