F.Y.I.

Swamped

Just a heads up that I am swamped right now. I have so much to do, largely because of taking three days off with Renee being in the hospital, but also just my busy time of year.

Just asking for a little grace if I owe you an email or phone call.

If You are Reading This on Facebook

If you are reading this on Facebook, I cannot log into Facebook from the hospital. It is blocked as a “dating” site. If you leave a comment or ask a question on Facebook, I will not see it until we get home - probably Monday or Tuesday. You can go to this entry’s original location on my blog and leave a comment there on the relevant post - I can log in there no problem.

I have been updating my mini-blog at Twitter fairly often - it is the best way to see what is going on right now.

Day Three in the Hospital

Or day four, if you count the 30 minutes of Thursday night.

Right now (Sunday am), I don’t know much that I did not relay yesterday. The doctor did not come by, but his Physician’s Assistant did, which is worse, because he would not commit to anything without checking with the doctor.

The long and the short of it is that we have heard rumors from the staff that we may go home today, but we heard those same rumors on Friday too. Luckily there were no incidents last night and even better, we both got mostly uninterrupted sleep. I was so punchy - I had not slept a whole night’s sleep since Wednesday night.

Several friends came by and visited us yesterday, for which we are thankful. Abby lent us some movies to watch, which is awesome and will help pass the time.

Right now, we don’t know what is going to happen - the long-term treatment options for Renee are up in the air right now. We already had an appointment with a clinic in Durham that specializes in her condition scheduled for the 1st of July - now that seems all the more important.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are very thankful for all of you.

Renee in the Hospital

Not sure who knows what, but Renee is in the hospital at Wake Med with her heart again.

Thursday night at about 11, Renee’s heart went into A-Fib again, this time with a lot of pain, which has never happend before. She actually wanted to go to the hospital, which scared me, because she never wants to go to the hospital. She was very pale, very short of breath. They admitted her to Wake Med (the local hospital).

While we were in the heart center at the Emergency Room, her internal defibrillator went off, which eased the pain but it was 20 minutes before her heart resumed a normal rhythm. When her heart enters a normal rhythm, she feels fine. Often, she feels better than fine, she feels great from having the surge of oxygen again. Anyway, at 3:00am they put her in Cardiac Care (like Intensive Care, only all the patients are heart patients) for observation and at 4:00am they sent me home, as visitors cannot stay at the CCU.

At 9:00am I was back at the hospital, waiting on doctors. They changed her pacemaker settings and ordered us moved to a regular room, which was good, because that meant I could stay in the room, instead of only an hour at a time, like in CCU.They also said they were going to keep us here Friday night for observation, and we should be going home Saturday.

We spent most of Friday afternoon just sitting, somewhat bored. When her heart is in normal rhythm, she feels perfectly normal, so sitting in a bed, doing nothing is very frustrating. We both dozed a bit and some friends popped by to visit, which was great. I ate way too many calories in the cafeteria and we both read a bit, bored but happy we would be leaving tomorrow.

About 4:45am, Renee woke me up and told me she thought her heart was back in a-fib. Then the techs started showing up - they had noticed her rhythm change on the monitor. They got a rhythm modifying drug in her and her pacemaker began pacing her heart, so within 10 minutes or so she went back into a normal rhythm. Just 20 minutes after it started, everything was back to normal and the room was empty. That was about two hours ago.

So now, we wait and see. We almost certainly will NOT get to go home today (Saturday) like we had hoped due to this latest incident. They will probably want to observe her some more and possibly change her meds around. But we won’t know anything until later in the day when the doctor comes back around.

Thank you to all my friends who have been so supportive - you know who you are. Thanks also to my followers on Twitter, some of who have never met me but have been praying for us since we got here.

If you are reading this on Facebook, I cannot log into Facebook from the hospital. It is blocked as a “dating” site. If you leave a comment or ask a question on Facebook, I will not see it until we get home. You can go to this entry’s original location at hughlh.info and leave a comment there on this post - I can log in there no problem.

I have been updating my mini-blog at Twitter fairly often - it is the best way to see what is going on right now. Several folks have asked about visiting - we would love visitors. Just email me for the room #, etc. Seriously - boredom is a huge problem for us here.

Thanks again for all your love and support. I will keep you updated, and check out Twitter for the latest.