In February 2020, I had a VF cardiac arrest.

My memories start a week after the event when I awoke in ICU.

I was confused and initially unable to move. My family were at my bedside and told me what had happened.

Amazingly, I had survived not only the arrest, but also aspiration pneumonia, sepsis and a stage 3 acute kidney injury requiring dialysis.

I had my first spasm when I was just a young child and continued for almost 50 years with no diagnosis. I always assumed everybody had flushing feelings throughout their body, and hot flashes accompanied by chest pain.

It wasn’t until I was walking my dogs with my sister, one day, and we were going up a steep incline and I couldn’t keep up. I asked her if she felt chest pains when she walked up hills. She looked at me like I was crazy and told me: No!

I then realized something might be wrong with me.

First came the headaches – worse than migraines – then the shortness of breath and having to lay down after crossing the room.

Five months after my symptoms began, I was diagnosed with a 99% blockage in my LAD and 99% blockage in an artery branch off that.

I was stented and, in doing so, they jailed an artery. I was given Metoprolol and I got worse.

I underwent another Angiogram, and all was fine, so they changed my medication and I began to use my Nitro more.