Our Year, 2011 to date - Part III

The next day we had our coffee in the morning and “sweet thang” went over to the shop to see the boys, have a cup with them and bring home the mail. In about an hour he came back in the house and stood in front of me saying he didn’t feel good….he looked a bit pale. He then set down in his chair and said “I didn’t want to say anything but I think I’m having a heart attack”. Since the phone is right by my chair I reached over and picked it up and called our GP’s office and handed the phone to “sweet thang”…… He started to tell the receptionist his symptoms, she quickly put a nurse on the line, and she ask him several questions….. Determining that he did not need an ambulance, she ask if there was anyone here who could drive him to ER…. He argued with her and said why can’t I just come to the office?..... She said because we don’t have what it might take to save your life here, so we would just put you in one and take you to ER anyway. That being said, he hung up, I called our son and he drove him over to the hospital. As soon as they left I called my daughter to meet them there.

Hanging up from talking to her I had a sinking moment. I cried as I set here helpless, wanting only to hold him closely. It had already been an awfully long year. I was scared to death, not sure what to expect from myself and the chemo treatment, and for him not knowing what was going to happen in the hours ahead….My daughter promised to update me with any new developments as they transpired. I was beginning to not feel very good myself…..

Getting to the hospital, they got him on oxygen & nitro as soon as he got to ER and immediately he started feeling better. That told them, something was not right. They did an EKG and admitted him… The on call heart specialist visited later that afternoon and told him they needed to keep him there and run a few more tests and observe. That night and the following day they did a few more blood tests but mostly just let him rest. He expected to come home that evening but the doctor said he would feel much better if they did another test the following day because they really did not know at this point what was wrong, but something was definitely not right.

I wanted so badly to go over and be with him, but my daughter the nurse said no way was I to get anywhere near the hospital, that my chemo treatment made me vulnerable to germs and that’s the last place I needed to be. She did call often, and once testing was over that day, he was able to call so we spent a lot of time with each other on the phone…. I could not sleep again due to the steroids they had give me prior to and during the infusion…

The following morning the doctor came in again and my daughter was in on the conversation. He gave them 3 options… They could do a regular stress test on the treadmill, or do a drug induced stress test, or his recommendation, which was to go in with an angiogram and look around, to be followed by an angioplasty if needed. Each procedure was discussed and all agreed that the 3^rd option would be best… He was prepped for surgery immediately.

My son and other daughter went to be with their sister, and my son in law let me know he was close by if I needed anything. When they did get the instruments inside “sweet thang” to take a look, they discovered that he had a left dominate heart, meaning that his main artery branched off and took a longer, left route to it’s destination. Right at the branch they found where it was 90% blocked. This called for two stents, which were difficult to put in because they both had to be put in and inflated at the same time. Every time they tried, he started shooting out blood clots! The doctor told him later it got pretty scary for a while. However; on the third time they finally were able to inflate both at the same time and they could see the blood finally pumping through easily and smoothly…. What had started out to be a simple procedure had turned into a 3 hour surgery. Whew! My daughter called me the minute he was out of surgery letting me know what the doctor had told them and that he was ok. He called me after he woke up several times that evening because he was not able to move off of his back and it was a rough night him. We talked late into the night comforting each other….

By this time, my chemo treatment was working on me…. I believe it was the 2^nd day that I begin to develop bone pain…. It hurt so badly, my pain medication was not touching it….That was the day I normally would have crashed after no sleep for three days, but because of the worry I as not able to close my eyes….

That evening my daughter called and said the hospital was quiet, Dad couldn’t rest and she knew I wasn’t resting so she made me promise that IF I didn’t touch anything and would just set quiet I could come over for an hour. My other daughter would be arriving shortly to pick me up. I hurried and got dressed, tried to mask the pain and exhaustion as best I could, my other daughter showed up and transported me to the arms of my “sweet thang”.. In 50 years we had not spent that many nights apart so this had been hard on both of us. We exchanged a big ole hug, the girls went to get carry out for supper, and we celebrated the success of his surgery together….. It was a wonderful reunion.

Him, getting dismissed later the next day, and I having crashed when I got home the night before finally brought us together again at home where we both belonged…. How much more can we take? To be continued…….