what happened?

Home.  I am sitting in my favourite room with my coffee.  Feels like any other morning except that it is not.  We have lived through some surreal days.  The good news, and there is plenty of good news is that we are all OK.  We are going to be just fine.  The story goes like this:

Thursday morning we wake and rise.  I descend the stairs to prepare coffee and sit in quiet time; my husband hits the elliptical machine as his normal practice.  After a couple of minutes I hear him moving around upstairs making the odd grumbling noise... not that unusual... the grumbling noise .... but the fact that he got off the machine was curious to me.  I called up and asked if everything was OK.  He said he did not feel very good.  I booted upstairs and found him laying down on the bed.  This was not a good sign.  I asked him if he felt chest pain?  shortness of breath?  Yes and Yes.  I touched him.  Cold and Clammy.  I never understood that definition until I felt my husband.  Sweaty but so very cold.   Like a reptile.  Not good.  He tells me he thinks he is feeling better.... maybe it is just a virus ... there is a a bad virus going around his school... maybe he just needed to drink some water... he tells me he felt a similar pain on Tuesday but worked through it.... oh.  I say.  Well, you don't look good.  You will need to call a substitute teacher regardless as you are not going to work today.  I then gave him the options:  ambulance, I drive him to the emergency room or if he is really feeling better then he can drive himself to the doctor but, he was going to get some medical attention.

He told me that he doesn't think he can drive so I called 911.  I cannot say enough good things about the first responders.... they were efficient and brilliant.  They arrived en mass and quickly diagnosed his situation.  They were on the phone to the surgeons at the hospital while in my bedroom.  They did not mince words.  It was very serious and they needed to leave.  Did I want to go in the ambulance or follow?  I chose to follow, my nearly 17 year old children wanted to come with me.  That drive was excruciating.  The traffic was terrible.  We were stuck in a parking lot of cars that were barely moving.  And there was NOTHING we could do.  My son was having a meltdown in the back seat.   I just needed to focus and get us to the hospital safely.  We had no idea what was happening to papa. 

When we finally arrived we found him sedated but, alive.  He had a heart attack.... it is really more of a heart under attack.   He had two major arteries that were blocked and a blood clot.  They opened up one and got the blood flowing again.  He was out of immediate danger.  We made it within the crucial 90 minute window so the damage to the actual heart muscle should be minimal.   We needed to wait until he gained some strength back and they would go in and clear out the second artery the next day.  Which they did and he came out looking so MUCH BETTER.  It was like a miracle.  It was a miracle.  A miracle of modern medicine.   He spend one more night under observation and yesterday I brought him home.    To rest and recover.   It will take some time.  But, he is strong and fit and the fact that he has spend the last 6 months becoming physically fit saved his life.  No question.

And so we are going to be OK.  We are still feeling a little fragile.  And we will take all the prayers we can get... so if you are the praying type ... feel free to send one up on our behalf.

Pax.