Hemingway, do you know where Mom is?

No, but she’s sure been gone a long time!

The Mom Explains:

It seems like 2020 has turned out to be quite the challenging year. We all apologize for not being on our blog for so long, But I have a good reason. It all started on April 11^th. I was outside raking and trying to clean up things in the yard. I was frequently taking rests but it didn’t seem to help. I finally decided to stop and I had a sharp pain that went all the way through my chest to my back. I took some aspirin right away and convinced myself that I had twisted some muscles with all the raking and weed pulling. The next day I rested and felt a little better. On Monday I went to work (actually I walked over to the computer since I was working from home) and then went to an eye appointment. I noticed that I was kind of spinning out of control so when I got home I sent a note to my doctor. I told her what had happened and how I felt. She called me back quickly and told me to go to Emergency.

My brother took me over to the hospital on April 13^th and since Covid was making it hard to do anything, he had to just leave me there. I was hooked up to all kinds of machines and poked with all sorts of needles. The docs told me that I did have a heart attack on Saturday and it was a major one. They had determined that I wasn’t still having a heart attack, but my heart was very ticked and was kind of bouncing all over the place.

I got moved to a room and was hooked up to a monitor. During the first couple of days, one of my medical team members tested positive for Covid. They gave me the test, but mine was negative. However, I had to be put in quarantine.

On April 20^th, I had open heart surgery and had a single bypass. I went through all of this without anyone I could hug. I ended up staying in ICU for several extra days because of the quarantine. I had yet another Covid test and it was negative. Once I finally got to a regular room, I started doing exercises and seemed to be improving. When it came time for me to go home, one of the nurses had noticed I was having trouble breathing. They ordered a chest x-ray and discovered fluid on my lungs. They tapped both of them and then I was finally able to go home, after spending 20 days in the hospital.

I started physical and occupational therapy at home and then I noticed I was having trouble breathing again. Back to the hospital for another chest x-ray and then back again so I could be tapped. (I’m on blood thinners now and they have to kind of wean me off them for procedures.) Oh, and another Covid test.

I was doing really good until I noticed that I couldn’t even cross the room without huffing and puffing. My therapy sessions were pure torture ‘cuz I couldn’t breathe. My cardiologist set up an echocardiogram for me. That didn’t show what they expected it to show so we were back to square one. I became my own advocate and told them I couldn’t live like that.

You guessed it…………back to Emergency and yet another Covid test (which was still negative). Last weekend I was in the hospital. By the way, my birthday was on June 11^th and I actually had a good day, even though I couldn’t do much. They diagnosed me with congestive heart failure and while in the hospital I lost 17 pounds of fluid. The change was amazing. I could breathe and I didn’t have all the pressure on my chest.

It’s now been two months since my open heart surgery. I am finally on the road to recovery. The boys have helped so much. Just their purring and paw pats mean so much.

We are hoping to get back to blogging, but it’s been kind of hard. This is the first time I’ve really felt good so maybe the three of us can get some things posted soon.

Thanks for reading through this long explanation. If you have any friends or relatives in the hospital during Covid, do all you can to encourage them. I was lucky because my niece is a nurse at the hospital so I was able to have a “visitor”.