Sudden Changes (And Gratitude)

On January 15 Husband came inside after running the snowblower and said that he thought we might need to make an appointment with a cardiologist. He hadn’t been feeling well lately–tired and such–and we had attributed it to fatigue and stress. However, his father had his first heart attack at 40. Five heart attacks and a massive stroke later, he was dead 10 days before his 65th birthday.

I looked up a phone number. Husband called. After telling his story, the person on the phone said he should hold, and he was transferred. A woman introducing herself as Linsey said she was a cardiac nurse, and what was going on. She listened to his story and replied that he was NOT SAFE and needed to get himself to the emergency room. Now.

Within a few minutes we were in the car. Upon our arrival, the kind people at the emergency room got pretty excited. They did what they could do, and he was transferred to a local hospital. They put him in intermediate care and worked that night to stabilize him.

Tuesday morning, a cardiologist ran a series of tests and concluded that Husband had six blockages in the arteries of his heart, leaving them between 60 and 90% closed. He had not had a heart attack. Yet. All things considered, and depending on your belief system, he is either a walking miracle or a very lucky man. Or both.

However, the only solution was open heart bypass surgery, and he was scheduled for 7:30am Wednesday morning.

He was in the hospital for 8 days. He is 5 weeks into a 12-week three-times-a-week cardiac rehab program. We now own one of those prescription pill tracker boxes. We record vitals twice a day. We have had three follow-up appointments with the surgeon. It is six weeks and a few days since that surgery. Obviously, there is much about our lives that has changed.

Today is Husband’s 65th birthday. And we are celebrating together.