My Mom had a Heart Attack

My Mom had a Heart Attack. It's getting easier to say that and to type it. It doesn't seem as strange as it did. And it doesn't scare me or freak me out quite as much as it did a couple of weeks ago.

On August 18th I got a late night call from my Dad that they were heading out to the Emergency Room. They thought she might be having a heart attack. It was a pretty horrible night for me, though I think in most ways it was far worse for Mom and Dad. I was just scared and worried and feeling too far away from my family. Dad was beyond scared and Mom was in a lot of pain and, well, having a heart attack.

But she's doing okay. The cardiologist told her that it was "big but aborted". So, apparently she was going to have a doozy of a heart attack if she hadn't gotten to the hospital as soon as she did. But she did get there quickly and they stopped it and put a stent in and cleared the artery that was 100% blocked. And gave her one of the biggest, ugliest hematomas the hospital has seen. I think she's kind of proud of it. After looking at the photo of it, I'm mostly just grossed out by it.

They kept telling her conflicting things about what the damage might be but it mostly seemed good. She felt fine aside from bruising and having just gone through a major trauma and all. She was talking and moving around. She was actually conscious the whole time of the attack. And her heart was functioning fine once they cleared the artery. They even released her from the hospital on the 21st. And she managed to walk the 43 (or is it 42?) steps up to the house on her own.

And then she had her follow-up appointment on the 27th which eased our minds a great deal. She still has one artery that's 50-60% blocked, but they can take care of that in early October or so. But it looks like there was little to no serious damage. Which is amazing and wonderful. She's got to get the nuclear imaging stress test thing (I'm not so good with the medical terms) done, hopefully at the end of this month. And then they'll really know what's going on. But it seems like good news for the most part. Really, after the initial bad news that she was having a heart attack, just about everything else has been good news. And she keeps promising me that she feels fine.

She's cut back on smoking a great deal and the plan is to eventually be free of the cigs. I think. Dad's been getting into the job of chef/nutritionist looking for all sorts of low-salt, low-cholesterol foods for the two of them. And I think he's losing weight. And she is too. So I've sorta decided if they can do it, I should too. Actually, aside from my age I think I'm the most at risk for a heart attack amongst the three of us. And maybe even if you take my age into account.

But Mom's building up her strength and is pretty much back to business as usual. Though things will really be back to normal once the insurance mess is worked out and we find out who her cardiologist will be, once she gets the stress test and once this other artery is cleared. Then we can really breath a sigh of relief and get her going on with the rest of her life.

But, I'm still a little worried. You know? I wanted to fly out there right away. But Dad said to wait until she got out of the hospital, since surgery wasn't required and all. And then he said he'd rather I came when he was heading back to work, so Mom could have company for an extra week or so and ease into having her chef away more often. So, I'm heading to Hawai'i on Saturday. And I'm so excited. I just can't wait to hug her and to see for myself that she's really okay. That she's really going to be around for another 40-50 years or more. And to check out the hematoma. So, future blogging will probably be from the islands. With my Mommy. I'll make her say hi.