A Life-Changing Experience

Its amazing how much your life can change in 7 days

And no... I did not attend an AIESEC conference. On Wednesday November 29, at about 1300 NZT, I had what is in medical terms known as a Pulmonary Embolism.

You and I would call it a minor heart attack.

And before you break out in a sweat or start crying, I am stable and even back home, which is where I am obviously blogging about this. I have spent the last 7 days in the Auckland City Hospital being prodded, poked, run through scans and listening to the infernal midnight snoring of the nice gentleman in the same room as I was.

It all started last Monday, when I developed a pain in my leg. My left leg to be exact in the calf region. It felt like I had strained the muscle there and the pain was sufficiently severe enough that I was walking with a very pronounced limp. "This is the damndest thing" I thought to myself and when nobody seemed to have a clue what was wrong, I decided I would go and see the doctor on Tuesday.
However, waking up on Tuesday the pain was very reduced and I rubbed my left calf down with some Chinese balm and postponed my trip to the doctor's. Wednesday, I woke up to clean my apartment and found that I was having to stop every 5 minutes to catch my breath. "What the hell is wrong with me" I thought to myself as I leaned on the dining table gasping for breath and with the vacuum cleaner annoying the hell out of me with its loud noise.

I took a shower and felt slightly better, got dressed and made my way into town to meet with a friend for coffee at 11am. I start work at 1pm NZT and so had 2 hours to kill with my friend. I eventually spent an hour and a half with her and made my way to the library to return some books before walking to the Fonterra building.

Auckland happens to be a very hilly kind of city with a lot of really steep roads and the Fonterra building sits on the top of what must be one of the steepest roads in Auckland. I got to the bottom of this steep road and decided to take the elevator in a public car park on the road which would place me halfway up the steep road and at least on the same level as the basement of Fonterra. (pretty hard to explain if i dont show you some pics. Maybe later)

I was really gasping for breath by the time I got into the elevator and when the elevator started moving, while it wasnt quite all the pain in the world it came very close, it collected in my heart and squeezed! I felt light headed like I had gotten up too fast after sitting down for a long while and although I have never fainted in my life, I knew this was exactly what was about to happen to me. "Not in the elevator, Ladi! Not in the frigging elevator" I thought furiously to myself. "Get out to where somewhere can see you". I managed to stumble out into the carpark and lean against a car. I was sweaty and gasping for air and it felt like my chest was about to explode. My heart was beating that fast! And I couldnt stop thinking about how much I wanted to pee.

After about 10mins, my breathing seemed to come under control and I whipped out my phone to call into work and tell them I was on my way to the hospital. I should have tried to call an ambulance instead! My plan was to walk up the rest of the steep hill - taking it very slowly - and take a taxi from the Hyatt Hotel which was right opposite the Fonterra building.

I never made it.

I started to make my way up and knew immediately it was a mistake. My heart started to beat really fast again and I started gasping for air. These 2 chinese boys passed by me and looked at me as if to say, "...a bit early to be drinking matey". Halfway up the road, I came over all light headed again and the pain squeezed really harder this time in my chest. I looked around me and saw this one gentleman coming up way behind me, smiled, sat myself down on the road, put my head back and passed out!

You know how hollywood movies have people who are unconscious hearing voices as if from a VERY long way away? And how the voices slowly come into focus? Well... hollywood was spot on!!! When the voices came into focus, I was still on the ground and was surrounded by lots of people.

"Is he breathing"
"He's got a swipe card that looks like one of ours"
"What do you mean he just sat down and passed out"
"He's very cold"
"Roll him onto his side so he can breathe"
"Can you hear me buddy?"
"Hey, I know him! His name is Ladi and he works on my team"

This last was from Daniel, a colleague of mine who was also making his way to work. He called out my name and I was able to grunt out... something. By this time the ambulance had come and I was able to get up with some help and get into the back.

To cut this story short, blood clots were discovered in my left leg, some of which had broken off made their way to my lungs and blocked some vital valve and put my poor heart under pressure. So my vital organs are fine. The blood clots just blocked vital passageways and put everything on high alert! And now this the damndest thing...! They know what is wrong with me and they know how to fix it. But no one seems to have the faintest idea WHY I have blood clots in the first place.

According to the doctors (and the internet) the following are the most likely causes for Deep Vein Thrombosis (or clots in the blood)

- Preganant Women in their third trimester (I dont think I am preganant)
- Women on contraceptive pills (female over-35s' who smoke are more suspectible)
- If you have recently had surgery and been holed up in bed for an extended period
- If you take a Long haul flight (older people 65+ are more suspectible)

Or generally if you are immobile and your blood does not circulate properly.

People who have been hospitalized for long periods are suspectible to it Considering that I have been very active in the last 5 months (I joined a gym for Christ's sake!!!) the doctors were very very puzzled. My Long Haul Flight to New Zealand five months ago does not count as the clots generally make their move a day or two or at most a week after the flight.
It could also be genetic but I have been speaking to my parents and no one of my grandparents or uncles or aunties or anyone in the immediate extended (oxymoron?) family have died from a heart attack. My dad is pushing 70 and is healthy and my grandparents died from natural causes at well over 90. Its the damndest thing!

Now I am on blood thinning tablets and will be for 3-6 months. The tablets stop any more clots from forming while my body deals with the ones already there. I had a filter inserted into the major vein leading to my heart and lungs to stop any more clots reaching there. Dont worry, its not as gross as it sounds. It was a 'minor procedure' and I cant feel there is anything there, thank God!

No more alcohol while I am on the tablets, no rough and tumble games or extreme sports as I dont want to start bleeding and not have my blood able to clot and stop the bleeding. No long haul flight in the immediate future and oh yeah... there might be something wrong with my blood but existing clots have to disappear first as any blood test taken now will obviously be negative. If they do find anything wrong, i Might have to be on the tablets for a very extended period! Like the rest of my life!!!!!!

Amazing how much your life can change in the space of a week!

At my age (25) you think you are bullet-proof and particularly for AIESEC members we put our bodies through so much punishment and deprivation at conferences, traveling and living out of a suitcase and so on... and you think you can go on forever!

I would like to acknowledge the love, support and concern I have received in the last one week. I have only been here for five months but I had a steady stream of visitors from AIESEC, work and friends I had made outside work and AIESEC.

My two flatmates have been ABSOLUTELY fantastic! Mialy and Cristiane have been my surrogate family here. Worrying on my behalf and making sure I had an easier time of it. Thanks guys, you are starting to mean a whole lot to me.

Vicki, my darling 'boss' at work. I have to marry her. As I have fallen in love with her. And dont blame me. I was pretty vulnerable and she was and has been very supportive! Haha

Xing Hua, my new friend. This incident has brought us closer together and I am very happy that all my instincts about you were correct.

Ying, you were the one of the first on the 'scene' and those muffins and cupcakes you sneaked in couldnt have tasted better!
Auckland EB; all my colleagues from work and every single text message I have received from around the world (I will probably receive more after this post) Thank you all for the concern and love and support.

And if you have a funny pain in your leg, better check it out!!!