At 9:40 tonight, I'd just finished a post about how something must have shown up on Walter's stress test, his angiogram, today. That's the one where they image your heart, then put this dye in your veins, put you on the treadmill or give you a drug to make your heart race, and remap the heart and vessels as the dye moves through them. The dye shows where any blockages and so forth are located.
The test was finished around 4pm. Dr. Cardio had left instructions that if nothing negative showed up, Walter could go home tonight. If something did show? He'd need to stay and get a heart catheter tomorrow.
When he hadn't heard anything by 9:30, it looked like they found something wasn't right. I asked if perhaps the Stress Test Interpreters just got tired and hungry and went home. Walter said they'd showed no signs of closing up shop when he left.
Earlier on, Walter was pretty smug about his stress test performance. He said they had trouble getting his pulse and BP up high enough to run the second part of the test. That could be because of all that nitro and blood thinners and extra Lipitor and heaven knows what. Sure.
His opinion, though? It's because there's nothing so wrong with his heart.
Hopefully tomorrow we'll hear all the gory details. Because just before I hit *publish* around 9:40 pm, I got the call. He's coming home.
For now, for tonight, he sleeps at home. My mom is here doing her snowbird thing, and she'll pick him up and bring him home. Walter had a long hard day today. I did too, and I'm no good for driving even that short distance tonight. But all that news can wait until tomorrow.
Tonight, I bet I'll get the first decent sleep I've had since Monday.
News like this makes it so suddenly okay to feel drained and frazzled and at the end of your rope. You look back and see, Hey. It's not the end of the rope after all.
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12 comments:
Mine's supposed to come home tomorrow morning--but who knows? They keep changing their minds, changing his room...I just get one phone number memorized and they change it. Go figure.
I'll have to call again in the morning to see what's up. He's mad as heck tonight. Said he's so mad he almost called me to come and get him NOW! (10:50 pm).
Hope Walter makes it home in good health.
PHEW!
I'm glad it's looking good so far... and I know what you mean about feeling tired after it's all over.
Give my regards to kmom, bless her heart.
My husband is not so mad now, the new room is private, and nicer.
Sleep well, all three of you.t
Welcome home Walter! Hope you both get the rest you need after all this stress! I bet Walter is so happy to be in his own bed again. (((hugs)))
I hope all gets better for you soon. Daz'd sent me.
YAY!!! Wonderful news!
Oh, how wonderful! Get some much-deserved rest and give Walter a hug for us.
Great news! Now, you sit on that man and make him rest! So many people love him, he has no idea how many, and he needs to start taking care of himself! Give him a bug hug for me and have him hug you for me! Love yas!
miss assassin, he lucked out on his new room. In fact, that's one of the reasons I decided to post pix of Walter's. I mean - EEEWWWW!
And for any of you who didn't know, miss assassin's man is back, too. Safe at home, just like mine.
nancy, I only had to do this for 2 nights. After you held out for 27 in a row?!? Jeez, woman. I'd be falling on my face, doing the coma day thing for like 2 weeks. You amaze me.
Cindi, he is. And neither one of us ever forgets the role you played in convincing him to get his surgery at Deaconness. I think the docs might have called the cops or something if he really did try to leave, last year, and drive home to Florida to get it done. But the right way, of course, is to make him understand and be comfortable with the extraordinary high quality of that place.
Now, seeing what happened here? He can't stop talking about the difference. He and my mom were both extremely impressed with it.
He misses getting fed Real Food, too. Deaconness had some of the best hospital food on record.
vw bug, welcome! dazd is just the bee's knees, isn't he? He hadn't known at first about Walter's triple bypass out in Indiana. I mean, we live in Florida. It was a trucker thing.
But I think of dazd and cindi ALL the time, they're in my mind in the background music of Walter's heart. I drove right past both of them, too, on my way home from Wisconsin. Gave a mental wave as I went...
dazd, isn't it GREAT? I keep grinning from ear to ear. hah! I bet you know that feeling pretty well, huh?
Sue, you bet. Now he's home I can finally sleep again. And Miss Livey can tell you true, that is NOT something I ever have trouble with. I can sleep like a champion.
Except this time. This time I couldn't.
And yes. I'm hugging him for me and you and everyone, over and over again. I have to flip my reading glasses over my shoulder first, then I just hold on tight...
Livey, you're right. He doesn't know how much love he's surrounded with, he doesn't quite understand yet. But he's beginning to. And also, to accept it.
I'm hoping that will help keep him motivated to stay better. To rest and not start smoking again, and do all those things he needs to do to stay well.
I do not want to lose this man. Not. Not.
That smoking thing is probably his biggest risk factor, bigger than any dietary issues. You can get away with a lot diet-wise if you have enough fiber in your diet. But smoking goes straight in and messes with things.
That's EXACTLY what I've been telling him. From the beginning: stay off the cigarettes and I'll cut you a lot of slack on the food part, I'll work with you on that.
Which is true. And my approach consists far more of ADDING way more fiber, via fresh fruits & veggies, than denying him the *fun* foods. All that does is make him want to give up and die.
Severe depression about extreme new lifestyle restrictions has got to be a factor in recovery for many different maladies, right?
Luckily his body decided it was less interested in high-fat foods all on its own. You could have knocked me over with a feather. His eating habits really were over the top, fat-eating wise. In that regard he improved all on his own.
As I understand it, the tobacco plays a huge role in the vessel constriction process, as opposed to the clogging process. When my dad found out about the few-per-day usage, he said even that was enough to kill him FAST.
I'm happy that Walter's experience at Deaconess was a good one. Your comment made me smile and surprised me. I was so worried he would try to drive home and I knew that so many people from my area have gone to Deaconess with good results.
When you were on your trip home, I wondered if you would be anywhere near me on your drive. :)
I understand about the hospital food. Of the four times I was hospitalized during my illness in '02, the best food was served at the small hospital where I work. Their food tasted like home cooked food and not like it all came out of pre-cooked packages.
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