November 10, 2014. A day I can never forget two years ago. It was a typical Monday for me. Wake up at 4 am, get my coffee started and get in the shower. It was a routine I had to adhere to to make the five-hour drive from my home on the North side of Keota, Oklahoma to the Harper County courthouse in Anthony, Kansas for work. I am a Landman and work independently. In layman’s terms, I travel to courthouses and research records to determine mineral ownership. In this case, I was creating reports for a large energy company to lease minerals. I absolutely love what I do.
It was a cool morning. As I started the car, my headlights came on and I scanned the pasture in front of me for deer. As I backed out of the driveway, I began to run through a mental checklist to make sure I had everything. Laptop, phone and coffee were at the top of the list.
The drive toward I-40 was always the same. Very few cars on the road. I always took I-40 to the Muskogee Turnpike, northeast to Tulsa, where I always stopped on the other side of Tulsa for gas and a refill on coffee. A second cup of coffee was probably not good for me as my blood pressure had been recently elevated. But I knew it was probably because I was out of shape. I weighed more than I ever had, tipping the scales at over 250 lbs. In my job, I got very little activity. I was either sitting in my car driving, sitting at a desk doing my work, or sitting in my hotel room watching TV. I got out once or twice a week to play golf, but I always rode in a golf cart, so that wasn’t exercise.
I stopped in Enid for a bathroom break and always stopped at the same place. There is a donut shop in the middle of town with some of the best donuts I have ever had. So, I would stop there every Monday morning and buy a dozen and a half glazed donuts to take to the ladies who worked in the courthouse. I made it my job to keep them happy and donuts seemed to do it.
Once I had my donuts, and a cinnamon roll for myself, I only had an hour to drive. It was an easy drive north across the border into Kansas and a beautiful one. Almost all the highways are lined with agriculture farms.
Once I reached the courthouse, I parked my car, threw my laptop backpack over my shoulder, and grabbed the donuts. I had to park a little farther than usual from the entrance, so it was a pretty good walk to get to the limestone steps up to the courthouse entrance. There are only about a dozen steps, but by the time I got to the top, opened the door and walked into the deed office, I was out of breath. Not really any more than usual for an old out of shape fat man, but as I walked back out to the hallway to set my backpack down, I felt unusually light-headed. I sat down for a minute and told my co-worker that I didn’t feel that good. I decided to walk downstairs to go to the restroom, thinking that might help. The farther I walked, the more light headed I felt. As I made my way down the stairs, I knew that something was wrong. I reached the bottom floor and turned to go down the hallway. As I got closer to the restroom, I decided to lean against the wall. Now, I felt like I was going to pass out and began to kneel to put my head down between my knees as I was taught in Boy Scouts. I don’t remember what happened next.
“Mike, can you hear me?”, I heard a female voice telling me over and over. As I began to open my eyes and focus, I realized that there were several people standing around me. I was lying on my back, looking up at the ceiling next to the wall I had leaned against. A Paramedic was doing something to me….I can’t really remember. She began to tell me that it appeared that I had passed out and was out for several minutes, but not sure exactly how long I had been laying there. But, she also told me that my blood pressure was 240/120 when she found me! I was near death.
As a precaution, she explained that they were going to take me to the local hospital by ambulance to run some tests. For the first time in my life, I was riding in an ambulance. Once at the hospital, they took me to the emergency room and began to place monitors on me. Nobody seemed particularly panicked, but rather were doing their jobs in a calm methodical way. I felt better knowing that I was being taken care of.
After several tests, and a few hours, a doctor came in and told me that I was stable and that the tests looked pretty normal. But, she said that there was one blip on the EKG that concerned her and suggested that they take me to Wichita for further testing at the Kansas Heart Hospital. I trusted her and told her that I would do whatever she thought was best.
By the time the ambulance was ready to give me a ride to Wichita, which was about 1 ½ hours away, my family was notified of what had occurred and began to make plans to meet in Wichita.
It was a day of firsts for me. I had never passed out before. I had never ridden in an ambulance. I had never been admitted to a hospital. In fact, I rarely got sick. But, years of neglect to my health caught up to me.
I felt pretty good and was joking with the ambulance attendants as they loaded me into the back on a gurney. In fact, I talked the two paramedics riding in the back with me into taking a “selfie” with me. Unfortunately, the driver was their supervisor and was not happy with them nor did she approve at all.
Once we arrived at the hospital, I was admitted to a room and scheduled for testing. Another EKG was given and I was taken for a Heart Cath, a procedure where they go into an artery in the groin area with a scope and push it up toward your heart so that they can see any problem areas. I was awake the whole time and actually got to watch the monitor as the scope moved through my body.
After the doctor finished, I was wheeled back to my room. By this time, my Mom and sister had arrived from Oklahoma City. As you can imagine, my Mom was a mess.
The doctor told me that I had an atrial valve in my heart, which was too small for my body and was not allowing enough blood to flow. He went on to tell me that the valve had probably been small from birth and that it was the primary reason why I passed out. But, he also told me that I had 80-90% blockage in one of my arteries, which was a bigger concern. Their suggestion was to perform open heart surgery to replace the valve and a bypass of the artery.
They gave me the option of a “pig valve”, which comes from an actual pig’s heart, or a man-made mechanical valve. I chose a mechanical valve, because it would last the rest of my life, although I will also have to take blood thinners to prevent clotting. I also didn’t want to grunt every time I ate or develop a curly tail.
I was scheduled for surgery two days later. I was not worried or concerned at all. In fact, I think everyone else was more worried than I was.
But, I understand why I was not worried now. I know that I trust God, but I had never encountered a test of that trust until that day. It was a true test, one of life and death and I knew that the option of being in this body on earth or as spirit in heaven was not in my hands. There was nothing I could do to decide that. And I remembered Isaiah 41 when God said to not be afraid, because He is not letting go! How powerful!
More family began to show up as they knew that my surgery was scheduled. The doctor came in the next day to explain the procedure they would be performing. They would probably have to take a part of a large vein out of my leg to use for the bypass around the clogged vein. And, because of that, it could take several weeks to heal the wound in my leg. They would also be making an incision down the middle of my chest, cutting through my breastplate bones, and prying my chest open to get to my heart. Once they were at that point, it was a matter of stopping my heart momentarily, cutting the old valve off, and attaching the new valve in place. Once all of that was done, they would restart my heart and begin to put everything back in place. My breastplate would be wired together to make sure that the bone would grow back and instead of sewing my chest back up, they would use glue and tape to hold it together.
Preparations were made. More tests were run. They shaved my chest and the inside portion of my legs, leaving me with hair on one side of my legs and shaved on the other. This was so they could remove the vein that they would need.
I was to have surgery early the next morning, but when morning came, my doctor, the surgeon and nurses came in to tell me that they had some good news and bad news. The bad news was, that it seemed that nobody thought about checking on my health insurance when I go there and that I was not covered at that hospital with my health plan. The good news was that all my doctors and surgeon were covered and could perform the surgery at another hospital nearby, which was covered on my health insurance. And, the heart Cath and stay there was at no charge because of their mistake. More proof that God was in this.
So, I was loaded up into an ambulance once again and taken across town to Wesley Medical Center, a large hospital. Once there, I was rescheduled for surgery the next morning, Thursday, November 13. This time it was for real.
They woke me up early that morning, unplugged all the wires and asked if I wanted to speak with a member of the clergy. That last one took me by surprise. “No”, I said. “I know where I’m headed if I don’t make it. Do you?” He just laughed at that. He’s probably never met anyone like me before. It was about time he did.
So, they wheeled me downstairs to surgery and I was met by several nurses who began to ask my name and date of birth. Once they found me, they were relieved. It seems that someone had transposed the first two numbers of my weight. Instead of 245 lbs., it said 425 lbs. They were glad to see that I wasn’t that heavy because they weren’t quite sure how they were going to move me to the operating table!
They asked if I was ready, to which I replied “Let’s get this party started!” Once in the operating room, I was moved out of my hospital bed onto a cold stainless steel table. I started to complain about how cold it was as the nurse was hooking up my IV, but no sooner had he turned the anesthesia on, I was out. BOOM. 30 seconds.
I don’t remember how long it was between the time I was out and the time I woke up in ICU, but my family said that when I did, I was trying to pull the tubes out of my neck. I don’t remember that part, but I know that I had tubes in several places on my body. I remember that my ICU nurse’s name was Jill. She was pretty and obviously knew what she was doing. I don’t know if I was her only patient, but she treated me like I was.
I was in ICU for a few days before they moved me back to a room. Thus, began the process of healing and recovery. I lived in the hospital for several weeks, doing everything they asked me to and more. The food was actually pretty good and the staff was fantastic. I became friends with several of them.
Finally, when it came time to go home, I made the decision to go to Oklahoma City to stay with my Mom. I decided on that for a couple of reasons: 1) All of my new doctors were there and I wouldn’t have to drive from eastern Oklahoma every time I had an appointment. And 2) Her house was much cleaner and I knew that she would take good care of me. What Mother doesn’t?
Fortunately, in my line of work, there are opportunities to work from home, looking at images of documents rather than going to a courthouse. Within a few weeks, I was back working again. That was a blessing because I had no other income and my wife, at the time, had our only vehicle in eastern Oklahoma.
I began new habits in my diet and exercise. I was not allowed to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk, but I started walking in the house. My diet was strict as well, because of the medication I was and always will take. One of the benefits to being limited physically was that the first time I went to Walmart, I got to use one of those electric
That was two years ago, and I feel better today than I did then. Actually, I didn’t feel that bad then, but I was out of shape. I did not have a heart attack, but I was dangerously close to having one or a stroke. I simply passed out from lack of blood flow to my brain.
I want you to know that no matter what you are going through, God has a firm grip on your hand. He will walk you through whatever you are going through.Don’t panic. It may seem hopeless right now, but He will not let go!
higley rides again 