Ep 120: I'm Not Bulletproof

Code4Couples

On Thursday, September 1st 2022, I decided to go to work at the office for a couple of hours. I was texting with my husband, and we were joking around as I packed up. Then he said, “I don’t feel right, get home.” I immediately got into the car and started driving the 17 miles home. At a stoplight in town, I got a text that said, “Call 911?” I said, sure. I had no idea what was wrong. I got on the highway that led to our house and drove about 85 miles an hour all the way home to the house. The ambulance beat me by about two to three minutes. As I walked in, I saw him hooked up to an EKG machine. I really had no idea how quickly those things took readings, and I saw a look on his face that I will never forget.

The paramedic said, “We have to go now.” We had no idea what was happening at the time but later found out that not only had Bobby had a heart attack, but how close we were to losing each other. I also had no idea of how this event would impact him emotionally, nearly push him to his breaking point, how it would permanently damage his heart, or how it would impact us, as a couple, nearly tearing us apart. It was when I went to IACP in October that we would learn the statistics and how they show that cops have their first heart attacks at 57 due to the heart being impacted to the continual years of cortisol dumps. He was 56, just a statistic.

I shared in January on the podcast, that he had a health situation, but I didn't share why or what. He knew that he wanted to share his story. It's his story to tell as well as mine, and it's just taken a while for both of us to be at a place to do that. Now, on the anniversary of his heart attack, we want you to know the story. I interviewed him to share the impact and the confrontation with an old, ingrained belief of his that he was bulletproof.