Mom is home

Okay, sorry I'm a couple of days late but it has been a bit hectic for me, what with Kiwanis and work and keeping an eye on Mom as she recovers.

Dr. Patel performed an angioplasty late Wednesday afternoon. By early Thursday afternoon I was driving Mom home from Jersey Shore University Medical Center. She is getting stronger each day and even walked to the end of the block with Anne & Butch. She said she felt better than she did a week or so ago when the same walk tired her out.

She will have to go back in about six weeks for another angioplasty on the other side of the heart.

She's had visitors. Nancy flew up for the operation and returned home Saturday. Kathy & Rammer came out Saturday and drove Nancy to the Philadelphia airport for her flight. Anne & Jerry stopped by this afternoon. And Mom's friend Dolores stopeed by to deliver Communion.

Mom's operation

Mom's operation went great! So well, in fact, that Dr. Patel says she will probably go home Thursday. He'll examine her in the morning and give me a call.

Butch got the chance to say hello. We got a "head's up" call from the nurses that Mom would be transported from Kimball to Jersey Shore University Medical Center between 12:15 & 12:30 in the afternoon, so I asked Butch if he wanted to go for a ride. He's always up for that. We got to Kimball around 11:45 and had to stand around till about 1:15 but they finally wheeeled Mom out and he got to say "hi!"

The folks who were not in the know weren't quite sure what to make of it, having a dog around the entrance of the ER. And they just happened to have a county emergency drill going on at the same time so we made sure we didn't get in any one's way. For the most part Butch sat at my feet just watching. Security wasn't too happy with us, but then again, if it went smoothly we wouldn't need them now, would we? And a man who worked at the hospital came over telling me that he has a Pug also. And then he brought out a bed pan with water in it for Butch. At least, I think it was water. Must have been 'cause Butchy didn't complain.

Anne and Nancy found out we could use cell phones in Jersey Shore so after the operation we placed a couple of phone calls with my speaker phone. Mom talked with Kathy & John, John & Heidi, Mom's friend Dolores and Mom's sister Aunty Jenny. Later on I called Pat in Arizona and Ray in Michigan.

Dr. Patel found one of the blood vessels was 99% blocked so he opened that up and put a stint in there. There were a couple of more blockages, one @ 90% that is in a bad location and they will probably treat that with drugs and another at 80% blocked that they will have her come in in about six weeks to open up. They said there was too much stress on the heart and too much dye so it would be best to give everything some extra time to stabilize. I'll have her raking leaves by Saturday!

Anyway, thanks for all your prayers.

I'll write again when she gets back home.

Mom's heart attack

Hey all,
Mom had a heart attack on Friday morning, a mild one. In fact, she didn’t even know she had one, saying there was no pain when she had it. She just slumped down to the floor and passed out. I found her on the floor a little later and called 9-1-1.
After running some tests they determined it was a heart attack. According to one of her doctors women often don’t have the same symptoms of a heart attack as men have. For Mom it was a feeling of indigestion for about a week. Cousin Pat said she had a pain in the neck for a few days that even with the strongest of pain killers wouldn’t go away.
Mom goes to Jersey Shore University Medical Center Wednesday for catherization and probably angioplasty. Hopefully they won’t need to do a bypass.
The poor pup, he's lost without Mom. He just mopes around and wasn't eating. The cat on the other hand, he's pretty independent. As long as he gets his food and can torment someone (me) to let him out at 4 a.m. he won't even notice. I have a plan to have butchy see Mom as they shift her to the ambulance for the transport to Jersey Shore.