Three Strikes and Still Beating

Before you hit play — quick note. This is a serialized podcast. The story starts at Episode 1 and goes all the way to 22. In order. Don’t jump around — you won’t follow the story. You’ll be confused, and then you’ll blame me. Some platforms like to show the newest episode first. So if the episodes aren’t sorted Episode 1 through 22, go into your show settings and change the sort order to oldest to...

Series Finale. The final strike. The valve that was supposed to last ten years ran out of time. Open-heart surgery, new scars, and old fears — all over again. I survived once more… but survival isn’t the same as living.

The meds were working, the shocks stopped, and life finally felt steady— until fatigue set in, my golden retriever got sick, and my heart broke for an entirely different reason.

After experimenting with meds, my heart was finally tamed — but the process was exhausting. Between Costco phone calls, side effects, and a doctor vacationing in Hawaii, life somehow stayed absurd. Even calm came with conditions.

I thought I’d made it through the worst—until life gave me another jolt right before a big work presentation. Turns out, just when you think your heart’s under control, it decides otherwise.

The world shut down—but for me, the fear hit different. I’d already survived death once. Now, every cough felt personal. From toilet paper panic to Zoom therapy, backyard wine nights to a Facebook fundraiser in Chennai, this episode captures the strange, heavy, sometimes absurd reality of living through 2020 as a high-risk cardiac patient. Survival wasn’t heroic. It was just… muscle memory.

Fresh out of cardiac arrest and still reeking of antiseptic, I told my boss I only needed two weeks off. Why? Because fear, money, and ego make a hell of a combo. In this episode, I talk about rushing back to work, learning to breathe again (literally), descending eight flights of stairs in a Seattle fire drill with an ICD in my chest, and picking up the saxophone like it was going to save my life...

Fresh out of surgery, I walk into my electrophysiologist’s office — the same guy who just wired my heart to a machine. What follows is part science lesson, part tech demo, and part existential crisis. From “plumbing vs. wiring” to watching my heart get remotely controlled by a wand, this episode dives into the absurd, miraculous world of cardiac engineering — and what it means to live with a liter...

Back home after cardiac arrest—with CPR bruises, pneumonia, and a $50K shock device in my chest. My dog barely noticed. My family tried to keep things normal. I felt anything but. This episode covers the first painful, disorienting, and darkly funny week of recovery—when survival didn’t feel like victory.

Fresh out of cardiac arrest, I wake up to meet a new kind of heart specialist—the electrician. What follows is part absurd, part profound: a blur of drugs, Easter timing, and my family scrambling to choose which implantable defibrillator will literally keep me alive. Between morphine buttons, misplaced humor, and quiet faith, I find myself upgraded—part man, part machine. A story about survival, s...

In the middle of a speech contest, my heart decided to drop the mic — literally. This episode picks up from that collapse: the ambulance ride I don’t remember, my wife’s panic, the déjà vu of returning to the same hospital, and the surreal moment I learned the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest. Equal parts chaos, dark humor, and gratitude, Strike Two is a story about dying (agai...

One minute I was delivering a speech about Alabama football. The next, I was on the floor — blue, pulseless, and unconscious. In this episode, my voice fades and others take over: my wife, my friends, and the strangers who tried to bring me back. Five shocks. Thirty minutes without an ambulance. A church with no defibrillator. And somehow, I’m still here to tell it. It’s the night Toastmasters tur...

New job. National sales kickoff. Toastmasters win. Everything was finally starting to feel normal again—until it wasn’t. In this episode, I navigate the highs and hidden struggles of post-heart-attack life: imposter syndrome, medication fog, jury duty guilt, and the return to public speaking. Then, on the night of a big speech competition, just as the words “Roll Tide Roll” leave my mouth… my body...

Cardiac rehab was done. A new job had started. And I turned fifty. This episode covers the messy in-between: adjusting to meds, proving myself at work, battling new-job anxiety, and trying to feel normal again over the holidays. I talk about my 50th birthday party (complete with a dad compliment and a friend roast), my lifelong obsession with Alabama football, and the bucket-list championship game...

I try to reassemble the pieces of my life after my heart attack — one cardiac rehab session, one improv class, one job interview at a time. This episode is about recovery in motion: not the clean, triumphant kind, but the messy, reluctant, often absurd version where you’re icing your chest while refreshing LinkedIn. Beaten by life. Still beating.

After the heart attack, life didn’t just go back to normal—it limped, laughed, and stumbled toward something almost like it. In this episode, I take you through my first post-heart-attack vacation (yes, we still went), returning to work (awkward), and starting cardiac rehab (with a side of senior citizens and sarcasm). I talk about rebuilding strength—physically, emotionally, and yes, socially. Th...

Coming home after a heart attack isn’t the end—it’s the beginning of something strange. In this episode, I talk about that first week back: being greeted (or not) by my dog, peeling off hospital stickers like trauma souvenirs, trying to parent through fear, and realizing that “normal” might never feel normal again. There’s some humor, some heartbreak, and a lot of moments in between. I share what...

After surviving a heart attack, I figured the worst was behind me. Then a doctor walks in and tells me I have a leaky heart valve—from birth. Congenital, he says. Casual, like he’s pointing out a flat tire. Suddenly I’ve leveled up from cardiologist to cardiothoracic surgeon. This episode walks through the post-op fog, the morphine haze, the surreal hallway “exercise,” and the moment you realize y...

The Cath Lab. Sedation. A stent in my heart. This was supposed to be the fix—but it left behind more questions than answers. This episode dives into that strange in-between: the moment after the heart attack, when you’re alive, but everything feels… off. There’s sarcasm (still intact), paperwork I probably didn’t read, and the first time I hear the words “permanent heart damage.” Also: what it mea...

You’re having a heart attack,” the doctor says. Then he mentions groin access. And just like that, my remaining dignity packs its bags. This episode covers the next wave: the groin panic, the stack of consent forms, the casual phone call to my manager (yes, during a heart attack), and the real tragedy—having to cancel our Airbnb. Because when life falls apart, your brain still clings to spreadshee...

The ambulance doors open. A swarm of medical staff waits. Suddenly, I’m not a person—I’m a case. Vitals, wires, stickers, floral gown with an open back. My ego? Dignity? Coat-checked at the door, no claim ticket. This episode dives into the surreal chaos of the ER: the pit crew efficiency, the gown humiliation, the quiet panic. And the moment my wife walks in—no words, just that look that says eve...

After eighteen-ish hours of chest pain, denial, and enough bad decisions to fill a medical textbook, I finally gave in: urgent care. What follows is a blur—baby aspirin, blank stares, and an ambulance ride that felt more like a backstage pass to my own collapse. No one said “heart attack” right away, but the looks said enough. And when the words finally landed, they hit hard. This episode covers t...

It started like any other workday — until a sprint to the train turned into something else. Denial, bad decisions, and two cans of Coke later, I found myself facing a family legacy I didn’t ask for. This is where everything changed — the day the bill came due.