roy s. johnson: wilbon has heart attack

sorry if this is a d_b:
http://passtheword.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/get-well-mike/

from roy s. johnson's blog:

 

Re: roy s. johnson: wilbon has mild heart attack

They didn't label it as a heart attack on PTI last night, but said something along the lines of he had chest pains and had called in during the taping to say he was doing fine.

 

Re: roy s. johnson: wilbon has mild heart attack

I've always been told Wilbon works very hard, travels constantly for work, etc. And on the air he has talked about having a bad back. If you're in his position, it would be tempting a chunk of time off (like six months) to just get healthy.

 

Re: roy s. johnson: wilbon has mild heart attack

A "mild heart attack" is like Bill Walton's definition of "minor surgery" -- it's a heart attack that happens to someone else.

I don't know Michael Wilbon, or what his health habits are, but if anyone knows him pass along this -- do EVERYTHING the doctors tell you do, including taking time off. My father had a similar procedure in 1990, and he thought six weeks later it wouldn't be a big deal to cut the yard with his riding mower. Instead, he was in excruciating pain -- doctors told him to wait at least two or three months before doing anything. Also, depending on his health habits and his genetics, he could be right back in sooner than he knows it. About five or so years later, my dad, who had resumed smoking, was back in for a sextuple bypass. And a couple years ago, even though he had quit smoking and improved his health habits quite a bit, he still had to get his arteries cleaned out again. All of this occurred between the ages of 48 and 62.

So if you ever "just" have an angioplasty, please remember it can be a beginning, and not necessarily an end.

 

Re: roy s. johnson: wilbon has mild heart attack

Is there a procedure to "clean out" arteries?

 

Re: roy s. johnson: wilbon has mild heart attack

That's what an angioplasty does. It's a balloon put in the arteries to clear out the plaque and get the blood flowing again, and normally a stent (drug-coated or not) is placed inside to keep the artery open. So when you have angioplasty, you haven't had a Fred Sanford-style "heart attack" because the heart muscle might not have been damaged -- my father's barely was at the time of his first procedure. For most people -- and DocTalk can correct me if I'm wrong -- most of the heart procedures are to clean out space in the arteries, or with a bypass, to create new paths around damaged arteries, so the blood can flow to the heart. People who have a heart attack that is the muscle itself seizing up (and that could be because of chest pains that were long ignored, and could have been taken care of with an angioplasty) often drop dead before anybody can do anything.

 

Re: roy s. johnson: wilbon has mild heart attack

FWIW, and there's no such thing as minor heart surgery, but this is as close to a tonsillectomy as you can get in that field.
Best wishes to Wilbon, a great American.

 

Re: roy s. johnson: wilbon has mild heart attack

Best of luck to Mike. Met him a three years ago in DC at one of those sports media summits (I forget who was running it) and he was one of the featured panelists that day. He came in about 10 minutes late and one of the first things he said was: "...sports writers and early mornings (it was 9:30 am) do NOT go well together." Still one of my favorite lines. I hope everything went smoothly for him and that he's back at the keyboard and in front of the camera in no-time.

 

Re: roy s. johnson: wilbon has mild heart attack

Get well soon, Mr. Wilbon.

 

Re: roy s. johnson: wilbon has mild heart attack

Cleaning out the arteries isn't quite right but close enough.

Plaques of fat form on the inside the arteries of the heart and narrow blood flow to the heart muscle itself. When the heart is asked to do more work, like shoveling snow or climbing steps, it needs more blood to deliver oxygen. Should the blockage be significant enough that there isn't enough oxygen delivery, then the muscle aches, no different than arms that get sore from lifting or legs that hurt after running. This is called angina.

When an angiogram is performed, it is to look for critical narrowing and by inflating a balloon at he obstruction, the plaque buildup is squashed into the wall of the blood vessel (angioplasty). Once the area is opened, there is opportunity to place a wire mesh stent across the angioplasty area to keep it open long term.

In heart attack, the plaque ruptures and a blood clot forms completely obstructing the heart artery and no blood flow gets to the part of the heart muscle that the artery supplies. If angioplasty isn't performed emergently (the standard is 9o minutes from the time the patient presents to the hospital to when the artery should be opened) then that part of the heart muscle dies and is replaced with scar tissue. Not all hospitals can perform emergent angioplasty and clot busting drugs like TPA or TNK can be used to dissolve the blood clot adn termporize until transfer to a more fully equipped hospital.

Significant risks exist with angioplasty but the risk decreases when cardiologists doing the procedure have experience doing alot of the procedures frequently.

I hope Mr. Wilbon does well; he is young and has many years ahead of him. This is now opportunity for him and his audience (including those on SportsJournalists.com) to start minimizing risk factors for heart disease: smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Family history is also a risk factor but you can't do anything about genes.

 

Re: roy s. johnson: wilbon has mild heart attack

Man - that ESPN DL is getting long...Hope he heals up soon. Probably the best time of the year to be on the shelf, between the Super Bowl and March Madness.

 

Re: roy s. johnson: wilbon has mild heart attack

Best wishes, Michael.

I did what I'd consider heavy lifting five days after surgery, but it was three two-liter bottles of soda and I'd had the equivalent of hernia surgery. For something like this, FOLLOW DOCTOR'S ORDERS!