10:22 p.m. - 2006-11-24
Some one else have Thanksgiving from now on

One of These Thanksgiving's I really have to try to get a meal on the table on time

Ok, how do I make a long story short. I have to make it short because I have zero energy to type for very long.

Lets just start by saying I'm never promising to have Thanksgiving dinner again. Something always goes amiss and this year was no exception.

I had it all planned out and despite recovering from a terrible flu and having to play nursemaid and physical therapist to my husband, I managed to have everything bought and in it's place by Thanksgivng morning. I still had to clean the upstairs rooms but nothing more than a dust and vacuum, so I wasn't too worried.

I got up at 6Am and started the preperations. By 8:30, everything was thawed, chopped, layed out and ready for assembly and at the point of no return. My husband sat up in bed and I heard him say "I think I have a problem here".

"Of course you have a problem." I thought, "I'm elbow deep in chopped onions and it is par for the course that you have some kind of problem". I was all sarcastic and smug about it until he told me his problem was shoulder pain and a sharp pain down his spine. I looked over at him and he was beet red and covered in perspriation and short of breath.

My first reaction was to ignore it and hope it went away. Then reality set in. We've been through this before....he's having a heart attack and hey, we already know his heart has two blockages that have been scheduled for angioplasty on December 12. This is a no brainer. Turn everything off and go to the hospital...worry about everything else later.

I called my Sister and told her I would keep her updated. She promptly threw a turkey in her oven and sent her hubby to the store for emergency fixins.

I took Mike to the hospital where they stabilized him and told me it would be at least 2 hours before they would move him and make any decisions. He was resting comfortably with good oxygen levels, heart rate and blood pressure and in good hands. All I was accomplishing there was sitting in an uncomfortable wire and plastic chair in the way of the hospital staff.

With Mike's blessing I went home....called sister, told her that it was still on, called daughter to come out to help, finsihed putting the food together...put the turkey in the oven and left instructions for my daughter as what to put in the oven when, layed out everything they would need to serve dinner, put the leaf in the table, quickly cleaned the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom and went back to the hospital, with a promise from my daughter that she would wet-swiffer the kitchen floor, set the table and not give away my secret that I bought store bought mashed potatoes and put them in my own bowl while hiding the store bought cartons in the outside garbage. (Sissy and Brother in Law did however, find my tell tale powdered gravy mix wrappers in the garbage)...OK...one thing I give thanks for is living in todays day and age where there are so many great packaged convenience foods to use and if you don't tell others you used them, they are blissfully unaware.

I went back to the hospital and sat with Mike a while longer, when they decided to move him to ICU. In ICU, the cardiologist finally showed up and after reviewing Mike's last angiogram, a month and a half ago and the readings from the tests they took yesterday, determined that whatever he had could not possibly have been a heart attack. We didn't believe him as we have been through this before and there was no other explanation for what he felt.

They transferred him to a regular room for observation. I went home just in time to eat the dinner my company finished preparing. We had a nice Thanksgiving meal. Michelle said that it was the best I ever cooked, despite having to deal with a hear attack in the middle of it.

Mike's Mom was not feeling good. I found her in Mike's bed crying her eyes out and she wouldn't believe that he was OK. She just kept crying over and over again that he couldn't go before her. Later, she peed all over my bathroom floor.

Finally, after cleaning Mom up and getting her a clean diaper, I fixed her a plate. I took her in the vacated dining room to eat in peace and Michelle and I went in to keep her company. She had calmed down but still didn't believe Mike was OK. Finally Mike called from his hospital bed and after she talked to him, she felt much better, now convinced that he was not dying.

She barely ate her dinner, but after feeling better from talking to Mike, smiled at me and asked me if I had a nice peice of pie or cake she could have. My sister cut her a piece of french silk pie and she gobbled it up. Then Michelle took her back to the nursing home and she was OK.

Last night I fell into bed completely spent. I thanked God for my wonderful family and all their help but above all I thanked him for pulling out of me, more compassion and wherewithall than I knew I had in me. I now know that I possess great strength and stamina if I need it.

Today, I slept in and even slept through the phone ringing. It was my husband I found out later. Later I received a phone call from the cath lab at the hospital. Seems that late last night, my husband's heart did indeed start releasing the tell tale enzymes of a heart attack and they performed emergency angioplasty on him this morning. By the time I got there it was all over and he is fine. He now has 6 stent in one artery where he formerly had 1. He has a "full metal jacket". He has one more blockage in another area and they will clear that out on Tuesday.

I will bring him home tomorrow and take him back Tuesday for outpatient procedure on that. They even made a CD of the preocedure which we can watch on TV later on. Modern medicine. I'ts a miracle. Something else to be thankful for.

So....that was my Thanksgiving....how was yours?

P. I. Yarnsmith

previous - next