ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: K5AF
Operator(s): K5AF
Station: K5AF
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Stx
Operating Time (hrs): 13.2
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 44
40: 111
20: 109
15: 188
10: 56
------------
Total: 508 Sections = 80 Total Score = 81,280
Club:
Comments:
Memorable contest in more ways than one. I had planned to do a part-time
effort, but the high bands were good enough to make me want to put in a few
extra hours...more on that later.
I had the best rates on 15M, and it productive both days. I discovered that my
26' hatted vertical dipole was a much more consistent 40M antenna than my double
zepp, which had always been my "gold standard" on 80M.
I had promised my wife a dinner out on Sunday night, but was able to convince
her to go out early so that I could be back home for the final three hours of
the contest.
We rushed through the meal and I was noticing some abdominal pains on the drive
home. I was determined to not let the pain affect the contest, but after only
a few Qs I began experiencing the most excruciating chest pain I've ever known.
I walked out of the shack into the family room gasping for breath, eventually
crawling on all fours toward the kitchen to alert my wife Karen, who called
911.
The EMS response seemed immediate, not more than about five minutes. My blood
pressure was 220 over 112, and my heart was racing. The techs wired me up for
an EKG, and were surprised when the results came back looking normal. Karen
had given me an apirin as directed by the 911 operator, and the tech gave me a
nitro pill shortly after arriving. They put me on a gurney and into the
ambulance. The nitro pill worked like magic, and I was starting to feel better
as we traveled to the hospital.
We had a good experience with a particular hospital when our daughter was in a
car accident, so Karen had them take me there and they didn't dissappoint.
They were ready when I arrived with a flurry of tests, performed efficiently
and professionally. My blood pressure had dropped close to normal, and the
EKGs were still normal. I was in intensive care, and the doctor who saw me
wanted to continue tests but was beginning to doubt that it was a heart
program, but continued with varios scans and test.
I continued to have severe spiking chest pains through the night, which were
treated with nitro and morphine. By about 2am, everything had settled pretty
much back to normal. In the morning they ran abdominal xrays, labs, and a
stress test. All produced normal results. They attributed the excruciating
pain to an accute GI tract blockage and/or esophagas spasms.
I was released about 22 hours after being admitted, and will do some follow-up
tests later this week. I feel back to normal, but do not want to ever
experience that level of pain again. I will be a very good patient!!!
I've been eating fast, eating bad foods, and eating irregularly both as a
musician and as a contester. I'm sure that those things contributed to this
problem. Fortunately, I've been exercising regularly, reflected by very solid
results on the stress test and the other evals they ran on my heart.
There's certainly a lesson in this for me. I pass it along on this forum so
that others might avoid a similarly painful, even potentially deadly, result.
Paul, K5AF
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