I'm Back... update

Hi all.

First, thanks so much for your prayers and well wishes. They really helped me get through this whole ordeal.

Now, here's the story.

Last Saturday Bob said he wasn't feeling well. We didn't think much of it because the flu is going through the house and colds and stomach things. So he went to work on his Saturday job supervising basketball games for the recreation dept. in our area. About 40 games go on in six gyms throughout the day and Bob is one of the supervisors. Anyway, he came home still not feeling right, but again, chalked it up to illness because he had no prominent symptoms. Around 8:45 he said he was going to bed because he wasn't feeling well and I stayed up chatting on Gmail with Katie for a bit and then waiting for my kids to come home. I went to bed about 11:00 and read for a bit, Bob was tossing and turning so around midnight I went to sleep. At about 3:00 a.m., Bob wakes me up, shakes my leg and tells me, "You need to take me to the emergency room, I think I'm having a heart attack." Well, that's the fastest I've EVER woken up and the fastest I've moved in years.

On the way to the ER, I ask him his symptoms and when they started. He tells me he started having chest pain at about 9:00 p.m. and it progressively got worse throughout the night, radiating into his left arm and neck. I kinda yelled a bit, "You tell me SIX HOURS LATER? Were you waiting for a written invitation from God?" Christ Almighty men can be dumb as rocks sometimes.

We get to the ER and the doctor pisses me completely off, telling Bob he thinks it's musculoskeletal(muscle pain) … um, NO. I go off, tell the guy Bob has had muscle pain before and he's never grunted in pain from that. Bob said he's never felt like this before and they run a TWO MINUTE EKG. WTF??? Am I pissed?? You bet your ass I am because the EKG comes back normal. Duh. It hasn't even had time to work yet. Fucker, I was mad. So, then they draw some blood to run cardiac enzymes, another way to tell if he's having a heart attack. This is 30 minutes later.

About 30 minutes after that(an HOUR after we arrived) they give Bob some sublingual Nitroglycerin to help with the chest pain, and OF COURSE it works. But not enough after one pill, so they give him the maximum dosing of 3 tablets, 5 minutes apart. His pain is still at a 2 out of 10 and he just can't get comfortable.

So, we sit there and wait. And wait. And wait. Bob's getting nauseated again(the first stage before the pain gets intense) so I buzz the nurse(1-1/2 HOURS after we arrive). They click the button off and no one comes. I buzzed them three times in five minutes. Get off your lazy ass and help my husband damn it. So, they ask what the problem is. I snort, um… he's having a heart attack… WTF? He's nauseated so I ask for something for the nausea and tell them the pain is intensifying again.

Lo and behold 1 hour and 45 minutes later the cardiac enzymes come back positive for a heart attack. The doctor walks in with a sheet, "Well, your cardiac enzymes came back and it looks like you are indeed having a heart attack." No shit! What was your first clue dickhead??? Ugh. At this point I'm frustrated and scared and I need to get out of the room before I breakdown and start bawling… I could feel the tears forming so I go to the restroom. It was 4:52 a.m., I know because I looked. As I'm about to leave the room, they announce they are going to do another EKG. I was out of the room for TWO MINUTES and when I came back they were done. Major WTF moment, and no surprise when it didn't show anything. Ugh.

They contact the hospital in Milwaukee and the Cardiologist down there tells them what protocol to use and so they start moving and hooking up IV after IV of medicine, injecting meds into his IV, and FINALLY give him something for nausea. The nurse, as she's injecting the last med, announces that Orange Cross (ambulance) will be coming to transport Bob within the next 15 minutes. And we're like where to? HUH? She says, "Didn’t the doctor tell you the plan?" We're both like, "Nooooo." The nurse goes and gets the doctor. He comes in and says, "I thought I already updated you." And I’m pissy and say, "Well, you didn't." He tries to apologize at this point I'm at the fuck off stage so I ignore it and just listen to them tell us that Bob will be transported to Milwaukee and will more than likely have cardiac catheterization surgery done. Then the Orange Cross guys get there and the doc leaves before I can ask any questions. Argh.

The EMTs and the nurse gave me more information than the damn doctor so at least I knew what was going on when I left. I get out to the car and sit there a minute and take in all that's going on and start bawling. Cripes. Then I go home, get everything situated for my dogs and stuff, call who I need to call, and get the kids and we leave, maybe 45 minutes later. I figure that's good because then they can get Bob situated in his room and stuff before we get there.

We get to Milwaukee and by the time we reach his room, he's already in surgery. Let me tell you, they waste no time at this hospital. Thank God. We go to the ICU waiting room and the doc comes in and tells us that Bob is a lucky guy because his heart attack could have been fatal(I want to ring the ER doc's neck). He had blockage of one of his main arteries so they put a stent in during the catheterization and he's doing great, that I can go up to CICU(Cardiac intensive care unit) and see him. We get there and he is feeling better but crabby. They have some things to do for him, so we leave and make phone calls, grabbing something to eat, and when we go back they are taking out his catheters from his femoral artery in his groin so we need to leave again. So, we walk around for a while. When we get back to the room, he's flat on his back, his artery clamped off with some sort of device. He has to have this on for 2 hours minimum to ensure that the blood coagulates enough so he doesn't bleed to death. Sheesh. We hang with him for quite a while until he's showing signs of fatigue, so we decide to leave. He's got 15 minutes left with the clamp and I ask the nurse if he so much as looks the least bit abnormal, to please call me. I didn't want to not be there, ya know? She said if he twitched wrong, she'd call. Loved her.

The next 24 hours were critical because if he threw a clot, he could die. So, of course, I slept like crap. The next morning I call, he's doing okay but he tells me he had a hell of a night because his groin was swelling/filling up with blood so they had to put a 20-pound weight on there to keep the blood flowing and he had to lay flat and still until 1:00 a.m. Yikes. So, he didn't get much sleep either. Anyway, it snowed out, so me and the boys(who I kept home from school) cleaned up the mess and headed down there at about 2:00 p.m. He looked better. They had him up and walking and moved to a regular room. Thank goodness. And he went home on Tuesday.

He's on a ton of meds, lots of restrictions for the next (at least) 4 weeks, and smoke free. He was a big time smoker, but they said no way, no how could he smoke now. So, he quit and with the aid of the new drug Chantix has remained smoke free thus far. It's only been a week but it feels like a month. Seriously. Each day felt like a week. He'll be off of work this week still, and if he's up to it will go back next week. He's doing well and I'm monitoring his activity. I'm so glad I do transcription from home so I can keep an eye on him and not have to worry about missing work.

So there's the story. Needless to say, I'll be drafting up a letter to the administrator of the hospital to let them know just how shitty the ER doc was… condescending jerkoff. And I can't say enough about Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center in Milwaukee. They were fabulous and the way the CICU had things set up rocked. Bob had his own personal nurse whose station was right outside his door where she had a PC and other stuff to monitor his vitals and if he needed anything, all he had to do was blink.

I'm sorry I didn't update you all sooner, but this was the first chance I got to take some time for me as Bob is watching football. Again, you all have my sincere thanks for your support. I really, really needed it. (((HUGS)))

And to Sarah and Lori- Thanks much, my friends, for everything. Your help and support were exactly what I needed. Love you guys!