I'm starting to lose track of who knows what, between Phone calls and Facebook and the Grapevine... So here is a Note to recap and update for posterity ...
In the wee hours of Wednesday, March 9th, Husband awoke feeling terrible and out of sorts. He said it felt like the worst indigestion he'd ever had. Given that we had Louisiana Hot Links for dinner the night before, it wasn't surprising. I sat up with him for a while, then went back to bed while he watched movies to see how it would play out.
At 7:00 in the morning, he woke me and said, let's go to the hospital. He was restless, short of breath, cool and clammy. When I asked him how he was feeling, he said the fateful words, "It feels like there is a band across my chest." We all loaded into the car as quickly as we could, and drove to the ER. On the way in, we called ahead to let them know we were coming in for symptoms of heart attack.
When we arrived, the team was waiting for him. Within minutes, they ran an EKG and confirmed, yes, it was a heart attack. In only minutes more, they took him straight in for emergency surgery. They entered through the right femoral artery in the groin, and passed a little camera up through the aorta and into his coronary arteries. They found the blockage in the Left Anterior Descending (LAD). They removed the blockage, and placed a stent (Boston Scientific VeriFlex bare metal stent).
After the surgery, Husband went into the Critical Care Unit for 24 hours. On Thursday afternoon, they moved him to a "regular" room. After another 24 hours, he was able to come home on Friday, Mar 11.
Some portion of his heart had the circulation cut off for about eight hours, so there is damage to the heart muscle. Fortunately, muscle can heal and regenerate; However, it probably won't be 100%. The Doctor said it will be several months before we know the extend of the scarring.
Husband says he basically feels better than he has in a long time! He is trying to take it easy, but you know how hard it is for him to sit still. He gets light-headed quickly. Without harping, I try to remind him it's like trying to walk with a cast and crutches. Take it easy -- slow and steady -- keep the weight off it. It will take weeks for the healing to occur.
He is going to have to be on some medications, and Husband is NOT a pill-popper, so it is very foreign to him. There are four meds:
1) Plavix ~ a blood thinner to keep the platelets "slippery" so they don't adhere to the new stent and create a blockage all over again. Take for 90 days.
2) Asprin ~ 81mg. blood thinner. Take "forever".
3) Metoprolol ~ beta blocker. Also makes the heart beat stronger and rest longer. Take for at least a year or two, if not longer
4) Simvastatin ~ one of the "statins". Lowers cholesterol. Indefinite need.
We got a BIG binder of education materials, including info about the medications, after-care, dietary needs, workshops, financial aid to pay for it all, etc. Besides taking medications "forever", another big change is quitting tobacco completely. We already eat fairly well, but we are going to take the suggestions to make our diet even lower in saturated fats -- switching from hamburger to ground turkey, cutting back even more on butter, switching to 1% milk, etc.
The upshot and the irony of all of this is that I think we'll all be better than ever after this incident, because of the chance to dodge a bullet, get a wake-up call to make adjustments for continued long, healthy life.
At 7:00 in the morning, he woke me and said, let's go to the hospital. He was restless, short of breath, cool and clammy. When I asked him how he was feeling, he said the fateful words, "It feels like there is a band across my chest." We all loaded into the car as quickly as we could, and drove to the ER. On the way in, we called ahead to let them know we were coming in for symptoms of heart attack.
When we arrived, the team was waiting for him. Within minutes, they ran an EKG and confirmed, yes, it was a heart attack. In only minutes more, they took him straight in for emergency surgery. They entered through the right femoral artery in the groin, and passed a little camera up through the aorta and into his coronary arteries. They found the blockage in the Left Anterior Descending (LAD). They removed the blockage, and placed a stent (Boston Scientific VeriFlex bare metal stent).
After the surgery, Husband went into the Critical Care Unit for 24 hours. On Thursday afternoon, they moved him to a "regular" room. After another 24 hours, he was able to come home on Friday, Mar 11.
Some portion of his heart had the circulation cut off for about eight hours, so there is damage to the heart muscle. Fortunately, muscle can heal and regenerate; However, it probably won't be 100%. The Doctor said it will be several months before we know the extend of the scarring.
Husband says he basically feels better than he has in a long time! He is trying to take it easy, but you know how hard it is for him to sit still. He gets light-headed quickly. Without harping, I try to remind him it's like trying to walk with a cast and crutches. Take it easy -- slow and steady -- keep the weight off it. It will take weeks for the healing to occur.
He is going to have to be on some medications, and Husband is NOT a pill-popper, so it is very foreign to him. There are four meds:
1) Plavix ~ a blood thinner to keep the platelets "slippery" so they don't adhere to the new stent and create a blockage all over again. Take for 90 days.
2) Asprin ~ 81mg. blood thinner. Take "forever".
3) Metoprolol ~ beta blocker. Also makes the heart beat stronger and rest longer. Take for at least a year or two, if not longer
4) Simvastatin ~ one of the "statins". Lowers cholesterol. Indefinite need.
We got a BIG binder of education materials, including info about the medications, after-care, dietary needs, workshops, financial aid to pay for it all, etc. Besides taking medications "forever", another big change is quitting tobacco completely. We already eat fairly well, but we are going to take the suggestions to make our diet even lower in saturated fats -- switching from hamburger to ground turkey, cutting back even more on butter, switching to 1% milk, etc.
The upshot and the irony of all of this is that I think we'll all be better than ever after this incident, because of the chance to dodge a bullet, get a wake-up call to make adjustments for continued long, healthy life.
No comments:
Post a Comment