SCARY TWO WEEKS

The other day I received an e mail from a friend from out of state that reads my blog, wanting to know if I was o.k. because I hadn’t posted for so long. I wrote back that the reason I hadn’t been posting was because my husband had been in the hospital for a week. It was a very scary time for our family! Thankfully, he is now back home and on the road to recovery. We brought him home this past Monday afternoon, and I’ve been watching over him carefully ever since! He is regaining a bit more strength each day, but boy did this ever throw us both for a loop. Bob, who is never sick, other than a cold once in a while, now is taking 6 pills a day for his heart!

I think I wrote on Easter weekend, that we didn’t do anything special because Bob was recuperating from bronchitis. We all had the upper respiratory flu, a strain of the flu that hadn’t been included in the flu shot we all had last fall. Rob and I got over it, but Bob’s turned into bronchitis, and by Easter weekend, the Dr. had changed his antibiotic to something new, and we were waiting for it to “kick in”. Therefore, when he had trouble breathing, we assumed it was from the bronchitis, especially since he was still coughing. He was extra tired, but I also thought that was from the illness. I told him to call the Dr. on Monday morning and ask for an inhaler. When I came home from work on Monday evening, he wasn’t any better. Later that evening I happened to notice that his stomach appeared to be bigger than usual…I took a look at it, and immediately I thought about “fluid”. I got scared and told him that was not normal and that we should go to the Emergency Ward. Off to the ER we went, and when we got there:
-- the nurse noticed the difficulty he was having breathing, and they put him in a wheelchair and had him hooked up to an IV before we knew it…and they brought in the portable EKG machine, put him on oxygen and the nurse said “he’s having problems breathing because it’s his HEART”, she showed me the monitor and explained how his heart was in “AFIB”, going up and down in very sporadic rhythm not like it was supposed to, and that his heart rate was twice what it should have been…it was at 180.
--Needless to say, we were scared! They said they had to get his heart rate down immediately. The Doctor came in and told him “You are a very sick man, and you will not be going home tonight”. Something you never want to hear.
--I had been praying the whole way to the ER, and continued to pray. The doctor and nurses were very attentive and I could see they were doing everything they could. I knew he was in good hands.
-- They got him settled into the ICU unit of the cardiac floor, by 2 am, at 3 am they told me his rate was down, but not to where it should be, and that the medicine would soon regulate his heart beat. I went home at 3, but didn’t sleep well at all.
-- Tuesday morning I called the children. Of course, Dawn, who lives 2 ½ hours away, wanted to come up immediately. I remembered the advice my Mother gave me when my Dad first was in the hospital in PA, that I should wait, as she felt if he saw me he would think that he was dying…so she had me hold off a bit. So I told her to wait, that he was in good hands, and that she was to pray and wait for now…
-- I made phone calls. When I went back to the hospital Tuesday morning, I told Bob that I called all our “prayer warriors”…all those that I know pray, and our prayer chain and our pastor. We both believe in the power of prayer. He thanked me for doing that.
-- The kids were all great. Scott was there every afternoon (he gets done with his job between 1 and 2 pm) and sat with Dad. Rob was there every evening.
-- I held Dawn off from coming on Wednesday also, and then she said they would definitely be coming up on Friday morning. I said that was fine. She was a great help to me on Friday and the weekend. They didn’t leave till Sunday afternoon. On Saturday and Sunday mornings she went to sit with her Dad all morning, so that I could sleep in those two mornings. It helped a lot, as I was getting very tired, on Tuesday, Wed. and Thursday, I went into work a few hours each day, as it was a very busy week for my job. Friday I took the whole day off. Dawn was also good at helping me to know what questions to ask, and reminding me that we need to ask questions, as they don’t “offer information” unless you ask. He was in St. Luke’s Hospital here in Duluth, and I can’t say enough good things about the doctors and nurses there, and the good care he was given. They were wonderful. Even the food was great, Bob said, and it certainly did look good.

It took until Thursday for the heart rate to go down enough to be moved out of the ICU, but not before we had another scare:
-- Immediately in the ER they put him on blood thinner, to prevent any blood clots, as that is always a concern, because the heart doesn’t get the blood pumped out of the top chambers fast enough, so it can clot.
--On Tuesday evening the nurse noticed weakness on his left side and I said yes, “Bob asked if he was laying straight, as he felt like he was crooked”. He also never kept his eyes open all day, he said it was because he was so tired. The nurse got him to open his eyes and noticed the left eye was “rolling”. 11 pm that night, a Neurologist arrived to check him. They did a CT and saw that there was no bleeding, so that meant the stroke was “slight”. I asked everyone praying for the “specific prayer” that the stroke would not cause any permanent damage.
-- By Wednesday afternoon, our prayers had been answered. He had his eyes open, they both looked fine, and his left side was better. No permanent damage. Praise The Lord!
-- Thursday afternoon he was moved from ICU to the cardiac floor. His heart rate was better, not exactly normal yet, the rhythm back to normal, the blood thinner medication needed to be adjusted; something the Dr. told us might take a few days. He could not go home until it was in the proper range.
-- By Saturday he was feeling much more rested, and the heart rate was in the normal range, but the blood level wasn’t where the cardiologist wanted it to be. If it was right on Sunday, he could go home. Bob was getting antsy by now. He wanted to go home!
-- Sunday – he would not be going home. Blood still was not where they wanted it to be.
He was very disappointed.
-- Monday morning the medical Dr. said his level wasn’t exactly right yet, but that he felt he could go home and have it monitored at his office daily, if it was alright with the cardiologist.
-- Monday afternoon the cardiologist sprang him and we brought him home. He was thrilled to be home, and we were thrilled to have him home! He brought with him 6 prescriptions to be taken each day (at least for now).
-- He goes to the lab each morning to have his blood checked so the doctor knows what dosage of cumadin (blood thinner) for him to take in the afternoon. He refused to let me drive him the first morning…said he could do it himself…didn’t want to be an “invalid”. Each day he is getting stronger, and not feeling as tired. But, I have to hold him down, keeping the fine balance between doing things to help him gain his strength and overdoing it.
-- As you know his daily routine 7 days a week as always been to go to the fitness center to exercise. His doctor said he can get back to that when he feels strong enough, but he was ready to go on Wednesday, which I thought was too early. I held him off because he still seemed tired. Sat. he insisted on going, he just walked a bit and used the whirlpool and therapy pool. He found he was very tired when he got back, and I didn’t have trouble getting him to take today off…he wants to go back tomorrow though.
-- He is also on a low sodium diet, so I’ve been reading labels now when I shop, not just for fat and calories, but now for sodium levels. It seems a lot of things we enjoy eating are very high in sodium and will be out of the question now.
-- Of course, you won’t be surprised to hear that all three of our kids have told their Mother (me) that I should be following Dad’s heart healthy diet also. Yep. I know.
-- I had to call all the Arizona cousins and let them know we would not be seeing them. I had to cancel our reservations; we were to fly to Phoenix this morning. Disappointed, but thankful this happened here in Duluth and not in Arizona.

In case you are wondering, as we did, what caused Bob’s heart to act up, the doctors don’t know for sure 100%, however they feel it was the virus from the flu that attacked his heart, in which case even though he was taking antibiotics, if it was viral, there’s nothing you can do to prevent it. The Doctor did say that some people live with afib for years, and don’t know it until something makes it act up to the point of diagnosis. However, Bob has always been very healthy and has been exercising regularly for over 7 years, we tend to believe the theory that it was the flu virus that attacked his heart.

Now we know that many of you that read my posts, have known about Bob and have been praying for his recovery. We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Bob, myself and the kids for all of your PRAYERS, CONCERNS, THOUGHTS and LOVE. We are very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. We thank The Lord for all of you and pray that you all will be blessed.