Where've I been??

I can't believe it's been a whole month since I've blogged!

Where've I been??

Well, around the time of my last post, my MIL was here with me for about 10 days or so. Then, we had my little one's first birthday party on June 27...then we celebrated on her actual birthday, July 1. July 3 was our 16th wedding anniversary...July 4 celebrations..

.July 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 my mom had a heart attack! She didn't even know it, that's why we aren't sure of the date! July 4 she went to the ER with breathing problems (COPD) and was diagnosed with pneumonia and sent home. July 6, she was taken from home in an ambulance and asked to go to a smaller hospital. The paramedic thought mom was having heart problems instead of just breathing problems, so they rerouted to a larger hospital, where she was admitted.

All her heart tests came back abnormal. Meanwhile, she's being treated for pneumonia (which we find out later she didn't even have!). July 13 (still in hospital) she has a routine heart cath surgery. There's one artery blocked 95%, so she gets two stints. Somehow, during this surgery, another artery is nicked, although it isn't known at the time. Post-op, she was feeling pretty bad, but we thought that was normal. We made the return 2 hour trip home. Mom continued feeling bad and through out the day, she BP steadily dropped. My sister lives about 30 minutes from the hospital. She was almost home and was called back to the hospital. They stuffed her in a waiting room by herself and quickly pushed me into the ICU.

Tests showed mom was bleeding around her heart. We'd been home for 2 hours when my sister called at 10:45 PM to say mom was headed to surgery. We jumped back in the car and was back at the hospital at midnight.

The Chief of medicine and a heart surgeon came to talk to us and said the sac of blood around mom's heart was preventing her from breathing well. They'd considered drawing the blood out with a needle, but decided against it. He said it was a wait and see sort of thing and they'd hold off on the surgery. 45 minutes later, the surgeon came to get us. He took us to mom's ICU room. I can't talk about that much just yet (too difficult), but we had to sign emergency open heart surgery papers. My sister signed them, then vomited. The surgeon said that more than likely, he'd have to saw through mom's chest bone to clean out all the blood since it was probably clotted by then.

At 4 :30 AM, the surgeon came out and said the surgery was a success and in his opinion, saved mom's life. Going into surgery, her BP was about 79/50 (+/-) and once the blood was cleaned out, her pressure instantly rose.

We couldn't see her post-op. But, we saw her the next morning. She was on a ventilator and sedated. It was so scary. My sister and I just couldn't stop crying. Skipping over some here....about 3 days later mom was removed from the vent...had a collapsed lung...eventually was moved to Cardiac Critical Care. She was there for a week.

Two days ago, she was released from the hospital and sent to a nursing home for 2-3 weeks of rehab.

It has been an exhausting month. I've just shared the highlights here...so much more happened with mom, but what matters is that God touched her and she is ALIVE!!