When local carpenter Paul Jones called his wife Sandra, a private certified nursing assistant, and told her that something was wrong with his heart, she knew it was serious.

“He is always working, and to have him ask for help is something he wouldn’t typically do, so when he called I knew something was wrong,” his wife of three and a half years said.

So did Paul.

“I knew something was wrong,” the 63-year-old said. “For me to call and want to go to the doctor, it was time to go.”

That call was six months ago.

Since then, the proud carpenter has been unable to work, sometimes unable to walk without the assistance of a walker.

The doctor’s diagnosed Paul with atrial fibrillation (A-Fib).

Atrial fibrillation is when the upper chamber of your heart beats faster than the rest of your heart, sometimes as many as 300-600 times a minute. People who suffer from the disease feel an uncomfortable flutter in their chest or may feel like their heart is “flip-flopping around” in their chest. The condition also comes with patients feeling lightheaded, very tired, have shortness of breath, sweating and chest pain, and sometimes a distressing need for frequent urination.

Experts say the greatest danger from A-Fib is stroke because the heart isn’t pumping properly, blood can pool in the atria, particularly in the left atrial appendage. Blood clots can form and travel to the brain causing stroke.

Paul said he did have some symptoms with his heart as early as three months prior to the June 29 realization that something was seriously wrong with his body.

“It never slowed me down or anything like that,” Paul admitted of the symptoms he noticed. “I could tell that my heart was beating a lot faster at times and so I stopped drinking caffeine. I knew something wasn’t right, but it came once and I wouldn’t be bothered with it for a couple weeks, and then there would be a little something that would flutter again and then it would be gone. I remember one night I ate supper and was sitting here on the couch and I could see the pencils in my shirt shaking because my heart was beating so fast but it would go away. I just brushed it aside.”

Paul said his wife pleaded with him to see a doctor during this time.

“Sandra tried her best to get me to go,” he said as Sandra, seated beside him mouths “hard-headed.”

“My brother told me to get to the doctor, too. To be honest, I just didn’t want to miss one day, because I just couldn’t miss the work.” That was until he was doing a job at the Cohaire Country Club and felt so weak he couldn’t function.

That’s when he called Sandra.

“I just couldn’t do anything,” he said.

“He told me that morning that he was not feeling well and I got off of work and took him to Wake,” Sandra said.

The next day, Paul had a catheterization that didn’t show any major blockage, only a minor one. But what it did show was that he had an irregular heartbeat that was wearing his heart out because it was beating so fast.

On Aug. 28, the couple was back at WakeMed in Raleigh because the doctors wanted to try and shock Paul’s heart to get it back into a rhythm. “But after that he still had what they called a ‘premature heartbeat’ and so his heart never went back to the way it should have been,” Sandra said.

Although the procedure did help a little, it didn’t work well enough to make him feel better. “So we went back Nov. 10,” Sandra said. “They were going to shock it again. This time it went back into rhythm, but his heart rate only went back to 35 beats per minute, and it was too low.”

Three days later, doctors put in a defibrillator and a pacemaker.

“They wanted to get his heart pace to at least 60 bpm, but they couldn’t get it because every time they got the rate over 50 his heart would just quiver,” Sandra said. “So, at the time, they tried to put the pacemaker in with three wires; the third lead wire could not get into his heart.”

On Jan 7, the third lead wire was placed in.

“This last procedure was a pretty big deal,” Paul said. “It seems like I feel a little bit better each day. But it is going to take a while still.”

The couple are widowers from previous marriages, have five grown children and over a dozen grandchildren. They have kept a brave face over the holidays.

“Our church, Beulah Baptist, took up a love offering; Piney Grove Church gave us a gift card that really came in handy because we used that for medicine; and the House of Prayer pastor Moses Darden and Michael Odum came to us at Thanksgiving and pulled out this big box of food for us ... it was incredible,” said Sandra. “I told pastor Darden that we have always been on the giving side, this year, we have been on the receiving side. I would much rather be on the giving side. Our friend Donald Hopkins came up to us and shook Paul’s hand and gave him a piece of money right before Christmas ... things like that have meant the world to us.”

Paul fights back tears when speaking of the people and churches who have supported him over the past six months.

“I just want to say a special thanks to all of these people who have been helping us,” he said.

“It was a difficult holiday season,” Sandra said. “I told Paul that even though he is sick, we still have each other. We are not hungry, we are not on the street and we are here, alive. We have wonderful kids and grandkids — we are rich by measure.”

But the change, as well as the struggle, have tested the couple.

“We have to pay $500 for health insurance, but there isn’t anything coming in,” said Paul. “That is not counting our house payment, our light bill ... We pay about $400 a month in medications. It has been difficult.”

“It has effected him, but it has also effected me as well,” said Sandra. “Because there are days when he gets up and he just doesn’t have the strength to make one step.”

In addition to everything else, the emotional toll the diagnosis has put on the two has also been hard.

“It has been tough,” admits Sandra. “We were in church one day and Paul looked at me and said, ‘if you want to cut and run this would be the time to do it’ and I said no way, that is not the way you do things. We took vows and you don’t do things like that when you love one another. There is no way I would turn my back on him.”

“I am not a couch potato,” Paul said. “To have this, mentally, has been as hard as the physical part. You know, I have always worked and I never thought I would be out of work this long, but you can only do what your body can. I have been a carpenter for about 38 years, and I love it. I am just used to getting up and going to work ... so mentally, it has been very difficult on me.”

However, the couple has survived. And they attribute that to their faith.

“God plays 100 percent in all of this,” Sandra said.

Paul agrees, “I don’t know how we would have came this far with our heads just above the water without the Lord,” he said. “We don’t take any credit for anything, we give it all to Him. All of the things that we have been through, and we’re still able to sit here, it is because of the Lord — it is all because of Him.”

While his journey back to work is listed as ‘indefinite,’ the strong foundation and loyalty that Paul and his wife share will continue to be tested through the tough times, but it will not, they said, break their spirit.

“I love him and nothing is every going to change that,” Sandra said.

Write to the couple at: 185 H.B. Lewis Road, Clinton, N.C. 28328.

To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or send e-mail to sisports@myclintonnc.com.