Beneath a willow

A big day long ago

2008-04-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

Hello all, sorry for the delay. My husband recently had two stents placed in an artery in his chest and he has been told he is in good health for now. It reminds me of the time ten years ago when he was just 47 that he underwent open-heart surgery. The following piece was written shortly after his bypass.

Something simple like seeing the teal and white ambulance from Midland Hospital makes me wonder whose life is changing now? Whose wife or husband is trying to hold down a job, feed the pets, keep the laundry clean and get a full night's sleep so he or she can be cheerful for their spouse? It was less than a week ago I got a call from my husband from work. He was having chest pain again. The first time was 8 months previous before our daughter's wedding. We chalked that up to stress. The doctor in Clare said he couldn't find anything wrong. What would have been more correct to say is "We didn't see any signals to indicate heart attack" and "he is too young for blocked arteries". The Midland doctor did the sensible thing and ordered a stress test, just in case. We didn't realize how important that test and the results were, so we agreed I should stay and work and he would call me after he was done. Heck, they don't even anesthetize a person for that test. He called to tell me it was suspicious and they would go ahead immediately with a catheterization. I hadn't gotten a replacement for me at work and being so protective of our private lives, had not even told any of my co-workers of the situation. When he called to tell me the results of that test, I had to sit down. An artery was 70% blocked and coronary bypass was indicated.
I asked him if he was ok and he said yes. How could you be ok? was what I was thinking. They are planning to open you up and stop your heart and rearrange things. My fellow workers told me I needed to go and I obliged. I drove 45 miles only a little over the speed limit so we could hold hands and talk and talk. He seemed calm. The word bypass came out of his mouth so easily. I could only imagine how he must have felt to hear those words come from the doctor's mouth. I'm sure the words after that must have seemed far away and unreal. I felt very bad to not have been there and he said it was no big deal. The biggest day of our lives was a short time away. I went home to relax and do a load of laundry. The next morning I arrived at the Hospital just in time to follow that awful ambulance to Saginaw.

I have already had a lot of feedback

2007-12-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for your comments about my picture. I thought a more recent one would be better. No one is looking at this web site anyway. Oops, that was less upbeat than yesterday.
Sometimes I get up in the wee hours of the morning after my husband goes to work and leave all the lights off. That is so my eyes are still adjusted to the dark. I will go from window to window to look for deer in the yard. They like to dig through the snow (which is quite deep already) and eat the things I planted for my enjoyment. I do like to share with them. They are as pleasant to watch as the horses I had when I was younger. They have a spot where they lay down to chew their cud in the middle of the morning. I may have to draw that scene sometime. Let me share a picture I created in the program Paint.

A Beginning

2007-12-20T12:40:00.000-08:00

While I don't believe I will have that much to say on subjects that will interest others, I will write and see. It is a few days before Christmas and my thoughts are about family members. I have a younger brother in San Francisco having a heart procedure called ablation tomorrow. I hope all goes well for him and his wife. This must seem like a darkly clouded time in the span of their marriage. I hope it serves to strengthen their bond to each other. I have a son in Iraq who is unable to communicate with us. I wonder if he is well and can squeeze a little joy out of each day. I also have a son that is traveling from Florida to Chicago soon to celebrate Christmas with his wife and daughter and then pack up to bring his wife to Florida where they hope to relocate permanently. His daughter will remain with his wife's parents, very sweet and capable people. My daughter's family will be traveling to my sister's house where we will celebrate Christmas with her, her husband, children, spouses, another brother and his wife. My daughter has three children of her own and a very sweet husband. I need to make one more trip shopping before I can say yee-haw, done shopping. I always think I am going to make homemade items as people like those baskets of fudgy muffins and sugar cookies, but my "Martha" inclinations are taking a break. I will be curling up in a chair with the sixth book in the Stephanie Plum series written by Janet Evanovich and enjoying the snow-layered tree branches just outside my window. Have a cup of hot chocolate and bless you all.