Fund in Memory of Jason Mathis

It all started with a simple Heart Attack.(2019) Stomach pain and a light heart rate drove me to the hospital. Hours later discovering that I had a complete blocked artery. Two stents later I was good at new. They said they could detect little damage and I should make a full recovery. Sent home with some beta blockers and statins, I was ready to get back to normal life at 38 years old. Everything went well for 3 months until one day I stood up fast and walked to the kitchen and got super dizzy very fast. There was no warning and no time to react. I sort of remember trying to hold onto the counter. At this time I've just experienced my first Ventricular Fibrillation and in full cardiac arrest. This is were the story should have ended but my brain was kind of upset about the lack of blood flow and decided it was also a good time for my first seizure. The seizure somehow restarted my heart, and I remember my arms and legs repeatedly hitting the bottom of the counter. I lay there for a minute in complete disarray, foggy and deteriorated as what to just just happened. The cold sweat smothers you and I knew right then and there, I just Died! Feeling weak , get a ride to the hospital and get all checked out. They run the CT scan for brain damage and check my heart. No issues. Observe me for another night and let me go home that day. So I think everything is fine but over the next few months I suffer from PVCs and other heart issues. Feeling weak and not being able to get things done easily. One night I was trying to get my mind off it and start cleaning my kitchen. The PVCs were getting worse and it seemed my heart was stopping with every other heartbeat. I felt sick and asked my fiend to drive me to the hospital. Being a heart attack patient I received fast care. The PVCs were so bad and I asked what was wrong and nobody there seemed concerned about the constant PVCs. Right as the doctor was telling “Everything was fine” I went in VF and then right into a full cardiac arrest. They perform CPR and shock me a few times to get my heart going again. Now everyone's freaking out / Straight to ICU and the torture really begins. After hours of caustic drugs being pumped into my veins and tests after test. They discovered I have brugada syndrome and want to operate and install a Defibrillator implant. I was not happy about this. They couldn't find this in any of there test besides the EKG. I assumed it could have been the beta blockers fault and didn't think I had a heart defect. I didn't want the implant and they starved me for a very long time trying to prep me for surgery. I flipped out and refused. So we found a compromise. I will get the life vest an external defibrillator. Leaned how to use it and wore this “Shock bra” for 3 months. Since I was still experiencing issues I had a long time to research and decide if I wanted the S-ICD. After a few months I had the Implant installed. Glad I did. Everything was pretty OK for the next year. Got into a relationship and still had issues with fatigue but was managing. Then one day after some intense arobiac activity I was hit with that super dizzy and ears ringing feeling. It feels like you are being pulled away from the back of your eyes. You are there but detached. Before I could loose consciousness I felt the kick and electric shock to the chest. I was awake this time! Then another kick and shock. EMS arrived and took me to the hospital and another observation over night. Released the next day. Doc's said keep going no restrictions.

Always being cautious avoiding high activity for 3 more months until one day I just need to loose some weight and get into shape. So I fire up the VR games and start dancing to rhythm games then get into a boxing game. Pushing though the training and after winning my first fight I rip off the VR equipment and start to feel super dizzy and ears buzzing. Pass out, get shocked twice again and wake up who knows when? I didn't even bother going to hospital at this point. There isn't anything they can do for me anyways. Called my Doc got the report that yes I did go into V-fib and CA and was shocked back to life. Went to work the next day as if nothing had happened. At this point I am not alive nor dead. Something in between like Schrodinger's cat. Frustrated and fed up I call my Heart Arrhythmia Doc and demand some solution. At he End of 2020 decided to try an Heart Ablation procedure to stop the cardiac episodes. The operation was completed in 4 hours and they did run into some trouble. The sack on the outside of the heart was semi stuck but he worked around it. Also discovered that I had significant scaring on the inside and outside of the Heart. This was cause by an unknown issue ARVD. Great now I have two Fatal Genetic Heart Arrhythmia's. The recovery was long and painful. Hurt to breathe for months. A whole year goes by. Here we are in 2021 November. I was abruptly woken up by a defibrillator shock. Just one and no cardiac arrest this time. The V-Fib was corrected. So after 5 events almost leading to death. I'm exhausted. Working a Tech help desk job with extreme stress and no way out because I need to insurance to live. No easy way of getting on disability. After 20 years of working in Technical support and taking on everyone's problems, I have nothing to show. It saddens me that I might be at the end of my life. Did everything right. Got the good job that 20 years ago bought me a house and peace. But now I live paycheck to paycheck with nothing to show. I live alone and have lost my mind in so many ways. Caught in a constant failure cycle there is no help for me. Just collapse and rebuild. Maybe dying is my new normal until it's not. So I push on. Jealous of the Dead and Jealous of the elderly all at the same time. Will always fight to live and never give up. Pain in my existence. Anxiety is all I have, the unknown and the Void are my best friends. Considering a second Ablation procedure, might take a few cardiac events to convince me. Now with High blood pressure and super high cholesterol and heart disease on top of these fatal Arrhythmia's I keep on. No other choice. Maybe someday I will have the means to own a 700sf home in a quiet small town. Where I can build a off grid solar system and water collection system to reconnect with nature. Where I can focus on my dreams instead of living to help and serve others. Time is running out and I might have to make drastic decisions like giving up the 9-5 and being homeless for a few years until I can get on disability. Not afraid of anything. There is nothing that you can do to me that I have not already done to myself. This is my story. There are very few who have survived what I have been though. We walk a uncharted path.