Rick Hunter

Hello everyone!  Well, I never thought that I would be talking abut this now, but here I am.  


Early evening on December 4th, I recall feeling a pressure in my chest.  However, I didn't feel anything else, like pain down my arm or up my neck, or even intense sweating, so I dismissed it as the stress of working long hours six days a week and going to  school full time.  It didn't help that I wasn't exactly in the best of physical shape either.


But the following morning, I woke up at 3:30 with that pressure in my chest still there, and there wasn't any way that I could lay or sit that made me comfortable.  In 30 minutes, I began sweating profusely, so I woke up my beloved Stephanie and said that we should probably go to the hospital.  I started feeling dizzy, weak, and disoriented by this point.  


No sooner did I walk through the emergency room doors and tell the check-in desk that I was having chest pains was I swiftly ushered into an ER room.  In ten minutes, I had a nurse on each limb working on me and an ER doctor supervising and advising.  An EKG showed that I was in the process of having a heart attack, without question..  In 30 minutes, I was in the cath lab getting a heart stent put in.  Did that make all the difference!


Unfortunately, the cath lab and an echocardiogram showed that I had more partially blocked arteries that will now require at least a triple bypass operation.  I'm not going to put up a front and say that I'm not worried or even a little scared, because I am.  I know that I shouldn't be, because my beloved had this same operation done and she is better than ever.  I also know that the surgeon that will be performing the operation works closely with the surgeon that operated on Stephanie, so I know that I am in good hands.  I've just never had to undergo anything like this before.  Shoot, my only experience with surgery of any kind was having all my wisdom teeth pulled out before I left the Army.  


Men, I'm not going to go on a long tirade about how you should eat right and exercise regularly (although you should, just as I need to!), because there are more than a few accounts of perfectly healthy people that have heart attacks.  I will say that you will be at a higher risk if you have a family history.  But hear me on this, okay?   If you have an intense pressure in your chest (I described it as "feeling like the Hulk was pushing on my chest"), GET CHECKED OUT!  It doesn't matter if you don't have the flop sweats or pain running down your arm, get it checked!  Get an EKG!  If it's irregular, get it checked again in a month.  Don't wait for a trip to the ER.  `


Ways to help: Please pray for us. Both of us are in school and working, but Rick is our main income. If you would like to help by sending a Kroger gift card,  we would sure appreciate that.  You can send to The Hunters 2411 S. I-35 e. Apt 1721 Denton, to 76210.
Feel free to visit Rick, He will check in on January 4th and be taken straight back for surgery. He should be at Denton regional in ICU for a few days then head to the cardiac wing.  
Thank you friends and family. 
Steph and Rick Hunter