WBBM's Steve Miller had heart bypass surgery four months ago. He continues his story about heart disease with a look at the risk factor that's unchangeable: family history.
"Are you a smoker? Have you ever been a smoker?"
"Never." "Oh, that's wonderful. That's fabulous."
I answer the nurse's questions with pride.
(pictured: Steve Miller's parents Jack and Ellen Miller )
My diet has been good for at least 20 years. I've been a swimmer for 25 years. A runner for 15. So why, at age 52, did I need heart surgery?
The answer lies in the heart of Texas, where I grew up. Where both parents died of heart disease. My brother Jacky, who's 69, had bypass surgery four years ago.
He thinks our mother, who died of a massive heart attack at 62, must have had some warning signs.
"Steve, I think so. I don't think that she admitted it. I know she carried little vials of ammonia with her, just in case she fainted." (pictured from left to right: Jack, Daniel, and Steve Miller - in lap!)
But if family history explains it, why did Jacky's identical twin brother Danny sail through a treadmill stress test?
"I think he's one of the lucky ones. Lord knows, he's abused his body over the years... Way more than I ever did. And way, way more than you ever did."
Bypass: A WBBM Special Series - Part 8 WBBM's Steve Miller had triple heart bypass surgery four months ago, and he's been reporting on his experience with heart disease. Recently, he observed a bypass operation at Northwestern.
Bypass: A WBBM Special Series - Part 7 WBBM's Steve Miller had heart bypass surgery four months ago, and he's been reporting on his experience with heart disease. Recently, he was in the operating room for a bypass operation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Bypass: A WBBM Special Series - Part 6 WBBM's Steve Miller had heart bypass surgery four months ago, and he's been reporting on his own experience with heart disease. Now he reports on other people who have shared their stories on the eve of their surgery.
Bypass: A WBBM Special Series - Part 5 He flunked two treadmill stress tests, then chalked up a worrisome angiogram. Then four months ago, WBBM's Steve Miller had triple heart bypass surgery. He continues his reports now on heart disease.
Bypass: A WBBM Special Series - Part 4 WBBM's Steve Miller has been describing his own experiences with heart disease - first flunking two stress tests, then taking the test that would determine whether he needed surgery. Here's that report.
Bypass: A WBBM Special Series - Part 3 WBBM's Steve Miller has been describing his own experience with heart disease - four months now since his triple heart bypass surgery. He continues his reports with a look at the test that found the problem and changed his life.
Bypass: A WBBM Special Series - Part 2 WBBM's Steve Miller had heart bypass surgery four months ago. Today he continues his story about heart disease with a look at the risk factor that's unchangeable: family history.
Bypass: A WBBM Special Series - Part 1 Imagine going in for a routine medical test - and less than two weeks later you're having triple heart bypass surgery. That's what happened to WBBM's Steve Miller. Today he begins his series with "Life as a Cabbage."
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