Glad you’re ok MtnDon!
I’m sure the helicopter ride was cool. Whenever I see one of those flying by I always wonder what happened. And I hope it’ll never be me, but it would be much cooler than an ambulance.
Good advice about paying attention to your body. 
I still picture medevac rides as being slid into one of those long clear tubes mounted on top of the skids like on “M*A*S*H”. 
Arg, no! It was a smallish helicopter but I was inside the body with the pilot and two EMT’s. My feet close to the windscreen the widescreen and with a great forward view. My own headset with communication to the EMT’s.
Thanks for sharing that, Don. 
I had a suspicion it was something like this, given the urgency to get you to professional medical care. If you hadn’t gone on that hike, you might’ve felt fine for a long while, the blockage getting increasingly worse, though… so when enough of a stress would arise, it could’ve been catastrophic. So, a very good thing you triggered the event so you’d get it taken care of now!
I wish they’d come up with stents that are completely anti-bacteria so you’d never need medication. I’m assuming you’re taking a blood thinner now, like Coumadin?
Was the hospital not that far from home?
The first hospital is 5 minutes from home, but we were in the mountains at our cabin, a 45-minute drive over twisty mountain roads in the dark. Karen drove. I have little recollection of the drive.
…blood thinner yes, not coumadin though