Coming Home, Part 2 (b): Walter

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes indeed. Ah, my baby's coming home.

He'll get here around Saturday, October 20. He has a delivery in West Palm Beach on the 22nd.

The last time he was home was in March. Yeah. MARCH.

That's too long. He's plumb wore out.

On the other hand, he's acquired something like 27 days of leave time. Unpaid, but it's his time and nobody else's. He will NOT be allowed back on the road for a while. Not if I can help it.

And when he's here, he needs to see his cardiologist. Big time. He hasn't had his pacemaker read since March either.

Much worse: Last week he said he's been feeling the same type of nausea as just before his heart attacks last November. The series of near-continuous heart attacks that nearly killed him. Should have killed him. Would have, except for some very good luck, and extremely fierce arm-twisting by yours truly and Dr. Dad. We ganged up on him and made him go to the ER.

Another hour or two without treatment and he would have died. A less skilled ER doc and he would have died. A less talented team at the cardiac hospital where he was transferred and - Yup. You got it.

After the triple bypass and the pacemaker surgery, Walter found out he still has some fairly bad blockages in other major arteries. Something like 30%, if I remember right. Perhaps an experienced cardiologist doesn't look at that as such a big deal. Me? I sure don't like it. Not one bit. Come ON. That's a whole THIRD.

Walter quit smoking after 33 years. Only one backslide, when he smoked 5 cigarettes. Naturally we jumped his ass over that. He hasn't smoked since. I'm extremely proud of him. If any of you have ever been addicted to cigarettes, you know it's not easy to quit. And despite what some of them say, virtually all tobacco users are addicted. Very badly addicted, physically, emotionally, mentally.

He did it. He quit.

I told him as long as he stayed off the tobacco, I'd cut him some slack over his Heart Healthy dietary requirements. That's not as bad as it sounds: I can make lots of relatively low-fat, low-sodium dishes that are very tasty. Good thing I can cook, huh?

Other than doctor appointments, I've taken a certain Wifely Stance over his time off, as follows: he's under stringent orders - uh, I mean suggestions - to do absolutely nothing but rest, play, have fun, sleep, goof off, rest...No chores. No *honey do* list. No no no.

He may, if he likes, admire my gardening, and ask any gardening questions he wishes to ask. That's allowed.

And I gave him a bit of news that helped bring down his blood pressure.

Remember that life insurance policy? The one Chase let cancel in 2006 because they didn't turn over our premium payments to the insurance company like they were supposed to do? Then after running in circles biting their own incompetent tail for almost a year and a half, Chase FINALLY tracked our money down, talked to the life insurance company, and got the policy reinstated? Then - then, after constantly telling me I was not delinquent, and they were supposedly working on a mortgage modification, initiated foreclosure proceedings on my house instead? Then as we hammered out a repayment plan to avoid foreclosure, Chase wouldn't bother checking to see if the life insurance was still in effect even after I asked them nicely five or six times? Then, after turning my bright shiny newly current mortgage over to the Good Guy department for servicing, saying the New Rep will help with with any questions, seem to have assigned me to a rep that feels no need to returned my phone calls? Even Important Calls like, --Could you please tell me if that life insurance policy is still good?

Even though they knew full well that during the time they'd inexcusably abandoned their fiduciary duty and let that life insurance policy lapse and get cancelled, Walter almost died, leaving his beloved disabled chronically ill ex-wife to fend for herself on Social Security?

Well. Sometimes if the folks responsible don't tell you what you need to know, you can simply ask someone else.

So instead of waiting a year and a half for Chase to do the right thing again, I just called the insurance company myself.

The policy is current. He's insured.

Forgive us our morgue humor, please. He really feels much better, knowing he's got that life insurance in place.

Does his heart good.