BarCampER

Angiogram - David Crow

For those of you wondering what happended to me at DemoCamp, well, Tuesday was supposed to be DemoCamp6 but it turned out to be BarCampER for me. I had a heart attack just before DemoCamp on Tuesday, May 30, 2006. This was completely unexpected! And scary! I’m only 32, I don’t use cocaine, I don’t have a strong family history of heart disease, I don’t smoke, I don’t use intravenous drugs, I eat pretty well, and I try to exercise.

I’m doing okay, they let me out of the Cardiac ICU on Friday June 2, 2006. I’ve been home under bed rest and recovery since Friday. Kristin has been juggling seeing patients and taking care of my sorry butt for the past week. Between running back and forth to the hospital, to having my mother and sister stay with her at the condo.

Here’s a quick timeline of what happened:

Echocardiogram - David Crow

  • 5:30pm – Arrived at MaRS to set up for DemoCamp6
  • ~5:45pm – Headache, excessive sweating and discomfort start
  • 6:00pm – Chest tightness and swollen jaw
  • 6:15pm – Discussion with Jay, Joey, Sutha, Leila and Greg about how bad I felt and looked
  • 6:20pm – Sutha walks me through the underground corridors at MaRS over to the Emergency Room at Toronto General Hospital
  • 6:30pm – I see the triage nurse at TGH with a heart rate of 94bpm and blood pressure of 190/120 which is not good.
  • 7:30pm – The pain subsides for a while
  • 10:30pm – Chest pain starts again but it much less painful (on a scale of 1-10 this time the chest pain is only a 2.5 maybe a 3)
  • 12:30am – blood work comes back from the lab, it shows troponin levels increasing to 14.80
  • There was a lot of flurry of activity, that culminated with my going up to the Cath Lab for an angiogram and angioplasty at around 4:30am
  • 4:30am – Cath showed culprit lesion in the OM1 of the circumflex coronary artery with a 95% occulsion. This was stented with a non-drug eluting stent.
  • 6:45am – Arrival in the Coronary ICU on the second floor of Toronto General Hospital

I’ve been home since Friday and I’m doing okay. I get tired easily. I’m on a lot of meds including:

  • Acetaminophen aka Tylenol for pain
  • Atorvastatin aka Lipitor to lower my cholestoral
  • Aspirin as a blood thinner
  • Lopressor is a beta blocker to lower my blood pressure
  • Plavix to prevent cloating around the stent
  • Ramipril aka altace which is a beta blocker an ace inhibitor to lower my heart rate

I’m good. I’m around. Call me if you’d like to stop by. I have about 8 weeks of recovery infront of me.



This entry was posted on Monday, June 5th, 2006 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Jess McMullin

    <p>Scary. Glad you're getting better. Take care..</p>

  • Lynda Chiotti

    <p>Best wishes on your recovery, David. Taking the summer off is not a bad idea anyway. Hope you have a place (with wireless!) to sit outside.</p>

  • Randy Charles Morin

    <p>Hope you get better. Us DemoCampers will surely miss you these next 8 weeks.</p>

  • /pd

    <p>Hey Dave, take it easy dude !! Take time off and relax. DemoCampers, we'll miss you for sure !!</p>

  • Stuart MacDonald

    <p>Dude! I was wondering what was up with your 'angioplasty' snippet in gtalk. That's nuts! Get well soon.</p><br />
    & Stuart

  • Arlen Ritchie

    <p>We're all pulling for you David and hope you make a full and speedy recovery. Can't wait to see you out and about soon.</p>

  • Jevon

    <p>Dave. Phew. Thank goodness you didn't wait to have it checked out.</p><br />
    <br />
    <p>Get well soon.</p>

  • Leila Boujnane

    <p>I can't believe this! Get well very soon. I am not sure about the 8 weeks of rest, aren't you going to go crazy? I suggest you start writing. Once you recover come run with me dude! Give my best to Kirstin and ask her to call or email if she needs anything as I know you won't!<br />-lb</p>

  • Canblog

    <strong>Trackback from Canblog:</strong><br /><a href="http://archives.i.canblog.com/2006/06/05/holy_crap.html&quot; target="_blank">Holy Crap</a><br /><br />David Crow a key instigator of the BarCamp and DemoCamp movement had a heart attack last week!&nbsp; I've never met David, but have attended some of these events and think he's doing fantastic work and a performing a hell of…

  • Rohan Jayasekera

    <p>Yikes. I’m glad to hear you got yourself into good hands right away. Too bad about the 8 weeks but then you’re an online veteran. Take good care of yourself.</p>

  • Rehan

    <p>Yikes! Best of luck in the rest and recovery…</p>

  • Ryan McKegney

    <p>That sucks man! Get better!</p> <p>I think we’re all eagerly awaiting to see what 8 weeks of concentrated boredom from everyone’s favourite agitator brews… :) </p>

  • mark evans

    <p>glad to hear you’re doing well. take care of yourself.</p> <p>cheers, mark</p>

  • Mark Kuznicki

    <p>David, my friend! I missed all the drama at DemoCamp, so I was completely shocked when I learned about this. Really. I humbly offer my services to help in any way I can during your recovery. First off – you’re about to get a full dose of my various media addictions! I hope your DVD player plays DivX files. Take it easy, and get well.</p>

  • James Woods

    <p>Thank goodness you’re ok David! Demo~schmemo, just focus on getting better and come back healthy. Make the best of RecoveryCamp ;-) </p> – James

  • http://www.bplusd.org Jess McMullin

    Scary. Glad you're getting better. Take care..

  • Cameron Booth

    <p>Holy s@#$ David! Scary I’m sure.</p> <p>Thinking of you…glad to hear things are OK now, and I’m sure some recovery and relaxation will be nice. Take care!</p>

  • http://chiotti.com Lynda Chiotti

    Best wishes on your recovery, David. Taking the summer off is not a bad idea anyway. Hope you have a place (with wireless!) to sit outside.

  • http://www.kbcafe.com Randy Charles Morin

    Hope you get better. Us DemoCampers will surely miss you these next 8 weeks.

  • http://peterdawson.typepad.com /pd

    Hey Dave, take it easy dude !! Take time off and relax. DemoCampers, we'll miss you for sure !!

  • Sacha Chua

    <p>Ack! Get well soon!</p> – Best wishes from a David Crow fangirl

  • http://stuart.blogware.com Stuart MacDonald

    Dude! I was wondering what was up with your 'angioplasty' snippet in gtalk. That's nuts! Get well soon.

    & Stuart

  • http://www.arlenritchie.com Arlen Ritchie

    We're all pulling for you David and hope you make a full and speedy recovery. Can't wait to see you out and about soon.

  • http://laudably.com Jevon

    Dave. Phew. Thank goodness you didn't wait to have it checked out.

    Get well soon.

  • Roland Tanglao

    <p>gute Besserung as the Germans says!<br />for heavens sake, stop blogging! turn off the computer and enjoy your time off! see you in 8 weeks</p>

  • http://www.hyperbio.net/ Leila Boujnane

    I can't believe this! Get well very soon. I am not sure about the 8 weeks of rest, aren't you going to go crazy? I suggest you start writing. Once you recover come run with me dude! Give my best to Kirstin and ask her to call or email if she needs anything as I know you won't!
    -lb

  • http://archives.i.canblog.com/2006/06/05/holy_crap.html Canblog

    Trackback from Canblog:
    Holy Crap

    David Crow a key instigator of the BarCamp and DemoCamp movement had a heart attack last week!  I’ve never met David, but have attended some of these events and think he’s doing fantastic work and a performing a hell of…

  • http://www.rohanjayasekera.com Rohan Jayasekera

    Yikes. I’m glad to hear you got yourself into good hands right away. Too bad about the 8 weeks but then you’re an online veteran. Take good care of yourself.

  • Rehan

    Yikes! Best of luck in the rest and recovery…

  • http://www.redflagdeals.com Ryan McKegney

    That sucks man! Get better!

    I think we’re all eagerly awaiting to see what 8 weeks of concentrated boredom from everyone’s favourite agitator brews… :)

  • http://evans.blogware.com mark evans

    glad to hear you’re doing well. take care of yourself.

    cheers, mark

  • http://www.remarkk.com Mark Kuznicki

    David, my friend! I missed all the drama at DemoCamp, so I was completely shocked when I learned about this. Really. I humbly offer my services to help in any way I can during your recovery. First off – you’re about to get a full dose of my various media addictions! I hope your DVD player plays DivX files. Take it easy, and get well.

  • http://warpjam.com James Woods

    Thank goodness you’re ok David! Demo~schmemo, just focus on getting better and come back healthy. Make the best of RecoveryCamp ;-)

    – James

  • http://cdbdesign.net/blog/ Cameron Booth

    Holy s@#$ David! Scary I’m sure.

    Thinking of you…glad to hear things are OK now, and I’m sure some recovery and relaxation will be nice. Take care!

  • http://sacha.free.net.ph Sacha Chua

    Ack! Get well soon!

    – Best wishes from a David Crow fangirl

  • http://contrapunctus.net/ Chris League

    <p>Wow, it can be frightening to have this experience so young. I know because I went through <a href="http://contrapunctus.net/league/photo/2003/hospital.php&quot; target="_blank">almost exactly the same thing</a> at age 30 (three years ago).</p> <p>I did have family history, and rarely exercised, but I thought my diet was reasonable. Turns out I probably should have been on statins (for cholesterol) throughout my 20s.</p> <p>Anyway, now I’m doing well, and I feel <em>younger</em> at 33 than I did at 30. Maybe because I’m always the youngest guy at the cardiologist. :) Stress tests are a pain in the neck, but I <strong>love</strong> the beta blocker. Best wishes to you.</p>

  • Mike McDerment

    <p>Wow. I guess this proves it’s actually more stressful to NOT have a job? :) </p> <p>Ah…if we can’t make light of things now…well…Thank you for the blow by blow…I hope you are feeling better. Stents are amazing little things. Good for you for going straight to ER…thanks be to Sutha for getting you there.</p> <p>Get well soon David.</p>

  • http://rolandtanglao.com Roland Tanglao

    gute Besserung as the Germans says!
    for heavens sake, stop blogging! turn off the computer and enjoy your time off! see you in 8 weeks

  • Betsy Weber

    <p>Wow, David! I wasn't expecting to hear this! I'm glad you're on the road to recovery. Get well soon.</p>

  • Daniel Ponech

    <p>Dude! That’s grevious! Hope you make a full & speedy recovery.</p>

  • Ethan

    <p>Holy crap! What a shock! I guess MaRS is a good location for democamp for a lot of reasons. How fortunate that you were seen so quickly and that it didn’t take a bad turn (well, worse than it was, it sounds pretty bad).</p> <p>Get well soon!</p>

  • Taylan Pince

    <p>So sorry to hear about this David, I hope you get well soon, take care.</p>

  • Joey deVilla

    <p>Oh, David, if only you’d given us a chance to use the defibrillators at MaRS on you, we could’ve had the mother of all demos: “And now, we’ll perform a ctril-alt-delete on our host…CLEAR!</p> <p>But seriously, I’m glad to feel that you’re doing much better. We’ll visit soon, and I have presents from Wendy and me as well from Tucows.</p> <p>Get well soon!</p>

  • Michael O'Conno

    <p>Goodness, David – that’s rough. I’m just glad you were in good hands and able to get some prompt help. Please rest, take care, and get back to full health soon – you’re far too important to the Toronto tech community for us to do without you for long.</p>

  • Albert Lai

    <p>Holy crap dude.</p> <p>I miss ONE demoCamp and you have an heart attack? ;) </p> <p>But seriously, wow… good to hear you’re recovering. I’m going to miss you dropping in randomly with guests at our office in the next 8 weeks.</p> <p>I’ll catch you on IM and bring you some tech ideas to stew on in bed. ;) </p>

  • marie jose crete

    <p>David,</p> <p>One of my student (Gabriel) just came running to my office wit the scary news! Very scary! </p> <p>I am glad to hear that you are feeling better.</p> <p>Just a month ago I saw you in the very same building but we were both busy with people and did not get a chance to talk .</p> <p>Please take care of yourself, </p> <p>Marie Jose</p>

  • http://contrapunctus.net/ Chris League

    Wow, it can be frightening to have this experience so young. I know because I went through almost exactly the same thing at age 30 (three years ago).

    I did have family history, and rarely exercised, but I thought my diet was reasonable. Turns out I probably should have been on statins (for cholesterol) throughout my 20s.

    Anyway, now I’m doing well, and I feel younger at 33 than I did at 30. Maybe because I’m always the youngest guy at the cardiologist. :) Stress tests are a pain in the neck, but I love the beta blocker. Best wishes to you.

  • http://www.michaelmcderment.com Mike McDerment

    Wow. I guess this proves it’s actually more stressful to NOT have a job? :)

    Ah…if we can’t make light of things now…well…Thank you for the blow by blow…I hope you are feeling better. Stents are amazing little things. Good for you for going straight to ER…thanks be to Sutha for getting you there.

    Get well soon David.

  • http://visuallounge.techsmith.com Betsy Weber

    Wow, David! I wasn't expecting to hear this! I'm glad you're on the road to recovery. Get well soon.

  • Joan

    <p>I’ve just wandered over from Joey’s place. Yes, strangers from the blogosphere are sending their best wishes. Good luck in your recovery.</p>

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