A year ago today, a pain in my forearms woke me up and it was so bad I couldn't get back to sleep.

It felt as if somebody was holding my arms over a campfire and I could not pull them away. I tried running them under cold water and even took a cold shower trying to cool them down.

After a few hours, I gave up and decided I should probably go the hospital and maybe they'd give me a pill to make it go away.

I'd never been to a hospital in the area. So, I used my GPS to find one. I ended up driving around for about an hour before locating a hospital. At 4 am in the morning you don't pull over and ask directions.

I spent 30 minutes or so filling out the paperwork; they brought me into the little room and took my vitals and some of my precious blood (probably 25% gravy back then). Everything seemed normal to me. My blood pressure was a little high and my oxygen was a little low.

The blood tests take a while. So, I sat there playing games on my phone, bored out of my skull for the next 90 minutes waiting for them come back with a prescription and send me on my way.

Then, the doctor comes in with this serious look on his face and says, "Mr Trieger, the enzymes in your blood indicate that you've had a heart attack. We need to get you up stairs immediately."

I called my roommate; told I was at the hospital and asked him to feed the dogs and let them out. He was a little pissed. He was under the impression that when you have a heart attack, you should wake up your roommate for a ride to the hospital.

The orderly comes with a gurney and has me crawl up onto it. I was sure my fat ass was going to fall off. He rolled me through the hospital to the elevator for everybody to see. This wasn't as much fun as it looks like on TV.

They get me to a room and ask me if I can make it to the bed from the gurney on my own. I should have said, "no" and made them lift me but I was nice about it.

It was one of those fancy beds that weighs you. The nurse went to write my weight on the whiteboard on the wall and I asked her not to. We compromised and she wrote it in kilos. 164.8 kilos to be exact.

She jammed and IV in my arm and put one of those oxygen things on my face. I could only imagine how silly I looked, so I snapped a quick picture (below) when she stepped away.

Yep, pretty silly and where did all of that neck fat come from?

An hour later, a couple more orderlies came in and told me I was going for a ride to the tech lab. I had no clue what that was but as long as all I had to do was lay there while they pushed, I didn't mind.

They roll me through the hospital on the bed for all to see yet again. It still wasn't as fun as it looks on TV. Into another elevator and down the hall to the tech lab.

Once we get there, they help me out of the bed onto some little table that couldn't have been 24" wide. Laying flat on my back, I knew I was going to fall but they belted me in and swung out two flaps for me to put my arms on. It was like being crucified horizontally.

The mask went on and the next thing I remember was them unstrapping me from the table and helping me back to the bed. I blacked out again and awoke back in my room.

The cardiologist came in and told me that two of my coronary arteries were 100% blocked and had to be stented. I, like my spell-checker here, had no clue what stented meant.

I spent the next 2 days watching TV and sleeping. Which isn't such a bad thing if the damn nurses didn't find the most inopportune times to wake you up to take blood.

Fast forward 2 days: It's Sunday and I am released. Ah!! I have been waiting for this time so I could get to my car and my beloved cigarettes. I had 3 left and these were going to be the last.

As soon as I pulled out of the parking lot, I lit one up and I was in Heaven. I smoked another that day and saved the last for Monday morning, my birthday.

I did manage to put them down for 7 months until after my Lapband surgery but am trying once again to kick the habit for my upcoming panniculectomy surgery.

It still amazes me, that with my memory is bad as it is, I remember that day a year ago as if it were today.