Greetings....

[Infidel!]

From Christus Trinity Mother Frances Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital. Since they have been nice enough to give me the grand tour, I thought I would share the experience.

Over here we have the ambulance entrance. Never mind that big bump that can make the patient catch air on arrival. Then we have the long, brightly lit hallways leading down to the ICU where you can spend the night getting poked and prodded all night long. Over there is the heart catheterization room. You can have a lovely experience with some really hot nurses and great sedatives. Last but not least we have the standard room on the 5th floor with a great view of downtown Tyler, TX.

I hope you enjoyed your tour.



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[stoney]

Danny, yer scarin' me.... what's going on?

[Margarita]

Way to drag out the drama, sir. Spill. Are you expected to improve directly or are you there for a while longer than any of us would like?

Whichever, sending the very best of wishes your way.

[Backroad Mike]

Hope whatever the cause is under control or resolved.

I had a similar tour two weeks ago that lasted the whole weekend

Spent the first 8 hours in ER, as they had no beds upstairs on the second floor available until 5 am.

Couple lingering side effects and still have follow up with more doctors in two weeks to see if we can scale down the meds they put me on.

Get better soon Dan.

[Fe Butte]

Get better soon, you have parts to install on the new bike.

[Ol Mike]

Wishing you the best !

[Margarita]

Wishing Backroad Mike the best as well.

[Scabbydoo]

Letting us down 'easy' doesn't absolve you of providing critically missing details.

We're worried 'bout ya'....

Oh, and

[par_fore]

Originally Posted by Scabbydoo

Letting us down 'easy' doesn't absolve you of providing critically missing details.

We're worried 'bout ya'....

Oh, and

This!

Updates please.


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[Infidel!]

Sorry folks, it's been a rough week.

Yes, I had what is commonly referred to as a heart attack. More precisely major blockages of the arteries on the right side of my heart.

Bottom line is it didn't kill me, and I should be fine in a little bit. For details read on.

Wednesday night I went to bed only to wake up a short while later with some pain in my chest. I got up, walked around a little bit and took some Tums thinking it was just something I ate. Waited a bit longer and the pain became severe, and then my jaw hurt. So I woke Kat up and told her somethings not right. We can't rely on EMS out here so we rush to the hospital in Palestine.

They hook me up and plug me in, and everything looks good. Blood test shows no trace of troponin. They shoot a bunch of morphine in to help with the pain. 2 hours later everything still looks good but still severe pain. They give me more morphine, and were pretty much blowing me off as crazy. They were getting ready to send me home. Then another blood test came back showing the troponin level was rising. That indicates damage to the heart muscles. Now, not crazy and not going home either.

They contact the cardiologist on call and he said to prepare for a heart cath first thing in the morning, which was just a couple of hours from then. Cardiologist shows up, we talk a bit then he disappears. And I wait. I'm getting morphine every couple of hours for the pain. Finally, after raising hell I'm told that one of their machines wasn't working, so they couldn't do it there, and I would be transferred to a hospital in Tyler but they had to find a bed for me there. About 6 pm I get loaded into an ambulance and driven 90 miles an hour with lights and siren blaring. We left Kathryn, who was following in her truck in the dust - which is no easy feat.

We get to Tyler only to find out they won't do the procedure until the next day (Friday). So I spend the night in ICU. The next morning, a cardiologist came in, explained the procedure and asked if I was ready. After not eating for 36 hours, and no morphine for 16 hours I was more than ready. Off we go, finally.

I woke up, still feelong some pain, but nowhere near the amount. Doctor shows up, shows the video of him opening two arteries on the right side of my heart and says I need to spend another night. One was blocked 85% another was blocked 95%. I had no idea I was that close to dying until taking to the doc after the procedure. At least I wasn't in ICU anymore.

I go home the next day. (Saturday) Sunday I wake up and don't feel good. A lot more pain once again. Call the doctor and then head back to the emergency room. The ER is about 90 minutes from home. So we spend almost all day at the ER only to be told I was probably experiencing "stretch" pain.

Back home. Monday I woke up feeling pretty good, still some pain, but tolerable. I take it easy, and about 3 o'clock I started feeling bad. I had child, couldn't get warm, and just had to lay down. Kathryn piled every blanket we had on me. She finally took my temp and I had 102 degree fever. Call the doctor again.

They said wait until the next day, that I probably caught a virus that was going around the hospital.

The next day I woke up feeling much better, with normal temp.

So, I'm just taking it easy. Spent Thanksgiving at Kat's sister's house today.

I go back to the doctor Dec 6th, so we'll see what he says then.





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[Margarita]

Hugs across the miles to you and Kathryn. I am very happy you are still in the world with us after such a close brush with the possibility of relocating to the next world. May you receive a clean bill of health on the 6th and have happy days from here on out.

[Backroad Mike]

Sorry to hear Dan, but may your recovery go smoother than the initial treatment.

I think we would like to live somewhere just a little more rural, but then I think about the access to good medical care and have second thoughts. Especially when it comes to the cardiac type services.

Get well soon.

[Sleeveless]

So glad you are on your way to recovery.

[Infidel!]

Thanks to all.

It's a trade off living out here but one I'm willing to make. We could have stayed in DFW or moved inside the loop in Houston or any other metro where we would have everything a block away, but neither of us would be happy.

I'm glad I was transferred to Tyler. It was a really nice, modern facility, as well as a dedicated heart hospital.

It's really a wake up call to remind me to stop putting things off.

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[Scabbydoo]

Glad you are still with us! And, praying your recovery will, going forward, be as complete as possible and uneventful. A prayer that this will be just a 'hiccup' and you will be with us for many years to come!

Having live through my major 'hiccup' almost nine years ago, the BH and I realized how important the benefits of living close to a major (in my case, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center) can be. When we decided to downsize and move from the expensive and congested area of south east PA, one of the primary requirements the BH insisted on was a location in reasonably close proximity to a major medical center. While we are now in a fairly rural area of south western PA, we are only 38 miles from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.