Heart Attack!

My husband, Chuck, has been having some problems breathing for a while now. I actually wondered if it could be tied to the mold in this old house, but the doctor said no. He started having some pain in his neck and pressure behind his left eye, and then he started seeing double. Add that to the breathing problem and I wound up taking him to the emergency room late on April 4th. He was admitted to the hospital at about 4 am on April 5th because the tests they did showed he had been having a series of mini-strokes. Some old, some not-so-old. On April 6th, while still in the hospital, he began having chest pains. I am proud to say I calmly called the nurse, who then rushed right in to check on him. She called for help, they did an EKG right then and there, and called the doctor, who happened to be in the hospital. This all took place in Medford, Oregon, at the Rogue Valley Medical Center, where they have doctors called hospitalists, (never heard that term before) whose sole practice is there in the hospital, on-call at all times. Anyway, they upped his oxygen, did another EKG and decided he needed to see a heart surgeon. Oh, yeah, one of the lines on his first EKG was almost flat!

They also did CT scans again, an MRI, and I don't remember what all, but the crux of the matter was that two of the three major arteries to his heart were 95% blocked and he had to have two stents put in. They were successful and he is doing much better in the heart department, but I think he is still having the mini-strokes. He got really confused yesterday and couldn't tell me what he was talking about. He got kind of clammy, too, which is another sign. They did an MRI of his brain yesterday morning to check out the stroke thing, so now we're waiting for results. I just hope I don't have to take him back to the ER.

Every day since he's been home has been like a roller coaster. Ups and downs and loopdy-loops! The first couple of days were fine. We spent a lot of time going through cook books, looking for low-sodium recipes that sounded appetizing. The problem is they sound good, but they either don't taste the way they sound, or they take such exotic ingredients that we can't find them or afford them! He is feeling like his throat's been cut, he said. He had to give up cigarettes, Dr. Pepper, salt, fried foods, fats, yadda yadda yadda. All the things he likes and all at the same time!! But I'm really proud of him. He is trying really hard and being really good. He wants to be around to see our grandchildren grow up.

So that's life in our house right now. We are trying to be positive and keep our heads up and always look at the bright side. Most days we succeed, too. We're grateful for each other and for our family, and hope to be around to enjoy them for many years to come.

Now I'm going to show you some of my earlier scrapbook pages. (My kids have all the really early ones...the ones with my own artwork and pictures cut from wrapping paper and birthday cards to decorate the pages.)

 All my first scrapbooks were 81/2 x 11 because that's what we had then. When I decided to make my scrapbooks 12x12, I had to decide whether to leave my old books alone or to redo the pages. Well, they were glued really well and didn't come apart, so I had to find a way to just make them into 12x112 pages, because I wanted all my books to be the same size. The first four pictures are the first four of my children to get married. You can see that they were 8 1/2 x 11, but I added elements to them to bump up the size. Some worked better than others, but I think they all turned out OK.

This was my youngest daughter's wedding, and you can tell that she got married after I started making 12x12 books.

So that's the news and the reason for the lapse in posts this time. The way things are right now, I won't have time to do much in the way of crafting, but I will keep you posted on what's going on with Chuck. This has all put me in a mood to ponder life and love and  what it all means, and I remembered this little poem.

Love puts the fun in together...

                the sad in apart...

                the hope in tomorrow...

                The joy in a heart.

I hope you all have joy in your hearts and appreciate your loved ones while you have them, because you never know when they'll be gone. Have a good night and keep those socks all matched. Gramma G