Heart Attack! (Day 5)

DAY 5

January 31, 2009

Saturday

8:11 am

It was nice to see Ed regain his strength with each visit.  He seemed to think he’d be driving around by Monday, but I told him I didn’t think so.  In fact, he was only going to have minimal movement around the house for the first week.  I told him if things go well, someone else can drive him around, but he shouldn’t be driving yet.  We were joking with him about getting a director’s chair and a megaphone to use for work— I was pretty certain he wasn’t be going to work for a while.

As for the use of his limbs, he was much, much better—improving by the hour.  I would say – other than slow moving, he was moving very well.  He was glad to know he could drink Dr. Pepper again, his favorite soda. 

It could take anywhere from 6 months to a year before he would really feel like he was “back”—he would not be able to over exert himself so as to avoid causing problems with the stent in his heart.  In fact, he was on anti-rejection drugs which he would take for at least 6 months.   He would be on blood pressure medicine and cholesterol reducing medicine until it was under control, but blood pressure medicine probably for the rest of his life—it runs in his family.

I still had not been able to catch any of the doctors there for a couple of days so my information came mostly from Ed and from the nurses.  When they were ready to let him go, I wanted to be sure to get a full run-down on what the recovery procedure will be for him and the outlook of what he should and should not be doing.

Same day

11:00 am

I took Marie to her Modern dance class, and Erin Mayo and Laura Parker talked to me in the parking lot.  They were very concerned and offered support however they could.  After that, we went to get my sister, Karen, and brought her to the house and we cleaned up Shelby’s old room, as well as the lower level bathroom so it would be clean when Ed came home.  We still were not sure when he would be coming home, but knew it would have to be soon, and we needed to be prepared.  We wanted him to have a private room of his own where he could convalesce in peace.

We left the house about a half hour before Marie’s class got over, and watched her dance, which Karen really seemed to enjoy.  A dance mom, Ellen, gave Ellie a big fruit basket to give to her dad—all organic fruit with some other organic health foods including currant bread and chocolate.

When we visited him in the afternoon, we brought the basket, but they had just moved him downstairs, out of ICU into a regular room.  He still had the portable heart monitor on, but at least he finally had a private bathroom!  He was able to get around on his own, and took a shower.  He was eating well, but his throat was still pretty sore.  And other than being a somewhat forgetful (he mentioned Alex’s hair cut a few times), it was nice to see him again. 

One of the nurses taking his vital signs was from the Caribbean islands and very cute.  She kept losing her paper that she had her notes on, and was excited to tell us all about his condition when he had the heart attack and so on—she is a med student, and has about 5 years to go.  We really liked her and kept joking with Alex that he should get her phone number.  She asked Ed if he had tachycardia, and he said he thought they gave him one upstairs.

  

Same day

7:00 pm

We stayed busy most of the day, in between going to see Ed at the hospital and doing things at the house, doing a little grocery shopping and things like that.  Alex came over and helped us move Ellie’s old bed into the downstairs bedroom, where Ed would get his much needed rest.

Later in the evening, Karen helped all of us (minus Alex and Shelby) clean the dance studio, which took us just over two hours.  This was part of our weekly routine, and it was helpful to get back into the swing of things. I went to say good night to Ed later on, but he was pretty tired, so I didn’t stay long.  

I had hoped sleep would come easy to me so I could finally get some rest, but it was the same as always… sporadic at best, and it was sounding like it was the same for Ed.  He was being awakened several times during the night to have his vital signs checked, and it was not something with which he was very happy.