Happy Friday!
We were at the Heart Center of WakeMed this morning at 7:30a.m.
Neither of us had any sleep. We both tossed and turned all night and finally came out to the living room. Rick tried to tell me all would be fine. I asked, "then why are you not sleeping Mister it's all gonna be fine"
Rick was not permitted to eat or drink after midnight. The exception was the water to take his morning meds. Me, on the hand was starving, but I didn't want to make something because he was so hungry, I thought that'd be mean of me.
We arrived and were greeted by a very nice and friendly concierge.
She took us to where we had to go and explained the processes and then left us in capable hands.
After the registration they took us back to a room and a lovely woman named Patricia was his nurse. She was wonderful in all ways. She is from Manassas VA. (Our old neck of the woods.)
She explained all that was going to happen. Of course I dislike hearing all the bad stuff that can happen as well but I understand it. She wired Rick up and shaved his chest. Ooh, he loves that. Now he has stubble that will itch along with the burn marks from the paddles. This poor man.
The first procedure was going to be to see if he had any clots. That required a camera/tube down his throat. They had him gargle lidocaine for two full minutes. Patricia warned us that this was foul tasting. At the 2 minute mark she told him to swallow it. He made the funniest face and told her that was awful and she wasn't kidding. Then they sprayed his throat with something. I assumed more numbing agent.
This camera would show the doctor if there were any clots. If so the cardioversion could not take place.
Thankfully no more clots!
The cardioversion took 2x. The second time was the charm. His heart was now in rythmn as it should be and no more a-fib. Yippee.
The doctor came out to let me know it was completed and he was fine. Whew. Another great doctor who sat with me and talked a bit. What a difference a good hospital makes!
We got home and we both ate. He wasn't allowed to eat until 10:51a. Odd time, no?
At 10:51a he had a big ole bowl of cereal and then immediately took a nap. I wolfed down an egg and gf toast and took a nap too. We slept for 3 hrs. Ooh it felt good.
Today he is to take it easy. He does not have any therapies until Monday and we both are happy about that. While I am not doing all the hard work, I'm only scheduling, driving, working each day at home on his homework with him, and his pills are a job unto themselves. That's in between life of laundry, bills, normal life stuff. Some days I feel as exhausted as he does. But he is the one who has it tough so I shouldn't whine.
But I do...tee hee
This morning at 4:45am Rick got in the shower. I heard him yell and went running to see if he was okay. Oh, he was fine but the shower wasn't. It was all cold water. Guess who's hot water tank blew?
We knew we'd need a new one within the year but talk about bad timing!
So because we appear to be living under a black cloud we must get a new hot water tank.
It feels like since everything went well at the hospital, we mustn't have ALL things be well.
It looks like whore baths all weekend and we have to heat up water to use. Fun.
Could be worse I suppose but I think we're due some good juju for a long length of time.
Too much to ask for?
12 comments:
I am glad the test showed no more clots and good results, it must be tiring for both of you, and then the water heater broke! I hope the rest of your week is upbeat.
Oh man ours was just out but we just had to relight the pilot light TG!
Great news on the test. That does not sound like a pleasant one.
Yay! Good news with the cardioversion!
Did you get to stay in the room with him and watch the procedure? Does Rick remember the procedure or did the medication make him forget? I’m curious whether he gagged swallowing the camera probe or if it went in smoothly and if he remembers being cardioverted. I think the camera probe is very similar to the one you have to swallow for imaging the esophagus and stomach.
Sorry about the hot water heater. Have you thought about installing one of those on demand electric water heaters?
"swallow it"
The nurse probably gets a kick out of telling guys that.
I'm so happy with Rick's results and sleeping was great. I've had a cold water shower a few times. It's not good, I hated it. I need that warm water. Keep getting better you two.
Cruisin Paul
Happy for the good test results, but the water heater! Gah! All I can say is we had a year like you are experiencing back in 2019 (the details would take a book!) and I just kept saying 2020 will be better over and over and we all know how that worked out. 😉 So I'm not sure I can say much positive except that I totally understand the black cloud feeling.
Did Rick know he had A-fib before the stroke? I understand it can be a sneaky thing, but also amenable to treatment.
There rarely is a good time for appliances to go, but good grief, you guys are being hit unfairly hard. I hope that dark cloud moves on soon.
Good news on the test. Sorry about the water heater. Hope that black cloud goes away and things keep getting better. You deserve a break!
Test results, yay! Water heater, boo!
Lol, what Abby said! I just can't get over all the challenges you guys have had since moving. Good grief.
Every male member of Don's family have a-fibs and have done the cardioverions. Don had them done on three separate occasions and his brothers and nephews have had them done twice. The good news is that now they have home devices that can detect when the rhythm is out of sync---back when Don was alive they didn't and as I understand it the patient usually can't tell. Something like getting the flu can cause the beats to revert out of sync again. It's really important to not skip routine checkups. The longer a heart stays our of rhythm the more likely a clot can form.
P.S Getting the first Cardioversion is really scary and with the first one of Don's I waited and eavesdropped at the door because it was taking so long and people were coming and going out the door in a rush. Turned out that they had to call an electrician in to fix a plug in the wall that was causing their machine to cut in and out but at first they didn't know why. Talk about stressful!!!
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