I guess this is 50, too.

We had some excitement here on Friday, November 4th… we got a new roof! What I didn’t count on was the chain of events this activity would set off.

I have never experienced noise like I felt when the crew was scraping shingles off the roof. My heart was pounding so hard, I figured I was having a panic attack and was using essential oils to help calm myself down. I even went to spend some time with the ladies to get away from the noise, but my heart kept pounding.

Saturday rolls around and my heart is still pounding. If I was standing still it was mostly fine, but even walking from one room to another made it start pounding again. Then I started feeling achy in the insides of my biceps, and I was thinking “blood pressure” so I used oils that I would normally use in that situation. Heart kept pounding.

4am Sunday, I wake up with what I think is massive heartburn. Again I turn to my oils and do what I would do whenever I have any kind of tummy troubles. Nothing happened- my “heartburn” was still there. Eventually we called my mom to come and stay with Josh so Tom could take me to the hospital. We still really had no idea what was going on, just that it “wasn’t right.”

I started feeling like I was having difficulty breathing. That’s when I actually got scared, and said we should probably call an ambulance. I felt like I needed care NOW. Mom made it here just before the ambulance. They got me inside the rig, and my bp was 191/110.

On the way to the hospital, the EMT offered me pain meds. Now, you may not know this but I don’t take drugs. I don’t even take Tylenol, so the idea of pain meds didn’t appeal to me at first. The EMT said, “What if I just gave you a half dose?” I agreed at that point, but then she told me it was Fentanyl and I again declined that. (Too many news stories about that stuff!) The pain I was feeling overcame my objections to drugs and I let her give it to me. As soon as it hit my system I said, “I can’t believe people actually want to feel like this on purpose!” I really didn’t like how it made me feel.

Interestingly enough, I assumed coming to the hospital via ambulance would get me treated right away. Not at all the case. I was there for two hours (at least) before they got me into a room in the emergency room. Tom was in the waiting room for those two hours, unable to be with me until I had a room. I spent all day and night there, until they took me up to the cath lab before 8am.

They drew so much blood. At first it was every two hours, then every four hours. Eventually it was every six hours. My heart enzyme was over 6,000 when I got there, and it doubled overnight. (I think it’s supposed to be less than 18.) They did five ekgs, an echocardiogram, a cat scan.

They told us ahead of time that I’d be in the cath lab first thing in the morning, but neither of us really understood what that meant. By the time Tom got back to the hospital Monday morning, I already had a stent put in. We were told later that I had one artery that was 100% occluded, and another between 70-80% occluded (blocked.) A “mild heart attack.” I have an appointment in December for additional stent(s) in that other artery.

I had absolutely amazing nurses the entire time I was in the hospital. My ER nurse is my first favorite, but my nurse while I was in the cath lab was so perfectly suited for his job. I could say something positive about each one of them (and nothing negative) but those two were my favorites.

I need to give a huge shout-out to my amazing husband. He was texting family the entire time, every time we got an update he would let people know. I’m amazed at his calm, and how he was able to keep it together.

My biggest worry, when we didn’t know when they were going to let me out, was that I wasn’t going to be able to vote. When Tom went to vote early Tuesday morning on the way back to the hospital, he asked them about an absentee ballot for me. He was going to have to bring me the application which had to be filled out in my own writing, get that back to them by 4pm, then bring me the absentee ballot and get that back to them by 8pm- which he was totally willing to do. I have never NOT voted in person, and I was a little freaked out. But still praising God that I got out in time to vote in person!

The day before my symptoms started, I had a conversation with my dad about mortality. I told him “I think about it myself, sometimes. Like: I know where I’m going, and I know how wonderful it will be, and I’m so grateful I have the Lord. But also, I think about what I’m leaving behind, and feel like there’s still so much to do.” The same day I had actually asked the ladies at the township office about voting in person on an absentee ballot, and decided not to do it. So bizarre.

So now I am on medication. Again, I don’t take drugs of any sort so for me to go to the hospital, let them pump me full of drugs for 2.5 days, and leave there with 5 prescription meds is extremely hard on me emotionally. I’m frustrated and hurt because I feel like my body betrayed me, and I’m angry about the medicines. On the other side of that, I’m grateful for life.🍀