Jay and REA

So Jay ended up in the hospital last tues...he had an aneurysm below the aortic arch and above the valve of the left ventricle of his heart.   The aneurysm started bleeding within the walls of the aorta causing Jay to have heart attack like symptoms.  

Luckily the aneurysm did not rupture prior to or during the surgery which lasted 6-7 hours.

I went to see him today and he seemed to be doing pretty well.  We talked cards for an hour or so...while his other family members looked on as if we were speaking another language.

So for now it looks like Jay's gonna live...and so will Full Count!

Everybody wish Jay a speedy recovery.

And good luck everyone tonight/tomorrow in REA!!!!

Get well soonest Jay!!! This country needs the help off all the Minnesotans it can get.

Man, that's tough news. Get well soon, Jay! Can't imagine this forum or the hobby without you. Hope you'll be back on your feet soon.

I'm beyond lucky. The doctors said that the mortality rate for what happened to me is over 85% with most people never making it out of their home alive. I cannot drive any type of vehicle for 3 months, so I will have to put race car driving career on hold again.


I'd never make it through this without the greatest, most caring and loving wife a man could hope for. I'd literally be dead without her at my side.

Jay, good to hear from you. Hope you are starting to feel better? Try to take it easy if you can.

I'm doing well. My progress is way ahead of schedule.

Learned some more about what happened to me. I suffered an aortal dissection. Mortality is 85%+. Basically my aorta blew up like a balloon and then ripped. CAT scan didn't show where the tear was so they were going in blind. They told Mona that even if the tear is in a place they access, my chances of survival were less than 25% from the surgery. If the tear was at the top of the arc, there would have been nothing they could do.

To say that I defied the odds, is an understatement. Some people have said I need to buy lottery tickets. No thanks, I'll take my life over a lotto win any day.

Well, at the very least, I wouldn't walk out in a thunderstorm if I were you. You seem like a man who could defy the odds on being struck by lightning!

Really glad to hear that you came through and are recovering nicely. Did your doctors say what causes that kind of blowup of the aorta? Was it blockage?

sh*t jay...you bucked the odds...thank goodness! so is this going to cause you to rethink your life and change direction for the common good of man?

ullmandds wrote:sh*t jay...you bucked the odds...thank goodness!  so is this going to cause you to rethink your life and change direction for the common good of man?

lol, not likely. The only real change is that I can't ride roller coasters, etc anymore. This sucks because was a trip to Cedar Point away from reaching 200 different coasters.

I found out "the rest of the story" a few days ago. Initially, when I got to the hospital, they had no idea what waas wrong beyond that it seemed to be my heart. As Mona described it, she lived a real life episode of House as they tried to figure out what was wrong. They ended up putting me in a medially induced coma and put my body on ice to bring my body temp down to 50 degrees. Once they figured out what was wrong, they had 25 minutes to repair the damage and get the bypass machine running again before brain damage set in, and possible death.

Apparently, years ago, one of the walls of my aorta separated, creating an extra pathway for the blood in the aorta. I this hadn't happened, I would have most likely bleed out before the figure out what was wrong.

As doctor said, it was a one in million chance of me living through this, especially the way it went down.

It's now 6 weeks since it happened. The doc says I'm way ahead on recovery. Originally he said 2-3 months no driving my car and 6 months before I could drive bus again. I also could raise my arms over my head and lift more than 5 pounds. At my one month check up, he cleared me to drive my car and lift up to 20 pounds and said I would be able to go back to work next month, but I am going to wait until the start of the new school year.

Thanks for all the well wishes.

WTF Jay!?!  c'mon buddy you always looked like a tough bastard but this is pushing it...good to see you're doing better!  man we're getting old with all this sickness and hospitals and medications.  give me my early 2000's back!

i may not visit this place often anymore, but all you handful of OG full counters are always in my thoughts and heart....jay lee ben ty jamie znut seablaster elliot, even pete! you're all good people.

rehab is going good. According to the doctors I'm about 2 months ahead of normal. All restrictions got lifted yesterday.

Best wishes to Jay. fmovies.se

Thanks! I'm pretty much back to normal now, except that I get winded pretty easily now.

It's one year later and I am doing good. Only bad thing is that I didn't lose the weight I wanted to, so I've removed the things from my life that I was using as an excuse to not workout. If want to live a long life, I need to get healthy again.