Six weeks ago I was adjusting to my new ICU bed after waking up from Quadruple Bypass Heart Surgery

[S/V Loner]

40. Somewhat similar situation here.

I had a regular physical and the EKG showed a slight change. I was sent to a cardiologist and he wanted me to have a catheterization to check it out. It turned out I had a 100% blockage in one artery and 80% in two arteries. I asked how could this be? I told them I was a wildlife photographer and I carry 20 lbs. of gear into the woods every morning (this was the winter) until I got hypothermic, hiked out of the woods and repeated the process at the end of the day. All this and I never had chest pain or shortage of breath. It just didn't make sense. The surgeon only said that my body must be dealing with it but that seemed to me one of those answers designed to just make me be quiet. I researched it and found out that my body had created collaterals. Yes, a real thing and once I mentioned it to my cardiologist he agreed that it was probably collaterals. Those are small arteries that my body created to bypass the blockages. My cardiologist honestly said that I may never have an issue but then, I might. I figured that if I did have an issue I may be a mile back in the woods and no one would find me for a week and because I was feeling great I might as well have the triple bypass done.
Long story short, they split me in half and replaced the arteries. I made the right choice. Both my surgeon and cardiologist said that my recovery was off the charts. Two weeks after being discharged from the hospital I was back on the river with my camera which was really dumb because if I fell I could split apart my chest and that would be a big problem. My doctors laid into me and I took it easy for a while.
I was lucky. Lucky that they found the issue, lucky that I went into surgery healthy (if that makes any sense), and lucky that my recovery was easy. Because I never had a heart attack I just look at it as getting my hoses changed. That was 5 years ago and I am 68 now... and still taking my camera gear into the woods.
I certainly made the right choice.