Saturday, February 9, 2013

Want to Run Away

Well, to continue with the story I have tell why my husband took me to the doctor the day they had the conference about his brother Harold. I kind of did this backwards so read the post below and then read this one.

Several weeks ago I was sitting at my computer doing genealogy, and all of a sudden I broke out in a full sweat running down my face type of thing. I was glad I was sitting as I felt like I was going to pass out.  It was kind of a scary thing, but I brushed it off and decided to do the wait and see thing.  I have been having  pressure and pain in my chest which I felt was Reflux, or GERD as I was diagnosed with several years ago.

It was time for my diabetic check, so I made an appointment with my doctor and told him about the symptoms I was having.  We decided together that I needed to go to my heart specialist first and more than likely have test done, especially since I am diabetic and diabetics are prone to heart disease.

I did go to my heart specialist, and he set me up for several heart test, one being the stress test.  I had the chemical test, and Wow!!! even though I have had it before that feeling you get when they put in the chemical  is a scary thing.  I felt like I couldn't breath and was coached to take deep breaths.  The techs said I would feel like I had run a marathon.  My reply was, "I would rather run a marathon!"  After the chemical test, I was taken to have another X-Ray and then I would get to see my doctor for the results of all the tests.  I was so sure everything would be good and I would be released with a good heart.

I was in for a surprise as the doctor told me I had a abnormal stress test.  He said it wasn't a smoking gun and I could wait for six months and be checked again.  No way was I going to wait six months, wondering and worrying that something could be wrong with my heart.  So for my birthday, I get an Angiogram. I still am sure that my pain and pressure is GERD, and the next step of the plan is for me to go to a doctor who could put a stitch in my flap to stop the acid from coming up in my throat. So now I have a few days to stress about the test as I get so nervous before these kinds of procedures.  I made myself sick just waiting for the tests I had done on  last Thursday.  Wish I knew how to stop it.

Last Thursday just seemed to be a bad news day, as that is when we found out about Harold, my test was abnormal, my daughter, while at work, had a drunk over 200 pound guy fall into her making her fall, and now she is bruised up, hurt her shoulder trying to catch herself, and she thinks she even hit her head.  Here is the worst part, there was no I'm sorry from the man, and no one offered to help her up, help her clean up the mess as she had a full tray of drinks she was carrying when this happened. The drunk man's friends helped him out of the area and just left Sherry there to fend for herself. I just can't believe how rude people are now days.  Then I got the bad news of a friend having breast cancer, my cousin may have lung cancer.  Wow!!!! isn't it time for some good news?!!!!

It's Been a Roller Coaster

I have been a blog slacker for quite a while now.  To be honest I just haven't felt like blogging.  My husband's brother, Harold, went in the hospital on January 7 to have a heart pump put in below his heart to help his heart function.  He was in congestive heart failure due to a virus attacking his hear several years ago.

He was up and down about having this procedure done as his wife is in a care center under hospice care as she has Alzheimer and has been steadily going down hill.  Harold and Janie have been married 50 plus years and those years have been happy ones for them.  Harold made the comment to my husband more than one time that he didn't want to live without Janie.

After the surgery was done on January 8, Harold was put into a coma for a 24 hour period which is the procedure they do on all patients having this surgery.  They left his chest open, and wrapped it with special type of saran wrap so they can watch for bleeding and also to make sure the pump is working like it should.  When Harold came out of the coma everything was functioning like it should. They closed up the chest and moved him to his own room as he had been in intensive care.

He was sitting on his bed eating his breakfast, and when he finished he asked the nurse if he could sit in the chair by his bed.  The nurse left the room for just a few minutes to get someone to help Harold into the chair.  When they came back, Harold was laying unconscious on the bed.  He had flat lined and they did CPR on him breaking a rib in the process.  I can't imagine doing CPR on a Chest that had just been stitched up from the heart surgery.

The doctor who had operated on Harold just happened to be in the hospital as they had cancelled a surgery, so he was called, and they rushed Harold back into surgery.  From that point on it was an up and down cycle of hope and despair.  They kept him in an induced coma, again this time saying they would slowly bring him out of it.  His vitals were good, but they kept finding things that were wrong.  He got infection in the portal in his neck, found out he had diverticulitis, and other things that kept coming up.  All of this was treatable. So thus the roller coaster ride.

Finally, it was decided that the family would have a conference with Harold's doctor.  Frank couldn't take part in this as he took me to the doctor that day.  When we got home, Frank called his sister who told us the results of that conference.  The doctor was a little upset as he felt we were getting false information about Harold's condition and he wanted us to know that Harold was doing well, that they would be slowly bringing him out of the coma and unhooking him.  Then they would do a CT-Scan to see if there was any brain damage.  He had told the family that he thought if there was any brain damage it wouldn't be anything Harold couldn't live with.

Finally after another week of waiting, they were able to unhook Harold and have the scan done.  Unfortunately, the results were not good.  When Harold had the blood clot, it must have broken off and and had hit the lower lobe of his brain, and he had a stroke.  Harold would be a vegetable as long as he was alive.

His daughter Sherrie will be flying down to GA from Maine as soon as the horrible weather they are having back in that area clears up.  The flights have been cancelled until Monday.  She is the one that has the power of attorney and has to give the permission to unplug her Dad.  I feel so bad for as she is really close to Harold, and this is going to be really hard on her.  She will get to say her good by to him and that is a good thing.  Harold wants to be cremated and his ashes placed in his wife's coffin when she passes away.  We don't know if they will hold any services, and if they do, we will fly to GA to be with the family.

A year ago at Christmas time, I bought my husband a skype camera so he could skype with his brother.  So they set up a time on Mondays to skype.  I will miss hearing that Southern drawl saying long and dragged out "Hello Brother."  I would come into our office and visit with Harold and we would laugh about how we were doing with our diabetic diet.  He mostly cheating and me saying "Harold what are you doing."!!!!  It is sad to watch as we are all aging, one sibling at a time is leaving the world. Frank is now the oldest in the family and at one time was the youngest of three brothers and now he is the only brother left.  Harold, we will miss you terribly, but we know you are in a better place, and someday soon you will have a joyous reunion with Janie, and eventually with all of us.  May God rest his hand of comfort on the family.