May 9, 2014

• Heart Attack

  It occurred to me that I should share with you what happened to my husband before he had his surgery, in case any of you need to know it someday.  I always thought you had chest pain with a heart attack.  I've read some of the symptoms that women have that may be different from men.  The only symptoms my husband had were shortness of breath, weakness, and tiredness.  Also sometimes a rapid crazy heartbeat which he didn't tell me about.  He couldn't even walk from our house to the mailbox anymore.  This had been coming on for some time.  We thought it might just be old age (he was 77 in April.)  The shortness of breath we thought might be COPD.  They're always talking about that on TV.  He never was a smoker, but when he was first a mechanic they used to blow asbestos out of brake linings.

  He was still going to work every day, though he doesn't actually work on the cars anymore.  He also was still driving folks to and from airports.   Thurs. morning, March 6th our son, Jim, drove his truck to the shop to have the oil changed.  It was early morning.  He went to find his dad to take him out for breakfast.  He found him sitting in a chair trying to catch his breath, looking very pale, and obviously not feeling good.  Jim asked Tom if he wanted to go to the Dr.  Of course he didn't want to go to the Dr.  What male ever wants to go to the Dr?  They walked to the van.  When they got there Tom handed Jim the keys.  Jim knew then that something was wrong.  Tom never gives his keys to anyone else.  On the way to breakfast Jim felt his dad's pulse and took him to the Dr's office.  Dr. did an EKG and sent him straight to emergency.  Emergency did an EKG and called the ambulance.  They drove him 40 miles away to Lutheran Hospital in Ft. Wayne.  Hubby said it was the roughest ride he's had since he left Africa.  We followed.  When we got there  he was already having a heart catheterization.  Finally the Dr. called us in.  We were  expecting them to say he'd need a stent or two.  Our son-in-law has 2 of them, so we were kind of used to that.  When the Dr. said he was having a heart attack and would need open heart surgery, we were all shocked.  Two of his arteries were 100 % blocked, and the other was blocked 85% on one side, and 90% on the other.  It's no wonder he was short of breath!

  They couldn't do surgery right away because the local hospital had given him blood thinners, and they had to wait until that got out of his system.   After the heart cath. they put a balloon in his heart to help his heart to beat.  He couldn't move his right leg because it might crimp the tube to the balloon.  So he couldn't get up, or even sit up.  They could raise the head of his bed to, I think 25%.  They left that balloon in until a couple of days after the surgery.  Surgery was Mon. March 10th.  He stayed in the hospital until March 20th.  He is still going 3 times a week for cardiac surgery.

  
  Here is a picture of the pillow the hospital gave him. It was to hug whenever he had to cough. He never did hug it much, but he did get everybody to sign it, and it is displayed on the back of our couch.
  
  The kids were wonderful through all of this. They wouldn't let me drive myself to the airport. Someone was with me most of the time. A lot of friends visited too, and people from our church. He had loads of company. The hospital was good about it. It's nice that they have all private rooms now.
  The kids and grandkids know he likes elephants (we call them heffalumps thanks to Winnie the Pooh.)  A daughter and grand-daughter gave him one of these elephants, and a great-grand-daughter gave him the other. They are on the back of the couch too.  Thanks to all of you for your concern and prayers for us during this time.

  • 8:55 pm
  • 15 Comments