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Boots Knighton: Hello, and welcome to episode 13 of the Heart Chamber. I am your host, boots Knighton on the program. Today I interview Bill Windgate from Alabama. Bill is a four-time open heart surgery survivor and thriver. His story is long and wide ranging. So many nuggets of wisdom and important information. I appreciate Bill coming onto the show today so much, and for him sharing his story with us.

And part of the story is a cautionary tale about a visit to the dentist. So let's get to it.

I am just honored you wanted to come on my podcast and share your story. I feel like anytime I get to spend time with another heart warrior, it's so healing and the, just the power of validation when

someone [00:01:00] else is willing to witness your story is,

it's everything.

Bill Wingate: and I, I know in pa in the past I have

looked, for different podcasts and different resources just to listen to other stories. And there hasn't been much out there. And it was, it was a couple days after I got home from the hospital after this last surgery and that you had just launched your podcast.

and I was like, okay, this is kind of cool. And so I started listening and I was very intrigued. And, so I've enjoyed all of 'em. They've been, they've been very, I've learned a lot that I did not know, uh, I did not know a whole lot about myocardial bridging, before this. But, now I know I know more.

I still don't, I'm not an expert in that field. I try to be an expert in what's going on with me, but it's another, it's another issue that I was unaware of. but the awareness of there's so much to get, so much more than getting cracked open and fixed and sent on your way. and which that is part of it, but there's more that goes into it.

There's a, it's a, it's, it's a, it's a lifestyle change. And the, as long as you recognize that you can, I think you can [00:02:00] do okay with it. there's a lot to it. And it's, and it's very traumatic. Each one of 'em is traumatic. Each different event is traumatic,

Boots Knighton: . And for you to have been through four open

heart surgeries,

Bill Wingate: And the trauma of that has really hit home after this last one.

and I think it's a, I think it's a point of our, where we are in, in our life, and, uh, I'll circle back to that in a little while, but that's, it's, it's really pushed us to a little bit more in a lifestyle change. which is, which is, which is good. and we're, we're very blessed to be able to make the changes that we're, that we're currently making.

and when I say a we, it is, it, it is my family. It is, it is my, it my my Rock, which is Martha. she's the one that runs everything. I run, I, our joke is she runs me, but I run, run the house. because, uh, cause I've always had a much more flexible job than she does.

And so I've been, I work from outta the, I've worked outta the house for years, so I have more time with our daughter, so, so, but yeah, she, she keeps us going. So it, it's a very unusual setup. But, I don't know how you'd like to start these, but can you tell me which way you want me to start and let's [00:03:00] go.

Boots Knighton: Wow. that was a great introduction. let's start at the beginning at, I find chronological order is helpful. and we'll, we'll take it

from there.

Bill Wingate: Perfect. and so I was a junior in college at Auburn University in southeast Alabama. and. I was probably, I, I was not in the best health of my life, but I was the most active I've ever been in life. I was running a couple miles a day with my college roommates. We were having a good time.

Typical college. We had a good time. Lemme just call it We had a good time. We didn't shy away from a good

time. I don't usually shy away from a good time now, so I mean, some things stay the same. And, so, but I, we were ho I was home for spring break. I did not go anywhere and I'd had this pain in my neck, which is kind of funny to say, but, all week long and it has not gotten better.

So it had to be midweek. I went to see a brand new doctor, guy named Dr. Michael Murray. just an internal guy. He was right down from where we were living. It was convenient. I went in and said, I've got this pain in my neck. And so [00:04:00] he was like, okay, let's take a look. And he listened to my chest and he was like, do you know you have a heart murmur?

Like, never heard that before in my life. so I'm sitting there at 20 years old at the time, and, he was like, you've got a really, really, really loud heart murmur. One that almost like pushes me outta the room and sucks me back in. I was like, I've never heard that before, but okay. He said, L I want before you go back to school next week, I wanna get you in with a cardiologist. Okay. So I'm there for an, an issue with my neck, and now we've gone on to, who wants me to see a cardiologist pretty soon.

Okay.

All right.

Boots Knighton: and Bill, let me, let me ask you a question. Can you, do you remember what that neck pain felt

like

Bill Wingate: It felt like a, just, I, I slept on it wrong, or I just, outta w just outta whack is the best way I can describe it. And I'd had 'em before, but usually they resolve themselves in 24 hours. You take some Tylenol or Advil and. It goes away. This wasn't that. and looking back on it, we don't think that was related.

but needless to say, [00:05:00] I don't know if he did anything to treat the neck or not. I, that I don't, I don't recall. we got sidetracked with a cardiologist, but he got me in to see a cardiologist on Friday of that week. And I went in and it was by far the most thorough medical exam I think I've ever had.

even more than my regular doctor. I mean, she I was just struck by that, but I'm also 20 years old and had not seen a ton of doctors. But even comparison to today, she was pretty thorough. I did not enjoy her personality at all. and she was not gonna be a long-term cardiologist for me. I knew that from the first 10 minutes in the room.

so, but she did that. She, she looked at it and said, I hear the murmur. It's really bad. I really think. Before we let this get outta hand, you need to have a transesophageal echocardiogram. I said, okay, tell me about that. And so I did. And she was like, I'm gonna see if I can get somebody here at the hospital to do it like this afternoon.

This is a Friday afternoon, keep in mind of a spring break week. And I'm thinking, okay, this is getting to be a little more concerning.

So I go [00:06:00] home, I went to the doctor's office by myself. It wasn't too far from our house, was telling, uh, my dad about it. And he was like, all right, um, I think I'll be going back with you on this one.

So we went back that they did a transesophageal or a T e e, that afternoon, and they woke me back up. It was, they didn't give me much to knock me out. And I did, I still remember the pr, the procedure and I'm not a fan of them at all. so they immediately said, you've got, a very leaky aortic valve.

And we feel like it needs to be replaced as soon as humanly possible, preferably over this weekend or Monday.

And so

my dad

Boots Knighton: my

Oh my gosh. And remind me, you were in college, but what exact

age

Bill Wingate: I was tw I was laying on this, this table, after a te at age 20.

Boots Knighton: 20.

And I'm just thinking about when I was 20. I mean,

n not many of us have coping skills at that

age.

Bill Wingate: Exactly. I, I mean, I had a little bit, I came from a weird, I came from divorced parents and all [00:07:00] that, so I probably had more than the average bear.

But so all of a sudden, within about three or four days, we've gone from fairly healthy to needing heart surgery

and they want to do

it like over the

weekend.

And I was

Boots Knighton: Mm-hmm. .It was

emergent.

Bill Wingate: It was emergent.

My dad said, okay.

I appreciate your information, but we will not be doing it that fast. I feel like this has all come on in the past couple days. We need to get a second opinion on the And

Boots Knighton: Mm-hmm.

Bill Wingate: so that's how we left it on that Friday. And so of course we all started my, my dad and his colleagues and friends and all that.

We started figuring out what, who was the best person to see, who would be a good cardiologist to go get their opinion on and everything. So we found a guy, uh, we didn't find a guy. Um, he well known in our community, wasn't the most convenient for me, but a guy named Michael Simpson, who I loved. And so we went I took all my films.

He did a couple of things himself in the, in his office, and he came back and says, I agree, you've got aortic, aortic regurgitation and [00:08:00] stenosis. I hundred percent agree with them.

I do not

believe

Boots Knighton: Did you have a bicuspid

valve?

Bill Wingate: No, I do not. I have a, I have a solid tri

that's,

but I have, I have a

solid, they were normal with the exception of very, very leaky. So he agreed that it needed to be done. Um, he agreed with the diagnosis and said it, does need to be done. I don't think it's something that's going to change significantly if you've made it 20 years. I don't see why you can't wait a couple of months to least get you to a summer break or something, and where this is not being thrown at you within a couple of days.

So we were very thankful for that and that at that point we started asking questions, where should we do this? Who should do it? And he immediately said, at the hospital he's affiliated with, we got a great guy here he is excellent. I trust him. He says, but the best with an aortic valve in the southeast right now is a guy here in town at UAB B named Alpac Pacifica.

And he was a character like no other.

He,

Boots Knighton: When UAB B for

our

listeners, [00:09:00] university of

Alabama.

Bill Wingate: at Birmingham.

It is located in Birmingham, Alabama.

Whereas the other school, the University of Alabama is in Tuscaloosa. It's about an hour drive. and it's, but their medical school and their medical campuses all here in Birmingham.

And so he said, Dr. Pacifico's, as good as it gets. Um, he's, and he warned me straight up, he said he's a little different and he says he likes to do seven to nine cases a day. I was like, okay, I need some more information on this. And he says he's, he does it very different. He's got tiny little hands and they are some of the smallest hands I've ever met.

but he does them, he has great success rates and all and everything. So we did a little research and we that without traveling across the country, He was probably the best fit for us, being my age and being local. So we scheduled it for that summer, so June of 1997. June 23rd to be exact. And I had turned 21 by then and we met with Dr.

Pacifico, on a Sunday because that [00:10:00] was the day I was to be admitted to the hospital and surgery was gonna be on a Monday morning. And we talked to him and my dad flat out said, okay, you've given us two options here. One is we can put a mechanical valve in. We go on this. Got a really good shelf light.

I mean it, it's got a, a chance of running forever. but there are maintenance medications you gotta take every day. You gotta take blood thinner. He said, you've also given us an option of what. A thing called the Ross procedure, which is where they go in and they cut out my aortic valve and put it in the trash and cut out my pulmonary valve and install it in the aortic slot and give me a human donor pulmonary valve.

And so my dad said, so if this was your 21 year old sitting before you, or this was your 21 year old, you're about to cut what would you And he said, well, I'm a betting man. He said, I would go a little more risky and I would go with the Ross procedure because in the short term, it's gonna give him the better, the best, um, outlook on everything with pretty much no maintenance medicines after really the first [00:11:00] six months.

And he said, I think that's the best case for his, for his age. He says, there is a really good chance that we will have to come back in, in about 15 years to replace a valve because that that donor valve is only gonna last that long. When we move the move, move the valves around it, they could be the problems.

Okay. So that's what we did. So I had a Ross procedure on late June of 1997. It was traumatic. I mean, it was, I just remember laying in the hospital room the night before being very upset, the typical thing, why me and had a complete come apart. And my mom was in the, was staying with me overnight. Um, I mean, I'm, this is the, this is where it gets hard as a 21 year old.

I this is hard. I've got friends that are going on nice big vacations and trips all around the place. And here I am laying in a hospital about to get cracked, as I jokingly say, sliced, diced, and fixed. And so that's where we were. So I had my come apart. They gave me some medicine to relax and I actually got some really good sleep, [00:12:00] the night before.

And we went ahead and had the surgery the following morning. They described it as routine, nothing. I mean, it was perfect. everything went well. I was in and on and I on bypass like less than 45 minutes. the whole time working on my chest was less than 40. So I mean, the guy was good. He was quick.

And so, I mean, as a 21 year old, I recovered pretty well after that. I picked right back up. I went back to college in late August. a little bit slower. just getting back into things. and I remember, me being me, um, I was like, so I looked at the surgeon beforehand and I said, I need one thing out of this.

I said, I need a letter from you. When this is all said and done. That gets me the good parking on campus where I don't have to go to the big parking lots anymore cause I'm not doing. He laughed and said, I can. He said, not a problem. because I was a business major and there was a, there was a parking lot right behind the building that you had to be a graduate student.

And I could get that to park in that if I had a letter and I could get the medical exemption, I said, you know [00:13:00] what? I got my letter.

And I remember

go,

Boots Knighton: for you.

Bill Wingate: I mean,

sometimes you

gotta use this to your advantage. I don't do it often, but sometimes

you.

do.

Um, I remember going into, cuz it was a medical exemption, I had to go into the health center on campus, which was a great, great, I mean a great place.

And the nurse that was at the desk says, I know this letter says you've had open heart surgery, but there's no way a 21 year olds I said, let me call you on that. And I pulled up and showed her the scar and she was like, well, how quick can I feel this sign, this form?

Um,

Boots Knighton: huh. Wow. They, they couldn't say that this

day

and age.

Bill Wingate: No, they couldn't. They would just have to go with it. But it was, I vividly remember her, saying so, and then I, then she had to go get the doctor that was, ran the center to, for him to see it and listen. And he wanted to listen longer. And I was like, dude, I just want this perform sign.

Let's move on. I got things to do. But they thought it was very unique and every time I went in, they always used my heart to train somebody on, because you'll hear, cause I still ended up [00:14:00] with a small murmur, but it had been fixed.

So after that, life went right back, we jumped right back into life. we went in, um, went back to college, graduated year and a half later.

Yeah, about a year and a half later. didn't really slow me down. I mean, I, I saw my cardiologist every year had my annual echo. Every three or four years he would throw into a CT scan. That seems to be the favorite here, that they like to do more than MRIs for whatever reason.

I don't mind a CT scan, quick iv, some dye through a machine.

10 minutes

requires very little effort on my part . so we went along great. graduated college, uh, started working for a company that my dad owned and ended up getting married back in 2003. Yeah, we just celebrated 20 years this earlier this Got married. and life is pretty normal. I mean, I'm on one blood pressure pill and it was, I really balked when he suggested me to be put on it.

And he said, you don't really need it, but it's just gonna control the pressure in those [00:15:00] valves. It's kinda like driving your car and overdrive little pill. If you have any reaction to it, let me know. So I jumped on him. That was the only thing I was taking. Okay. No big deal. And me being young and fairly dumb.

I mean, sometimes I forgot it and I just moved on. So, uh, those are the simple days, thinking back on that. But, uh, but life was go going very well, gotten married, um, enjoying life and travel. And, and then in 2008 we had our, we had our, our daughter who, who's our only child, we joked that we have a lot of heart valves to as children now, and so yeah, we're a little, we we can be a little punchy and a little crass about things.

and

Boots Knighton: oh

we, yeah, my husband and I can too, is really how you cope. It's a coping

strategy and it

works.

Bill Wingate: my, my favorite line about me isn't, I mean, and as I, I mentioned in our email, I mean, I can be a little, I can be very salty. I can jump down in the gutter with the boys really fast. I try not to. but sometimes it's just fun. And, but my running joke is, and I have said it to physicians, to [00:16:00] people at church everywhere.

There are more store bots in my chest than the typical porn star. And it gets a reaction of everybody. I mean,

I've

got,

Boots Knighton: So I'll be marking this episode as explicit

Bill Wingate: Sure. You and I haven't even said anything really bad yet. this,

we're still

Boots Knighton: Just be you.

Bill Wingate: Oh, I I

will. so, but we went on life life went on and, um, I was seeing my cardiologist mean every year.

And he would do his echo and all the normal stuff. And we got into 2013 and I'm now 37 years old. I roll up for my normal visit. With Dr. Simpson that I love. And, he said, well, there's a, we have a relatively new valve clinic down at UAB B Hospital that's fairly new and I think we should u use them and just to get a good baseline on you to see what they're seeing, cuz they have some different ways of looking at things than we do here in the office.

And just to get a good baseline on you and see [00:17:00] what it is, because we do know that there's a chance that we have to replace one of those valves down the road. but they're doing some really amazing stuff. I had not even heard about the valve clinic yet, even though that's the same. It's in, in the hospital, which I had the surgery, but Okay.

Well I'm a, I'm, I'm game for spending in the morning to get it checked out. It's just, and so we did, so we got into, I'm looking at my timeline here. I think it was late August of 2013, early September. We went down to U a b. It's, they've got a great diagnostic center. They did their CT scan, they did all the normal stuff and some blood work and some x x-rays and all that.

And then you meet with a doctor to re review 'em immediately after all your, all your appointments, which I really like getting the information quickly. instead of having to wait. Um, cuz he likes to read this surgeon likes or this doctor likes to read his own scans. and I was, so we met with him and it's, it is, I guess August of late August, early September, he starts going through and he says, [00:18:00] well, it was nice to meet you.

This is what we're doing. This is what your scan showed. he goes, your aortic valve is really, really leaky. and he says, they probably told you, It was gonna possibly be, need to be replaced. And, um, as he's scrolling through these pictures, the, the colors light up. And my wife describes it as, it's like a party going on in this valve with colors coming in and out and various things.

I, I vaguely remember that. And I remember her asking a simple question to him saying, does this take us to surgery? And he says, no, not by itself. He said, he says, hold on just a second. So he switches to the CT scan, he said, now this is what drives us to surgery. And it was a five centimeter aneurysm inside the aorta. And uh, he, I was like, well, damn, there we go. and he says, usually once they hit four to five centimeters, we start getting concerned. And if it gets to six, I really, really get concerned. I think it needs to be,[00:19:00] Removed or fixed. And he says, my advice to you is y'all need to figure out how to work a major surgery in, into your life in the next few months. Okay? All right. Not what we expected. So it turns out, looking back on it, my cardiologist, something, he picked up on something that wasn't right, but he couldn't pinpoint and that's why he sent us to the valve clinic.

And

I was

Boots Knighton: So at this time, your daughter

was

Bill Wingate: she was

five years old, she had just started kindergarten. and we get this news and so we're trying to figure out, okay.

and the way I typically look at things is, okay, they've just given me news that I need to have another open heart surgery. Uh, but it needs to, we need to do it in the next six months. I don't wanna wait six months with this hanging over my head, cuz every decision I make is gonna be, ge is gonna be clouded by that.

So we kind of went into planning mode and just make, outlining our resources because it's different now. We have a child, she just started, started kindergarten. She's, [00:20:00] I mean, doing very well, but she's in her first week or two of kindergarten when we get the news.

Boots Knighton: Mm-hmm.

Bill Wingate: So We are very blessed because all of our family is here in town as well.

They're not right around the corner necessarily, but they're close. And so Martha called, uh, we talked to our families obviously, but her parents took Mary Hudson, our daughter, and she was like, she's with us until when to, whenever. We'll, we'll make it happen. We'll get her to school, we'll keep her up to date and updated.

Everything will be great. I mean, they just said, don't worry about that. We'll take care of And they did. And she was incredibly blessed by the sweetest, kindest kindergarten teacher that we had a conversation with before. And, beforehand, I let her know exactly what was going on so she could know.

And she was on our emails that Martha would send from the hospital, giving updates out so she choose what information to pass onto her just to let her know that things went are going well and all that. that's kind of what we had planned. At the valve clinic, a guy named Dr. Davies

runs it. [00:21:00] And we had never met him before, younger, couple years older than we are. And, um, he just kind of, he laid it all out there, said, you need to do it. You need to do it in the next six months. Let us know when and we'll get it on the books.

So we picked it to do pretty quick thereafter. It was September the 15th, I think it was September the 12th or 15th. The 13th. And so we did, so we went ahead and had it done. it was straightforward. He replaced the aortic root. He replaced the aortic valve. and it was easy in, out, couple hours

on bypass.

Boots Knighton: What did he replace

it with?

Bill Wingate: He replaced it with?

both of 'em are nothing. Nothing's tissue. Va, I mean, they're all. Mechanical type type structures, A mechanical valve. that one was a Medtronic at the time. and it was a Medtronic aortic root.

and it's just

that glorified PVC mesh, fancy stuff they, they used, but it was just a mechanical valve.

And that was the biggest change for me is now I'm on blood thinner. And that's, we gotta get that under [00:22:00] control. We gotta figure that out. which for those that are on blood thinner, I mean it can be some peop I was really hesitating about it and we're like, this is life changing and all that. It's not all bad.

You just have to be smart about it. You have to know your limitations. You have to know you don't need to get hit in the head with a baseball or take a baseball being thrown, hit your leg cuz it's gonna leave you with a bruise like no other. And so I recovered from that pretty well. And uh, we. Just kind of picked right back up.

Her life was, and I took couple weeks, couple six weeks off of work, roughly and slower lifestyle. And Mary Hudson did not miss a beat. she was glad, very glad when I came home from the hospital and I was glad to be home cuz hospitals are not fun places and there's, they're, they are not places for rest.

so it was pretty straightforward. I went to my follow-up appointment about six weeks afterwards. He looked at the incision, he took, did, they, did an echo, took the x-rays. He was like, you look good. I'm gonna [00:23:00] release you. Any questions for us? No. Kind of done this before. Kind of remember how this went.

Just gotta be smart and not do anything stupid for a while. And, and he's, I had no diet restrictions. I had nothing. He was like, just take care of yourself and. I think you'll be fine. And he said, and as we were leaving, I remember him saying, do you wanna do cardiac rehab? I was like, never done it before.

Probably should. So I did. And that was, that was great. I felt at that age I felt like I was a little young for it. cuz everybody else was older in there and I felt like they were holding me back more than I really wanted to be. But I went through it. I did their two minute walk test. I did their trying to get the right numbers on the treadmill and the bike and I did it.

I always felt frustrated when I left, but it was the right thing to do. It was the best thing for my health. Cuz they know better than I do. They can watch me closely. And so check that box moved on. Life is good. Travels are picking up. [00:24:00] We're doing well. My daughter's. Thriving finishes kindergarten that spring.

I have no idea what we did for the summer, but went in, I, I can guarantee you, it, it included a trip to Walt Disney World. Cause that that is my daughter's favorite place in the world. And so I'm quite certain it included that after all that was going on. And so we went into the fall for first grade year.

Life is great. and it was early November and I had gone on a trip with my wife down to New Orleans. We had driven to New Orleans. It's a five hour drive from here. It's a town that we love for a short three days because you can get into a lot of trouble and it's a crazy town.

Boots Knighton: And this is just a few

months after surgery.

Bill Wingate: uh, no, this is a year

after

we,

we fast

forwarded a year

We we're, we're,

we are a year,

we are

almost 15 months from surgery. Number two. Um, everything's gone well. I had my follow up with my cardiologist at the same time in August. Things looked good. we thought we were, I, I almost thought I was back to the Invincible now. I mean, we we're just checking the [00:25:00] boxes we're going on.

Life is grand. And she had a work trip to New Orleans and I had to tag along and we ate well. We probably drank too much, which is what I, we tend to do there. And we're driving home on a, I don't even remember what day of week of the week it was, and driving home and I just started to feel really bad. Um, like I had the flu or something, and she was over there in the passenger seat making fun of me because she was like, maybe you drank too much last night.

And I was like, okay, I've been there, I've done that. But typically the day after you get better as the day goes on, you don't get worse. She was like, well, it's the first time you've been there on blood thinner and new medicines. I was like, I'm still sticking by it. I think typically you get, you improve as the day goes on.

You don't get worse. So by the time we got home, I had my seat warmers on, even though it's 80 degrees outside and the heat going on my side of the car cuz I was just, I felt awful. All right. So we'd get home, we try to, I think I may have gone to bed or I [00:26:00] didn't feel good, so I go off to the doctor the next, I think that one might have been a Friday.

So I went over on Mon Monday and he looked at me and said, you look fine. Let's do some blood work. Blood work came back. Perfect. I mean, almost spot on for me. So, okay. So we kind of watched it for a little bit and I'd get better and then I'd come back. And so we spent all of November in and out of my, of different doctors getting blood work done and testing to see if I had mono or some type of hepatitis from a blood product or. Everything. It was just really bizarre. Um, I, but I wasn't going, I couldn't go to work. I wish I wanted to sit and I had no energy. night sweats and something was clearly going on, but we just could not put our fingers on it. And it got to be early after Thanksgiving, early December, I'd gone in to see him again and said, something's not right.

And so we did more blood work and, my white count had dropped a little bit and he said, that's the only thing. And he said, I want [00:27:00] test again in four or five days and see if it stays low. Or he says, it's not enough to do any treatment on it that I'm seeing, but that's new, so we need to, let's come back.

So before we got to that, I woke up, I, I think on a Thursday morning and or sometime on Thursday, my wife noticed at the top of my sternum, I had a mass that wasn't there. and that was a little concerning. And so we watched that through the day and see if it changed. And, went to bed on Thursday night and got up to go to the bathroom at one point.

And then, I kind of fell in the bathroom and so I woke her up as I hit the wall. And so at that point she was like, something's gotta give, something's completely off here. You should not be getting lightheaded walking to the toilet. That's not normal. So, um, we got up the next morning. This mass was bigger, so we immediately go down to my internist, my regular doctor, Dr.

Murray again, same guy I've had. I, and he's still in my physician now. And he was like, this is new. It's [00:28:00] pulsating. I can feel a pulse in it. It's not just something, something's He said. Let me call over across the street. We have a great e n T doctor. He said that I know. Well, that's literally across the street.

He I wanna get his take on Okay. So he, they called, we drove over. He took one look at that and was like, I don't like this. This is something's, this is not good. It's some type of mass. It's pulsating. It's not just fluid sitting there because something you need to go to the emergency room. Okay.

All right. So now this Friday, daughter's at school. we've been to seeing two physicians at this point and now we're on the way to the emergency department. And so I show up with this thing right up here and it's gotten to be bigger than a golf ball. Um, you. Help to know that that's something's not right.

And, I get fast tracked back to the back, which is fi uh, I'm okay with But I was the freak show in the er and at a, uh, level one trauma center, a teaching hospital. I don't know that it's always fun to be the freak show in the hospital, in the emergency room. Cuz [00:29:00] every physician, every attending, every resident, every every body that was there wanted to come see it.

They wanted to do their own echo on it. They wanted to play with it. So they did. I did more echoes, more CT scans. They looked at my heart, they looked at everything. And so of course they reached out to the surgeon's office saying, we want y'all to come weigh in on, on this. So they sent one of his nurse practitioners down and she was like, some doesn't look good, but Dr.

Davies needs to see this. Well, we're here. Might as well, I'd hate for him, hate to miss him while I'm here. I might as well get to say hello. And so he blows in the room. I remember it being late on a Friday afternoon or maybe yeah, late afternoon. And he blows in the room and I remember him coming in kind of quick and he says, I can tell you exactly what it's, that is nothing but a massive infection that has built up.

And it says, tact everything that we did last year. And he says, you're gonna get

Boots Knighton: Oh my God.

Bill Wingate: And he says, my hope is that you can wait till Monday for me to go in and [00:30:00] fix that.

And um, I was like, my first comment was, well, damn, that sucks.

So

Boots Knighton: Yeah.

Bill Wingate: I was admitted,

to the fifth floor of the UAB B hospitals, the CV floor.

and our running joke is, is I've spent more time there, as much time there as I have on any trip I've ever taken in my life. I'm up to like 30 some odd days there now. And that's not a lot, but it's still a lot. And so,

Boots Knighton: a lot.

Bill Wingate: and

it's not a fancy floor. They have larger rooms, they have smaller rooms and we've been very fortunate to get the larger rooms.

We also know who to ask now to get the larger rooms. They let's Martha have pull out sofa in there to, it's just, it's just better for We've learned tricks of the trade now. And so here we are. We are in December. Um, we are about December. That was December the 12th of 2014. That Friday was. And the goal is to make it to Monday. And so we stayed the weekend and um, starting on Saturday night, things started to [00:31:00] decline. Um, my legs started to swell and I started retaining a lot of fluid. And so me being the patient, I didn't notice it immediately cause I'm just. I'm just there and, um, I, I felt not great, but not awful. I mean, I could still get up and walk around and I was, and I was talking to the staff cuz in those situations I get to be a little punchy and I like to talk to people.

Um, I like to have a conversation with people. I don't want 'em just coming in, I've gotta take your blood and want a little bit more than that. So I'm walking the unit talking to everybody and getting to know them. Cause I figure out, well if I'm gonna have surgery, I'm gonna be here for a little while might as well at least know some friendly faces. So Saturday night, going into Sunday, uh, the fluid retention was building faster and faster and, Dr. Davies comes in, midday on Sunday and he said, we're going to replace the pulmonary valve to it. It has completely failed and that is why you're retaining the fluid. He said, so we're gonna push some more diuretics this afternoon.

He said, just plan on being in the bathroom peeing all [00:32:00] afternoon. I was like, okay, I'm, I'm at, pretty much at your mercy here. And he says, you'll be the first case tomorrow. Um, and he says, I don't know what I'm gonna find when I go in. And this is when he started to really kind of freak us out. He said, typically when we go in, we open the sternum up, we

put you on bypass, and then we start doing our work.

He says, my fear for you is, is when I take a saw to your sternum that I, that saw is hitting infection right underneath the sternum. And I don't want it throwing infection anywhere else. He says, so with you, we've gotta take some more time. We've gotta put you on bypass a different way. Before they do it before, before we cut you open.

And so you'll have another scar on your chest underneath your right clavicle. You'll have a nice three inch scar and you can, we can go in and put you on bypass that. Okay. I have no problem with that at this point. I've already been cut open twice. Scars are just, almost fun at this point. I mean, they each tell a and I mean, I've gotta find,

I mean, they're fine.

I don't have a problem with that, he says, but I'm [00:33:00] just really concerned to what I find when, when we make that cut and what's underneath there. Cause we know that infection is sitting, uh, right under the skin. so he does, and he gets me on bypass. He cuts me open and it was not as, it was pretty horrific.

He described it under there. He says it, but it wasn't the worst case scenario. He said I had over two hours of just cleaning infection up that I could suck out and. Repair things and try to clean things out before I even started cutting on anything. And he said, that's the only time I've ever had to do, do it.

That to that extent. All right, so that's two hours in and then he starts working on me. And so he goes in and he has to replace the root and the aortic valve, which is what he did 15 months prior. And so he puts all new stuff in, cleans 'em all out, then he has to go over and do the pulmonary, replace the pulmonary valve, which at that time still had the donor, the donor valve was still there.

So that's why it failed. It got some of the infection pushed over into it and it started to really compromise it and it broke down cause it wasn't native. [00:34:00] And then in addition to that, um, the infection did some damage to my tricuspid valve, so we had to put a repair ring on it. and it was a, ended up being a nine hour surgery.

I spent. Little more than four hours on bypass, with all the repairs. And I have three, I have four new pieces of hardware in my chest after that surgery

between

the

Boots Knighton: Okay, so let's do a valve count at this point. So

when you were 20,

Bill Wingate: I'm counting two there.

Boots Knighton: start counting

the valve replacements

to there

and then in, and then in 2013.

Bill Wingate: that's number three.

So on in 2014, we replaced the aortic and the pulmonary. So that puts us at

five. And then we did a little repair on the tricuspid. I don't count that one. That's just a little,

little,

little patch

shov over

Boots Knighton: That was just like a little, a Little remodel.

Bill Wingate: remodel. Just kind of just help it out a little bit. So we're sitting at five at that point. so as I said, it goes back to my line. There's more store bots in this chest than the typical porn star. So that recovery was rough. that one was, they [00:35:00] closed me back. Oh, I forgot a bit. Very important part of that one.

they finished up the surgery. I gave them some scares in the operating room, which I like to do. Blood pressure dropping, going into AFib and stuff, they, I mean,

Boots Knighton: Mm-hmm.

Bill Wingate: but they had this idea, and I don't remember them talking about it before the surgery, but Martha says that we did and she had conversations with Dr.

Davies about and they weren't gonna close me up right after the surgery. They were gonna probably, depending on what time they got finished, um, it may be the next morning, but they were gonna go in and have a plastic surgeon come. And make a longer incision on my chest and go into my diaphragm and pull up the momentum.

That is, that is right outside of your diaphragm. It's just a fatty layer of tissue that is filled with white blood cells. And, they're gonna, they're gonna pull it back up through the diaphragm and into the heart cavity and wrap my heart in that for the, for the nutrients in the white blood cells to ward off any infection, get rid of anything else [00:36:00] that might be there, and just give me a better chance for less infection moving forward.

So

Boots Knighton: sounds like

a great idea.

Bill Wingate: it's, if it is

a, I, I think it was a great idea. However, my

wife does say that when she came into the I C U the night after the, the heart surgery, she's like, her question to them was, so if I got at the right angle above him, could I see in, see the heart beating? And they said we would probably have to remove the basically plastic wrap they had me in.

But yes, you could. I mean, it's not that far down there. You could see it. So the next morning plastic surgeon comes in with the heart surgeon, Dr. Davies, and they do the omental flap. They put me back together, put the sternum wires in there again, and tie me up and get me back out to the I C U. And at this point, the heart had pretty much stabilized and was not giving them any issues other than low blood pressure, which every time they cut into me that that seems to be an issue.

But that was manageable. And so there we are. So I've had two days of surgery. I've still got a lot of [00:37:00] infection in my body. It's still in the bloodstream. It's so, they've got me on lots of medications and I'm pretty rough in the I C U and I do remember them, taking the tube out, uh, which was. I don't love that experience at all.

It's one of the most unpleasant experiences. thankfully I am, you're still a little medicated. So the care level's not a hundred percent, but it's definitely noticeable

And

I just

Boots Knighton: and you're talking about for our listeners cuz we have, when we have heart surgery, we have

lots of tubes coming out of all kinds of fun places. So you're talking about getting

extubated?

Bill Wingate: at getting extubated?

with the breathing tube. because typically after they stabilize you get you back out. They pull that out four or five hours afterwards, once you're really stable and they start to wake you up just to see how you do breathing and they turn it down and then eventually it's off and then they have to remove And the removal is not a pleasant experience. and having it in is even worse cuz you can't. But thankfully, [00:38:00] every, every time I've had one, they've been super nice and they're paying attention to me, trying to let me communicate the best I can. So it comes out. And I remember asking the nurse, I was so excited that it was out and I really wanted something to drink, and she was like, Nope.

Can't have anything to drink yet. So I said, so what did they do? And I heard the nurse looked at me and said a lot, okay, well that narrowed that right down. so it, it took her a couple of hours during different things for her to tell me everything they did. and as you can see, I'm rather sarcastic and I was being very punchy, very sassy at this point.

But I started the recovery process. Um, and they got me up. They put me in a chair within two hours of having the tube being extubated, which I still find amazing that they do that. and there's enough drugs on, enough pain medicine on board. You really don't care. but it's nice to be in a different position.

It's nice to be able to see. It's just, it's, that's a great feeling even though [00:39:00] everything's uncomfortable. But, but I had a long road that recovery was gonna be hard because of the infection and, but it went incredibly well. they got me, I did another night in the I C U. They've moved me to a room upstairs, actually on the same floor, I believe, but, moved me to a room and I was starting to walk.

I mean, they wanted me up and walking within 12 hours after I got up to the regular floor. And I was walking. But they decided that I was gonna come home with a PICC line, and I was gonna be on antibiotics for eight to 12 weeks. That was a new one for us,

which means you can't get it wet,

make showering hard.

And,

and they're like, well, you could be, you could be completely normal recovering at home, or you could have a reaction to the medication may make you feel bad. Okay, well, I mean, I don't have much choice, so we're gonna do this and we're gonna do it well. So, surgery was on a Monday. I got to come home on a Sunday.

I spent I think 11 days in the hospital total for that trip, which all in all is not bad. but [00:40:00] I'm coming home with a PICC line. Health met shortly thereafter, bringing the drugs and giving us the lessons of how we have to do that. And, but the neatest part of that, and one that I am incredibly grateful for is that was part of the process that my daughter could help with. She could prepare what we needed for the PICC line. She could get the alcohol wipe, she could get the medication outta the refrigerator 30 minutes before,

and she

got

Boots Knighton: she got

to play doctor. Every kid Scream

Bill Wingate: doctor,

she got to

do it. She got to do the flushes. I mean, and it was one of those things I was very fortunate.

Mine was just a, it was a high powered antibiotic. You did it one time a day. It was a five minute push in the PICC line. So we sat there in the den and did it right before dinner. And, but she got to where towards the end she could actually push the medic medicine in. so I'm very thankful she got to be a, an active part of the recovery for those eight to 12 weeks when it was so rough.

and then the worst part of it about that to me is you have to wrap it up every time. [00:41:00] And the things that are on the market are not great for wrapping it up. So we, we defaulted to, paper tape or silk tape and plastic wrap that came out of our kitchen drawer. And it spent times on a, on a bench in our bathroom for months.

And so I had to get my arms ran, wrapped every, every night. But when I took a shower, it is what it's, but I was, I'm still grateful that it, they, that we had the signs and they knew what it was. They knew that how, how we could fix this and how they could get me back to relatively normal or what we, what we were considering normal.

But the change after this surgery was, is we had to change our lifestyle a little bit and we had to adapt to a new normal because now I am very, susceptible. I mean, they, they're really concerned anytime I get an infection about anything, because as we figured out with the infection, it came from getting a cavity filled at the dentist is what it.

Boots Knighton: Okay. That was gonna be my next

question. So what? Wow.

Bill Wingate: It. And, and yes, I did

pre-med and I had been pre-med for

years. I [00:42:00] took my amoxicillin, um, two grams of amoxicillin one hour prior. so that's where it came from. And the dentist that I wa that I see still, see it was a good friend of ours, a neighbors. So that was a hard conversation to tell him he did nothing wrong.

It's just one of those weird things that there's a lot of bacteria in our mouths and them poking and prodding and there's gonna bleed a little bit. It just got So there's not nothing that could really been done, but it is what it is. So that's where it came from. We got it treated. So because of that, that surgery, to this day, I still take antibiotics every day of my life. And so one more pill, but. It is what it is. And

um,

thankfully

Boots Knighton: is that gonna have

to be for the rest of your life?

Bill Wingate: possibly, there has been talk already after the most recent surgery that we might be able to revisit that depending on how things go. but thankfully it's a very inexpensive run of the mill. It's amoxicillin, it's a one of their higher dosages once a day. [00:43:00] Easy to find and, but it's just part of But everybody asks me when I go to a new doctor something. You mean you take antibiotics every day? Yeah, I do. So if you need to gimme antibiotics, we, we skip the, we ki we skipped the low end ones. We're gonna go to middle high ones that have got more power because not gonna respond to some mediocre thing that you're gonna try to give me.

so.

Boots Knighton: Wow.

Bill Wingate: Which is just one, it's one more complication, but it's, it's, it's all manageable. You just gotta have, to me, it's gotta have the right attitude and kind of know what your record is and what you, what works and what doesn't work for so, but thankfully I do believe that being on the amoxicillin has kept me from getting sinus infections, which I usually get through your for a year and various things.

So, so that, that is a good thing. But all in all, I came outta that one pretty well. We went into 2015. Well, and we went back, had my follow up afterwards with the surgeon. He liked how everything went, looked, internally, externally. And I think his exact quote was, I did a damn good job in there. and so, I [00:44:00] mean, cause we, he was like, you were a lot of work.

And he said, I've never had to clean anybody out like that before, but it looks good. Hopefully this will last you forever. So we liked that and he said, but because of this, I have no intentions of releasing you from my service. I want you to come in and do an annual CT scan every year just for me.

Your cardiologist will do a echo and all that. But I think you want being what watched closer and let's see where we go. Fine. I'm good with that. So 2015 was, was great. I went in for a scan. It all looked perfect. He was happy, at the. 2016 was the same way. 2017 was the same way. But the great part about these years that were pretty quiet, we started to get to know some of the people that were on in his office and in his clinic.

And people that, friends that we had made were things. And so they were always looking forward to seeing us and we had good conversations and they were, the conversations were moving [00:45:00] beyond just my health cuz we were making a, a rapport and a relationship with them. So we knew what their children were doing and what was going on in their worlds.

And it was, they were becoming part of our family and as it turns out, that family was gonna be needed again. And so we got into 2019 with everything looking good to when he did a scan and he was like, you had this on there before. And it was just a little, what they call a pseudo aneurysm. We saw a little blip on the side and it's not worth mentioning until we see it do something, but I don't like. So, okay, so what, what, what is this? He goes, it's a pseudoaneurysm. It's on the exterior side. It's not like it's gonna burst and create problems. It's just gonna have a little blood going out into your cavity, your chest cavity. But if it does, you've got a leak inside there and then it becomes a blood issue and blood's not where it should be.

It can mess with all kinds of things. He goes, he says a little bit of a leak is manageable, but something sizable is not manageable. He said, we just gotta, we have to watch it. So he said, I want you to come back in in a few months and let's do this [00:46:00] again and see what it's done. So we did, he was starting to get concerned at this point and he was like, I don't like it.

The one way to go in and fix it is to me to open you back up and. So I'm thinking, I don't know that I like this. So this is pushing us into middle of 2019, and we had a, we went ahead and scheduled it and supposed to, the surgery was supposed to be on July 31st, 2019. Uh, why I remember that, I don't know.

But a couple weeks before then he calls us and says, there's another new doctor here that has been in town for a while that he says, I wouldn't say he's aggressive, but he's a little more progressive than I am. He's an interventional cardiologist. I want him to look at you and I want him to get his take on it because he sees a little bit more of this than I do.

says, I know I can go in and open you up and I can fix it, but okay, I'm open. So we met this, met a new cardiologist named Dr. Ahmed. He had, he was new to the UAB B system, and he's a in the structural heart clinic. And so he sees nothing but zebras. [00:47:00] Is what cuz Martha was talking to him and he talks 90 miles an hour

and she was like, we consider Bill being our, our, uh, zebra to us.

And he looked at her deadpan and says, all I see is zebras. So that

irritated

her,

Boots Knighton: Wow.

Bill Wingate: um, that irritated her and, which was kind of funny. It takes a lot to, I mean, she can go to toe to toe with any physician anywhere and because she's got a lot of similar training than they do. And so he said, what I want you to do is I want to do a heart gath and I want us to see what's up there and go in there and look at it from that side and see what we can figure out what's going To this point, I had never had a heart catheterization, never had one.

I had never had

one at this

Boots Knighton: After all

of

this.

Bill Wingate: all

of this.

Never had a heart cath because they could see everything they wanted on a CT

scan and an

echo.

Boots Knighton: Oh, okay. Consider yourself lucky. I consider it like my version of hell.

I've had three and I, I, it's like as close to hell as

I can get.

Bill Wingate: I mean I, I've had three or four now, and so [00:48:00] I immediately called. We have a good friend, um, that go to, they went to church with us. Their youngest child's the same as our daughters, went to the same preschool. He's a pediatric cardiologist. And, I said, I wanna come talk to you, about a hard cat and never had one.

Just wanted you to walk me through it. And so we made, we made a plan to pick up lunch after church and take it to their house. That way the kids can play. And had this conversation, so he draws it all out and, um, he said, well, I think we've got a great option here. He said, Dr. Ahmed, who you've just met, this is what he wants to do.

He said, I've been working with him for over 10 years at his other hospital, and, he calls me in when it's a situation like this or. Pulmonary valves are big for me as well. And we worked together for years and she, he goes, I love him. And I said, but y'all are so opposite. He talks 90 miles an hour. He's like, he's on speed and you're just very cool, calm and collected.

He said, we've worked very well together. he says, we've already talked about your And, he says, if you're okay with [00:49:00] it, I was, would like to be a part of I'm fine with it. Let's, if you're good with it, I'm good with it. So he drew it out and he said, this is what, what I think we're the plan is to go in and look and see what's, what our options are and if it's what we think it is, it's gonna be a small little thing, probably around a suture line where a suture was made and we can think we can coil it.

And I said, what are coils? And he said, think of a the spring and a pin. They're a lot smaller than that. They're only about two little turns of that. But we can take those and put them in this little pseudo aneurysm. And the hope is that that will fill it up and help it to thrombo off just like normal blood help it and it will just go away, will become stable and you'll, we won't have any more issues out of that.

I was like, sounds kind of cool to me, but okay. sure I'm your Guinea pig. Big. Do what? Do what you gotta If that keeps me from being cracked open again, I am all for So that's what they do. They went in heart cath. It was fine. They kept, obviously kept me overnight to watch me and they were able [00:50:00] to coil it and they really, they came back and said, took a scan 30 minutes before we brought you back out just to see.

And it looks like it's already thrombosing off or it's not, there's not as much blood flow through it. So we're very hopeful. Awesome. I'm in. So we, that was a si of relief there. We were just kinda like, okay, cool. This is pretty neat. They can do that. So no more major issues with that for a while. And so we did annual scans.

we came back after that. They said they were gonna do an annual scan. They did, and then they did. They said, my surgeon was like, I just don't know that a year's, I've already been burned by you once with an infection. Let's not do a year, let's do six months. Okay. So we did a six month scan and, um, and he said the first one was great.

It looked great. The si the six month scan had a little bit of blood flow in it that he didn't like. And he said, we're just gonna watch it. And so we continued to watch it and every six months. So the last we were talking about my daughter, she was in first grade after the, after the infection surgery and all that. [00:51:00] So now we've moved on about six years or so and it's her first day of middle school. She goes off to middle school. Um, sixth grade we are all as well. Took the pictures in front of the house, all that fun stuff.

So I worked from the house. So I went to take a shower about 10 o'clock and I started coughing uncontrolled. And started, ended up throwing up what I thought was blood and we kind of, obviously I freaked out. so I called my wife, she called 9 1 1. And so they come in and they pick me up. They, I call it a pick and scoop and haul me off down to, the emergency room.

And this was a Thursday. And on the Tuesday prior to that, I had just been to see Dr. Davies and had another scan about the coils. And they all looked good at that point. And he was like, we we just, we were afraid that something slipped or something created a problem. Okay? So they [00:52:00] rushed me down there. I am not in a good, good spot, mentally, physically, anything feel awful.

The first ambulance ride ever. Can't say I remember much of it, but, They figure out while I'm there that my heart had gone into atrial flutter. not atrial, no, not AFib, but af

flutter. And it is just as similar to AFib. It's just a little bit more regimented, but it's an ultra fast beat. I mean, I remember when they, I got to the hospital, I felt like I had been running for a couple of hours at this point. So they figure it out and they immediately put me on some rhythm drugs, arrhythmia drugs, and it converted back to normal. And so my surgeon looked at me and he was, he came up to the intensive care unit and he looked at me and he says, dude, twice in one week, I mean, what gifts.

So I had some choice words that I'm not gonna repeat here.

they were very colorful. so he said, but what, what? This is, we're gonna watch you. I think you're gonna be fine. But we're gonna get you in with an electrophysiologist now to see if we can figure this [00:53:00] out. And he says, most likely, and what I'm going to encourage them to do is if they think it's what I think it is, we're gonna go ahead and fast track you for an ablation.

We're not gonna wait six months, we're not gonna watch it to see what happens again. He says, you're ticking time bomb as it is. And we're, this is, we're taking this off the Okay. I like the way he was thinking about that. So I spent the night in icu and an ICU with not heavy drugs is not a cool place to I had no pain meds on board. I had no sleeping meds. One of the worst nights of my life. but, so they got, got sent home, I think the next day or the following day, went straight to, got into the electrophysiologist shortly thereafter, did the ablation quickest, I mean, in and out of the hospital from the time we parked in the parking deck to back in the car in four hours.

I mean, it could not have been any more straightforward. No recovery, little bruise moving on. I mean, it was as I joke and my, when I was making my timeline out, I was like, it's kinda like going to the mailbox and getting mail. I mean, it was that easy and [00:54:00] it shouldn't happen, knock on wood, to this day it's never happened again.

we, something we do consider and we always think about it. So we got that situated and all went well. And so we made it about another year. So now we're in November of 20. Covid is in its prime. and just before Covid, we had decided to buy a Peloton bike. And so it was a Sunday afternoon, I decided to do a ride.

And Martha, my wife, is at home and I had chosen a hard ride. because that's generally, that's generally how I operate. Let's, let's either go real simple and listen to the music or let's do something challenging. so I did two-thirds of the way through. I started getting lightheaded and she happened to come in and check on me and she could tell I was off and I just said, something's not right.

So we stopped the ride and she helped me get off the bike cuz I couldn't get off by myself with being clipped in. And as she's helped me down, I passed out. And I remember coming to, and she's on the phone with nine one one saying he just passed out extensive cardiac history.

So [00:55:00] fire department comes again, does another pick and scoop.

And here we are to the emergency room yet again. And this time because of the relationships we had been building, we had, one of the nurse practitioners that we had become really good friends with and our, and, and our phones. So Martha calls her and says, this is what's going on, and they're taking him to the emergency room at UAB B.

And she says, I've got it from here. They were, by the time we got there, which was seven, eight minutes away, they were waiting for me.

I mean, it was fast tracked to a room.

They

Boots Knighton: have been.

Bill Wingate: well, I mean, but this was in the midst of Covid. So people, patients are in

there and I was thinking, how long am I gonna have to wait?

But they had me in a room. They had me, as soon as they had me hooked up to all their stuff, they had me in a CT scan to check everything. And so they ended up admitting me for, five or six days trying to figure out what it was and what it turns out after. another heart cath. A though I think the world's most thorough echocardiogram and, uh, couple of CT scans, Lasix, lots of drugs, all [00:56:00] kinds of things.

My pulmonary valve had failed

and was just again,

and, was just creating some problems.

So at this point, they decided they could go in and deploy a pulmonary valve with a, with a catheter. And so they can just slide it in and we sh I should be good to go.

So

Boots Knighton: So this is valve replacement

Bill Wingate: number six. And we had just, and that they used Hardcast number three to do that.

So I do say that's a much better way than being sliced and diced. straightforward. Lay on the, lay on the bed for a couple of hours and you're in pretty good shape.

So I stabilized really well after that. I think I went home within the next 24 hours after get, after that was situated and stable, and

life was

good.

Boots Knighton: And what, uh, remind me again the

date for this

Bill Wingate: this

was November of 20 2020.

Boots Knighton: Okay.

Bill Wingate: So,

Boots Knighton: I'm writing, I'm writing down your

timeline with you,

Bill Wingate: okay, November 20. A lot of tests and everything so that they placed the, [00:57:00] they placed the valve on November 4th, and I was sent home on November 5th. , with a Holter monitor, a cool Bluetooth heart monitor just to make sure everything was good and, wasn't a fan of that, but it's manageable, it's doable.

Boots Knighton: Mm-hmm.

Bill Wingate: And so

I was good. We got through the holidays, got through Christmas. It was good. It was fun. Everything was going very well, and Covid is still going on, so this is a new weird pandemic normal. And, but I'm still seeing the surgeon every three to six months for a scan, all depending on how they can schedule 'em and see him. And all of a sudden we got into the summer. So I remember school being out, um, and I just wasn't feeling great. I wasn't, wasn't feeling bad, just didn't have any energy, just something was off. And so we did that for about two weeks and finally I called the surgeon's office and said, I need to come in.

We need to do some extensive blood work and see what's going on. So they brought me in. And they, he looked at me and said, what I want to do is, I don't think this is heart related, I think it's [00:58:00] something's blood related, something like that. But he said, I can admit you to the hospital and I can have the different teams come to you instead of you having to go to all the doctor's appointments and we can find the answer faster. said, I'm in, sign me A and um, which

I don't know if that's an, I mean, a lot of people are saying, well, I haven't never just volunteered to be admitted to the hospital. I was like, but I didn't feel good. And that was the quickest way to get this, get our, get meeting of the minds.

So it turns

out

Boots Knighton: and I would imagine by this point, sorry to interrupt, but I, I would imagine at this point you're just, I'm, I'm guessing you are at your wit's

end, like, really, is this ever gonna stop?

Bill Wingate: I am like that. But I remember when they called and said, your room is ready. cuz you go in, you, you go to admission admitting, and you pay your copay for us. And they let you walk up to the fifth floor. And I remember walking up to the fifth floor and seeing, um, one of the charge nurses that I've known from, the previous two surgeries, [00:59:00] Dale's his name, just a big, he's just a big guy.

And I said, I'm, I'm back. And he said, what are you here for? Are you coming to visit? And I was like, Nope, I'm here for my resort stay. And so I told him and they got me situated and lots of blood work. Turns out my hematocrit was below 20, so my blood volume was ex incredibly low. So they hung a couple units of blood that night and I started feeling better.

Iron was way off. Just some things were just completely outta. and we still don't know why that was the case, but it turns out that I am anemic and we have to watch that. And I go through phases where it's better, better than others, but it's still, it's just, it's one more medication. It's just one more thing we have to watch.

So now in my team, I have a hematologist who I really love. She's funny, she's witty, but I have to go get blood work done every eight to 12 weeks depending on how things are looking and which is okay. It's convenient, but it's still keeping [01:00:00] me, it's still keeping me ticking. That's, that's the goal here.

so if we figure that out, I'm feeling better. I'm able to travel again. I'm able to do things and, but we're still watching this pseudoaneurysm every three to five months or however often we're going to see him and. We get to the end of 2022. Last year. I go see it, it had a scan in in August and the surgeon comes in and says, I don't like what I see.

And I said, well, tell me what you see. He said, well, that spot's growing. I said, are we talking a lot? He's like, no, not a lot. But it's gotten bigger since the last one, several months ago. I think we need to do another scan in about four to six months and see what it is. If it continues to grow, we're gonna have to go in and fix it. Okay? So I come home, I share the news and said, well, I think we're gonna do a scan probably sometime in January. And my daughter was like, no, I, I want you, we don't need to wait that long. We need to do it before then. So, uh, she was like, you don't need to wait any longer. I mean, and so she was really, really adamant about this.

So I [01:01:00] emailed the surgeon and the nurse practitioner that we love so much, and I said, I've got a 14 year old who's balking at our plan. , and I can't say that she's wrong. She just doesn't think we should wait till January. I know we just did a scan in in a couple weeks ago. What do you think about doing it in December?

And he was like, I have no problem with that. And I don't think she's wrong. So I had a scan in December of last year on December the 20th. The surgeon was not in that day because he was at a different hospital operating. but I get a phone call that night from nurse practitioner. Her name is Trina and she is amazing.

And she says, Jamie's looked at your scans. I have looked at your scans. Everybody agrees it's time for us to do this again. But he wants to talk.

Boots Knighton: Oh my gosh.

Bill Wingate: And she says, he said, he told me when I talked to him a little while ago, you tell him when and where to meet you, and he will meet you with the scans and we can, you can talk it over.

If y'all wanna meet at a restaurant, you wanna meet at a bar, you wanna come to clinic, you can do it outside the operating room in between cases, if that's what you wanna do. But he's gonna, he's at your schedule. And I was like, let's don't [01:02:00] make it hard on him. Let me just sh let me just do it on Tuesday when he has clinic.

This would've been the Tuesday, it'd been the 27th right after Christmas. She goes, no problem. Okay. So would get it scheduled and I sh he, I have was to go at 11 o'clock and I get a text from the surgeon, which I've never gotten a text from the surgeon before. then this is what I think is so remarkable about him.

He says, I'm stuck in the or. Why don't you come around 1230 if anything's delayed, I'll, I'll let you know. I'll call you when I leave the the or. Okay. Well, and then the next line was, um, this is Jamie Davies. Cause I didn't have him in my phone. I mean, most surgeons don't give you their cell phone numbers, so fine.

1230. So Martha and I went and got something to eat for lunch, went and met him. Turns out the clinic was closed that day. So he walked over in between cases in, in the OR just to talk to us and to get a plan. And I was shocked at that. And um, so I looked at him, he talked us through what the options were and he said, best case scenario is I go in and I just put a [01:03:00] patch on it.

We're good. Patch should last him forever. He goes, it's all fake stuff in there so it shouldn't be a problem. He says, my fear is there could be some infection that's causing this so we have to clean some more stuff out. He said, worst cases, I'm there nine, 10 hours and have to replace everything. He said, I just don't know until I get in So Martha's wise comment was, so this is kinda like reading a Choose your own adventure book. And he laughed and said, yes it is. so our humorist has stayed with us during this whole process. And so I said, I looked at him and I said, I wanna do it sooner rather than later. I don't want this hanging around.

And he turned to, the nurse practitioner that was in there with us. It wasn't, uh, the one that we love so much, and said, give him, he said, I can't do it next week, but I can do it the following week. And he can move anybody else that's on the schedule and do not put many people on that day. Cause I don't know what I'm getting into.

And we'll, we'll talk about the day that we, that you find. So we scheduled it for January the 12th of this year. And um, this is when as we approached that we got, I mean, I was to the point that, uh, we gotta get through this. [01:04:00] We gotta, this is the problem. We gotta fix it, we gotta solve it. But in the back of my head is, okay, this is the fourth time.

I mean, at some point you're play and when, when you play with fire, you get burnt.

Um, and I'm thinking, I, I'm just thinking to myself, how many times can your person do this physically, mentally, I mean, this is hard. So I was struggling pretty good going into it, but I, I've done it before. I know how it looks.

And I had asked to be admitted the night before just because they have better drugs than I have at home to get me some sleep and, anxiety and all that. So I mean, everything went like clockwork. We, except for getting there the night before, they said to be there at 10:00 AM I didn't get a room until 8:00 PM Minor details.

and yes, at this point when it came to be dinnertime, I walked across the street to the hotel, um, the courtyard across the street from the hospital and had a cocktail sitting at the bar. I figured, why not? You only live life once.

Boots Knighton: Why not? Mm-hmm.

Bill Wingate: so they did the surgery on the 12th.

And they get me to I C U [01:05:00] pretty sometime that afternoon, I don't remember.

But

Boots Knighton: what did they do in this surgery? They

just repaired

the

Bill Wingate: they went in and they fixed the suit. They put a patch on the pseudo aneurysm and he said there was another spot that he didn't like the way it looked. So he put, it made, got a big enough patch to put over both of them. They're right next to each other. And he had made the decision and h him and um, my wife had talked about it.

They talked mids surgery and that if my pulmonary valve, the one they had put in by catheter, it looks anything less than perfect. He was going to cut it all out and replace it. And so that's what he did. and he said his thought process behind that was, is if I go in and put you a new valve in, mechanical valve in there, if you have an issue later in life, we can go back and put another one in by catheter.

That's our next treatment instead of cutting you open again. I was like, I love the way you think on this. So that's what they did. He considers it not the best case scenario, but just second to the best case scenario cuz he said I was in and out in less than two hours, start [01:06:00] to finish. and so to me, that was, that was great.

I just remember seeing the surgeon walk through the I c the morning after, it was a Friday morning and he was like a kid in the candy shop when he saw that I was awake and sitting up in a chair and he could not wait to get to me to tell me what he did. And then he, he was not coming in to see me, he was gonna deal with another problem patient down the road.

And, um,

Boots Knighton: Another

Bill Wingate: another

zebra

and said, but he was so excited and he came back later in the day and he said, if we can get your blood pressure back up, he said, we, we have this issue every time we've done it. I'm gonna get you onto a floor tomorrow. And I think this was Friday, he said, get you on a floor on Saturday.

I think you'll be home Monday or Tuesday. I was thinking the way I feel right now there, and no way in hell I'm going home on Tuesday, but Okay, I'll take your word for it. I have nothing to argue with you. So the other thing was, the, the problem was, is right after I had that conversation with him, I started getting really sick in the, in, in the icu, which I normally, anesthesia does not make me sick, but it did make me sick.

And I ended up [01:07:00] throwing up for about five times in a row. And there's not much in me at this point. And after being cracked open, that hurts a lot. It hurts an awful lot. And during this time, my um, Martha showed up and they had gotten me cleaned up and situated and they asked me what my pain level was and I immediately quick back, said a good nine.

And she stopped me right there. And she said, are you serious? And I said, oh, a nine. She said, you've never told them above a five. During the ones of these I've been a part of. I was like, I'm hurting. So the next thing I know, I, they've knocked me out. They're giving me drugs about every 30 minutes and which was fine, made the time go by faster.

so, but that was the only real hiccup on this one. Um, I got, uh, got back to the, I got back to normal, blood pressure came up and they pushed me to a room, uh, Saturday morning, fairly early it was. And so from that point, I recovered well in the hospital, did my normal walking, making my laps, meeting my PE friends, talking to other patients that wanted to talk and, and [01:08:00] it was pretty standard at that point.

I got home. It was nice to be home. It's always nice to come home after that. And we started the recovery here. But at that point, right after I got home, things started to set in with me about. I've done this four times now and this has gotten to be really hard. When I started thinking through everything that's gone through and during one of these little times before Martha had started a Caring Bridge site, and so I kind of made the mistake of going back and rolling back to the very beginning of that and started reading through the entries going, holy shit, this is a lot. So the more I rec, I mean more time at home and the more time just sitting. Cause I can't do a whole lot cuz you can't, they don't want you to lift anything. They don't want you to do anything ext too much energy. So you're really watching TV and there's only so much on tv, Netflix, and HBO that I really care to watch.

So the mind starts going and I start thinking about what do I do next? Because at this point I was working part-time for a travel agency selling travel, and [01:09:00] I didn't have the passion for that anymore. I had a client call me and it just didn't. I had no interest in doing that. So Martha, I talked about it.

And so what do you think? If I take a break for six to 12 months and I work on telling my story, I work on figuring out how I can use my experiences to help other people. Because there's a story in here, and it may not be the prettiest story, but there's gotta be something positive for somebody. Cuz too many people that we've met along this way in the hospitals and friends and patients and have helped us out so many ways by just telling their stories, there's something to be said here.

So that's kind of what led me to you. When I listened to a couple of the podcasts, I was like, this might be a great opportunity to, start telling the story. And what it's made me do at this point is to put my timeline down back to the beginning. And I didn't, I thought it would be a pretty straightforward process, but it's, it's almost seven pages.

and. It's not about how many pages is, but it's the story that I needs to be told to give some other people some hope, because we are very faithful people. Um, and our faith is very important to us. And we are [01:10:00] convinced that, darkness does not overcome light in the bottom line in all situations.

Light always overcomes darkness. And, there, there is a lot of hope and there's a lot of light left in me and in this world. And I am so excited for what the future holds, especially in cardiac research and what can be done just from my 20, almost 26 years as a patient, what they can do now that they could not do before.

and I am hoping that in my lifetime they reduce the need to, to crack people open. and they can do more without having to do that. Cause I think that would be a game changer, especially for older populations or younger populations that can't take the time outta life.

So that's my story in a nutshell.

And I would truly believe in the hope. And it's um, it's a lot. I'm a hot mess.

Boots Knighton: you're, you're a

zebra.

Bill Wingate: I'm

Boots Knighton: The ultimate zebra.

Bill Wingate: And I do have a funny story about that. He said that I was not a zebra. He, all he sees is

zebras he did the first heart. He, well, he said all he, all he sees is zebras is what Dr. Ahmed told us. And he said, [01:11:00] he did the first heart cath on me and he came out, he was complain, not complaining, but saying, well it was wasn't just normal because he had to go in and with the heart cath, I had to make a weird turn and something like that.

so when Dr. Davies came by while I was in the hospital that day and he said, if the asshole had asked me that question beforehand, I could have told him exactly how it did cuz I know it makes a turn cuz I put it in there. But he didn't ask, he thought he could do it. I was like, only two physicians that hold people's lives in their hands would say that. So, He said, he goes, I know exactly where he is. And he started drawing it on a piece of paper and I was like, I have no idea. But he knew, he knew exactly where he was talking about. So it was, it was pretty. And then now after that procedure, the two of them, the surgeon, my surgeon and Dr. Amed have, do a lot of work together now.

And that was one of their first times they had really collaborated a little bit on a patient, but they do an awful lot now, which is neat. So, um, which is, but, but I am a hot mess. There are certain things in my life that will always hold true. and [01:12:00] I will always have hope for what is, what is to come.

I'm not gonna spend a lot of time looking backwards, cuz right now, when I look backwards, it's a hot mess. And in my case, in this world that we live in, all that, I'm not giving up my bourbon. I'm not doing it. I've made it through four heart surgeries. They haven't told me I have to do that yet.

And I don't know if they tell me that. I don't know that I am, I don't know that I care enough, but we're going to have a serious conversation. And, what is guiding us through to this point is the community that we live in and the community that we surround ourselves with. and I will extend that to people, like yourself that have gone through this journey before and that are trying to connect this community of heart warriors, which I think is remarkable.

And I really want to see that community grow because it can, everyone helping each other for a much better life.

Boots Knighton: We don't have to do

anything

Bill Wingate: We don't, and a lot of

people think you do,

Boots Knighton: And we're not meant to. We're not meant to. We in our American society, it, it's still glorified that we're independent and strong And

that has [01:13:00] got to stop because it's not serving.

Bill Wingate: No. And the time that during this, I remember one of my surgeries and that I had not, it had been so long since my first one and my second one, and I remember taking a shower and then having to have help putting on pants. And I mean, as a male, that's something a grown male, you have to do. You shouldn't have to meet him putting your legs and pants.

But you know what? There comes a time in one's life that you do need And it's okay

to say,

Boots Knighton: Yeah. And that's

okay.

Bill Wingate: And we're better for saying we're we're, better for asking that

question, asking for help. Cuz I think that's probably one of the best questions that can ever be asked.

Boots Knighton: so many nuggets in this story. So many nuggets, . I wanna end with something I was just saying yesterday to a friend. I don't want anyone to. and I want, I wanna know if you feel the same about this. I don't want anyone to take away my heart story from me. Like I don't want anyone to take that experience away because the [01:14:00] gift of the gifts that I've been given because of it far outweigh

the hard times.

Bill Wingate: I would totally, I would, I wholeheartedly agree with that. and because it is an experience, I don't really wish the experience on anyone else, cuz I've known a lot of people that have done it and I was chosen to have this heart for a reason and there's gonna be good to come out of it and whatever that good is, and it may never be recognized by me, but there will be good to come out of it and.

We can tell a story, we can help people, and I wouldn't trade it because it's made me who I am. I valued things differently than what probably society really wants us to do. and I am known with my group of friends, as I may, I, I very well may make someone uncomfortable because I will say something that's on my mind and I am not overly concerned how of offensive you might think it is.

I'm not gonna offend you by saying something on purpose or outta malice most of the time it's just because it's a true statement or something I [01:15:00] feel, life's too short to sugarcoat things and

do things for every other people to see it and feel better about themselves.

So it is what it is. And I, I, I am very blessed to have a, wonderful support system here in town.

I'm very very blessed to have a amazing hospital system that is literally four miles from my home. that has got great people that do great work and, they are constantly training new, new surgeons and new physicians to work in this area. And that's something that we are planning on being a part of for years to come and just to get more people, better care, and then make the process easier for people to experience.

Boots Knighton: Well, thank you for being you, bill. What a joy it is

to spend time with you

Bill Wingate: Well, thank you Boots for all that you're doing for this, for this community. It's fun to do life

with you

Boots Knighton: And that's our episode for today. Thank you so much for spending a little bit of your day with me. If you enjoyed this podcast, I sure would appreciate [01:16:00] if you would go to my website, the heart chamber podcast.com, and make a donation. Also, if you are a fellow heart warrior, I'd love to hear from you.

Would you like to share your story on this podcast? You can either send me an email at boots the heart chamber podcast.com or you can go to my website and go to the contact link and leave me a message there. There's also a way to leave via voicemail on my website. I'm so glad you joined me for today.

Please be sure to come back next Tuesday to the Heart Chamber Podcast for another inspiring episode.