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| I had one of those "it is amazing the difference a week makes" kind of weeks. While we were getting ready for church on Sunday, I got a call from my Mom's husband. He asked how I was to which I responded "that depends on why you are calling" since he usually only calls me when Mom is in the hospital. Late Saturday night they took her to the ER by ambulance because she was having chest pains and difficulty breathing. She was admitted to ICU where they determined that her pneumonia had returned and attributed the chest pains to that. The on-call doctor told her that they didn't think it was heart related but would do a stress test just in case on Monday. When I spoke to her after church on Sunday she said that they had told her they had pretty much ruled out heart problems. I called her at lunch time on Monday and there wasn't any answer in her room so I called the nurses station and she was still at the stress test. So I called her on my home again and she said thought she would be going home that evening after the results of the stress tests came back. Around 7, she called to say that she was still there and that the stress test showed some blockage but that the doctor thought they would probably just be able to treat it with medicine and that they would do a cardiac catheterization on Tuesday to determine the amount of blockage. So in a matter of a day the diagnosis went from "already ruled out heart problems" to "some blockage but treatable with medicine".
During break on Tuesday, I got a call from my Mom's husband again. We had now gone from "some blockage but likely treatable with medicine" to "one artery has significant blockage and she will have to have heart surgery". He said she had to be moved to another hospital for the surgery and was supposed be moved that day and have the surgery the next. I asked him if I needed to come home and he said she will want you here. My week was pretty well planned out already. I just hired a new employee and had only had one day to train him. I had just gotten the stuff I needed to get started with Youth Councils preparation. But despite all of that, I was on the road to WV by 12:30. When I arrived about 4 p.m. they still had not moved her to the other hospital so we waited. The other hospital told her they did not have a bed for her and to call back at 7:30 p.m. The heart doctor was doing evening rounds so we called him in the room and he said that she would still be having the surgery on Wednesday and answered some other questions I had. They were supposed to kick us out of ICU at 7 because visiting hours were over but we waited around to find out what was going on. The nurse comes back in and says still no bed for her at the other hospital and that they had to call at 8 a.m. to find out if they would have one then. Mom was very upset.
We arrive at the hospital at 8 a.m. They won't let us in the room because visiting hours don't start until 11 in ICU. We go have breakfast then come back and wait. I call the office, check my e-mail and do some other work. Mom finally calls about 9:30 and they still don't have a room for her. The hospital will call if something opens up later. Still can't get in until 11 a.m. so I do some more work. Finally get in the room and we wait some more. We spent the rest of the day waiting for the hospital to call and not having any clue how we got from "needs to have surgery tomorrow" to "no room" in the inn. At 5:30, we over hear the nurse take a call that they thought they had a bed but to call back at 7:30 to be sure. An hour later, the nurse comes in and tells us that the call was about her room. We had to leave at 7 because visiting hours were over. At 8, we get the call from my Mom, still no room; call again in the morning.
Finally, at 8:30 on Thursday we got the call that they had a bed for her and got ready to meet her at Morgantown but still did not know when the surgery would be. She got there around 10:30 or so, they checked her in and starting preparing her for surgery. The nurse said she had 70 to 80 percent blockage. About 2, they finally took her downstairs and did the surgery shortly thereafter. It was a little overwhelming to be in with the surgeon before the surgery when he went through all the risk "you have a serious problem we need to get taken care of", "one out of every two hundred people that have this surgery die from it." Not exactly comforting odds! The surgery actually didn't take much time at all and went well though. They only had to put in one stent. She was released the next day and has about a two week recovery period at home and a bunch of new medicine. So on Friday I headed back home because Shane's first soccer game was Saturday and I still had lots of work to do for Youth Councils. What an exhausting week!
Shane's best friend from school is having a birthday party the weekend of Youth Councils but he won't be here for it. His Mom had invited Shane and Alexis to a bounce place on Wednesday instead. Chris had to take them since I was out of town. (He took these pictures.) I need to check with the Mom to see if she got any better ones.
     
Shane's First Soccer Game:
           
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