January 11th, 2018… 5 feet, 6 inches… 245-250 pounds. That’s a lot of pounds per square inch.
Just another day, waking up coughing and exhausted from coughing all night. It’s been like that for a while now, on and off for the last few years. So, I’ve lived with it (without any issues) and I assumed it’s nothing serious as my mom has been coughing on and off since I can remember. So I figured I’m just like mom, what are you gonna do?
As usual, I go to work after skipping breakfast. I do my daily hardcore workout… which consists of walking to my car from my apartment and then from my car to my office. Probably a whopping 2 minutes… Of course, I take the elevator. Taking the stairs doesn’t even cross my mind.
However, today is different… I walk out of the elevator and start to feel out of breath. I head straight towards my office which is a LONG 30-45 seconds walk. I continue breathing heavily, as well as feeling a slight discomfort below my right shoulder. After an hour or two of breathlessness and the discomfort intensifying, I decided I needed to make a dreaded trip to the hospital. I HATE HOSPITALS!
It was chock a block full of patients. I sat there watching two older ladies telling jokes and trying to cheer up a sick little girl. At the same time, a young boy was running around who tried and succeeded, to cheer her up. “Mathieu Drolet, please come to room number 6.” That’s me!
So there I was, sitting in room number 6. A few minutes later, Dr. Carrier shows up and auscultates me, asking me to take deep breaths and holding some of them in. It was still really distressing.
Shortly after, Dr. Carrier joins me in the room and shares my diagnosis…
Pneumonia in both lungs with a side of high blood pressure and diabetes type II. Happy new year Matt!
After that bombshell, she told me I needed to stay in the hospital, they were going to give me medication to lower my blood pressure and that I needed to lay down until I had stabilized. Stabilize? What the…?
The first nurse is back, and she’s the one who would check up on me every once in a while. At this point, my heart rate and blood pressure were the main concerns for them. They were trying their best to lower them.
A while later Dr. Carrier came back and while she remained very professional, I could see worry in her eyes. She sat down and looked at me with a very serious look. I could see a bit of disappointment and empathy in her eyes. She told me to go back home. Warned me that I needed to take it easy for a few days and take care of myself. She started explaining the game plan she came up with for me.
- Meds for hypertension: I believe it was hydrochlorothiazide.
- Meds for diabetes: Metformin
- An appointment with a cardiologist and a treadmill test to make sure everything is OK with my heart.
Unbelievable that she could find the time to come up with this plan in the middle of all these other patients I saw earlier in the emergency room.
Enough is enough… I arrive home and tell myself I am too young to be this unhealthy. I have to get back on a healthy path. I have to get rid of this pneumonia first though… Stupid pneumonia…
January 26th: At this point, I decided to see pretty much every specialist available. I started with a physiotherapist. That’s when I met Christine from CBI Excellence, who would help me over the course of the next few months in strengthening various parts of my body to avoid injuries on my new journey.
After my initial evaluation, she told me we would need to work on a few things together but nothing too major. She suggested to see a kinesiologist so I could get an exercise program.
January 31st: I followed Christine’s advice and got an appointment with a Kinesiologist. That’s when I met the energetic and passionate Julie. Who would later be assisted by her awesome intern, Ann Sophie. I would soon give them the title of “jumper cables.”
It was a little hard to get going as I didn’t have the energy to really get moving. My mind wanted to but my body was like: “Dude, the hell are you doing? Sit down! I ain’t used to this!”
Julie asked what I ate, how I slept, etc. I mentioned I started following a nutrition program from a website and that my sleep isn’t so great.
She said she can help with nutrition during our next visit but referred me to a nutritionist.
February 5th: I wasted no time and booked an appointment with Roxanne, the nutritionist. Pretty much like every health professional I met over a few week period, she was very patient and passionate about showing me the ropes. I told her my goals, to lose weight, get back in shape and get rid of the meds I am taking if at all possible.
With the help of Christine, Julie and Ann Sophie, I slowly but surely got back on the right road. I began walking, a little bit of weight training here and there and some slow, short runs.
February 13th, 2018: 213 pounds! That’s between 32 to 37 pounds lost… I know right?
I went back to the hospital for a checkup. Pneumonia is gone and everything looks perfect! Woohoo!
February 14th, 2018… Valentine’s day… how ironic :). I went for my treadmill test and met with Dr. Delage who would become my cardiologist for a few months. He wonders what the hell i’m doing there at first, me being so young. He looks at my x-rays from a month or so ago and says: Hell, that’s no pneumonia… this is “water on the lungs” (AKA: Pleural Effusion). I see a bit of worry in his facial expression so I said to myself: “Oh oh…”
Diagnosis: Heart failure! Well, that doesn’t sound scary at all doc, thanks! I won’t go into the technical details in this blog post but my ejection fraction was at 31%. Normal fraction should be around 55% to 60% according to him.
This is serious heart disease! However, I am a very positive guy by nature and while it did worry and scare the crap out of me, I stayed calm and immediately entered “solution and focus mode”.
He told me that I would require medication, possibly, for the rest of my life. With my overall efforts that I have started with since January, I was already on point. He wished all his patients were as easy to deal with as me. I have to keep it up though… and I will!! I will get rid of these meds if I can! Just watch me!
I kept my routine with Julie, Ann Sophie and Christine and made steady progress.
I decided I want to take this to the next level so I joined a gym and got a full blown program at the Nautilus plus in Ste-Foy. It included a kinesiologist and a nutritionist. I really loved working with Julie and Ann Sophie but I felt like access to a full gym would benefit me more with my progression and development.
A very special thank you to my awesome “jumper cables”, Christine, Julie and Ann Sophie. I can’t thank them enough for their help in getting me started.
Read part two here.
360 of my 180 