Saturday, October 8, 2011

Broken Heart

Today didn’t go exactly as planned. In fact, not one thing went as planned. We were going to Barnes and Noble to ask a question about my Nook. I also planned to go to the hairdresser and to take some books back to the library. We didn’t accomplish anything on the “to-do” list.

It all began last night. We had three baseball games scheduled. We skipped Levi’s game because it was Owen’s turn for us to watch him play. Noah’s game was scheduled immediately after Owen’s.

During Noah’s game, Mr. Fixit bought a snack and ate some it. It seemed to cause him to have heartburn or indigestion. We arrive home about 10:00 pm. His discomfort continued after he went to bed.

After breakfast this morning, he was feeling okay except for the heartburn. He decided to check his blood pressure. It was okay; it was lower than usual. The BP monitor also shows your pulse rate. This wasn’t okay. It was up to 155 and indicated an irregular beat. I suggested that he take it again; it remained in the 150’s. His indigestion went away and he felt fine and his color was normal.

While I was in the shower, he decided to go for his walk. While he was gone, I called his cardiologist, and the nurse suggested that I take him to the emergency room ASAP. I picked him up in the car and passed on the information from the nurse. He was having none of it. He said he felt fine. Finally, after “discussing” the problem for several hours, he decided maybe the best course of action would be a visit to the hospital. We arrived about 2:00 pm.

It is now just past 11:30 pm, and we are in the Critical Care Unit. The medication has finally kicked in. His heart rate is down to 60 as it should be.

When we first arrived, an EKG was done. I asked the attending ER physician if it looked as if he had had a heart attack. He said that it didn’t appear so. He said it showed only a very irregular heartbeat. We were told that if he didn’t respond to the medication to reduce and stabilize his heart rate, a pacemaker could have been in his future. I guess we don’t have to worry about that now.

When he was brought to Critical Care, the nurse told us that the blood work indicated that he did, indeed, have a mild heart attack. He had no symptoms except for the “indigestion.”

Tomorrow morning there are some tests scheduled to determine how much damage was done to the heart and to check to see if another heart catherization and stent is in his future.

Today when I was trying to get him to the hospital, I was thinking about his 74th birthday that is in a few days. I was thinking that he was very lucky not to have had a major heart problem by this age. Lots of men have. I still feel very lucky that even though there was damage to his heart; it seems to be minor. I hope the tests tomorrow prove it so.

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