Yesterday Dave and I spent the entire day together – in the Emergency Room. He’d been experiencing some discomfort in his chest along with fatigue and decided to give his doctor a call when he got to the office. Having been around the block more than once, I wasn’t at all surprised when he called me later in the morning and to tell me that he was down in the Emergency Room hooked up to a bunch of monitors. It was only appropriate procedure to follow when a 58 year old smoker walks in complaining of chest pain.
When I asked him if he wanted me to come join him, he said he was resting comfortably in a bed with wires attached to him and they told him he’d be there for several hours; I could stop by and say hello if I wanted. So, I unplugged the iron, put on a little makeup, grabbed a large Vera Bradley tote bag and gathered his reading glasses, IPad, the latest editions of National Geographic and Consumer Reports, my IPad and knitting and headed off to the ER.
Thankfully, I was very calm. Having grown up watching a slew of Soap Operas and medical shows, my mother’s favorites, I have a better than average working knowledge of things medical. As I said, I was reasonable sure the tests they were running on Dave were routine. As I drove I said a few prayers and gathered my female relatives who had passed around me for support and guidance. Call me silly, but I fully believe in the communion of saints and know that my grandmothers, aunts, mother-in-law and female friends who have passed are with me, ready to help in any way they can. Yesterday I they surrounded me with peace and confidence, lifting me up in love to help me get through whatever I would encounter.
As I pulled into the parking lot, I found a space near the entrance right next to a minivan with an advertisement for a company called “Affairs d’Amour” with a big heart logo on it. Seeing it made me smile. Earlier I received a series of text messages from Maggie alerting me that Jan wanted to make a couple of changes to the wedding plans. With their wedding is just a little more than two weeks away and I was initially a little annoyed, but then decided to let them handle the changes to their “affair of the heart” while I dealt with mine.
I was greeted at the door by a really nice guy who directed me to Dave’s room. I have to admit he looked kind of silly in his suit pants, dress shoes and hospital gown. I asked if I could take a photo of him to use in my blog but emphatically declined the request.
Soon I was comfortably seated at his side, playing solitaire on my IPad as he rested. Tiring of that, I pulled a hank of yarn out of my bag and to my delight, discovered that a hospital bed side table works extremely well to hang yarn on when rolling it into a ball. Once my yarn was ready, I grabbed my needles and cast on a the stitches for a sock.
During the course of the next several hours I took a trip to McDonalds for lunch, chatted with the doctors and nurses, let Maggie and Andy know what was going on and continued work on my sock. By two o’clock, Dave was fully rested and getting restless in the bed. Fortunately Martha Jefferson offers a guest Wi-Fi and we were able to tune into our Netflix account. We spent the next two hours watching an interesting documentary by Ken Burns called “Death and the Civil War”. Again, maybe not the average choice to watch in the ER, but it was engaging and helped the time go by.
Finally, after eight hours, and half a sock later, with all troponin tests coming back as normal, Dave was released with an appointment for a follow-up stress test set for next week. He was both relieved he hadn’t suffered a heart attack and a bit disappointed that they hadn’t told him what was wrong with him. Ah men, so unaccustomed to the working of the medical world, assuming there is always an exact answer for every ache and pain. Thank God he doesn’t have to go through menopause with all it’s quirks!
This morning, after a good night’s rest, and an extra hour of sleep, Dave awoke refreshed and feeling a lot like himself. Still bewildered about his undiagnosed discomfort, I suggested he give his primary physician a call to help him sort it out. As for me, I also slept well, feeling relatively secure that we are not facing a medical crisis in our lives, but glad that we did have this little exercise. Out of this little dark cloud came one very shiny silver lining; it provided that little oomph necessary to get Dave to finally quit smoking again! It was his equivalent of my falling in the shower a couple of months ago; a reminder that life is fragile and we have to take care of what we have.
We still have the stress test next Tuesday to see if there is anything else going on with Dave’s heart. I’m more inclined to point a finger at his gall bladder. We’ll see. Until then as the saying goes, I will Stay Calm and Carry On, with the help of my friends and family, here and passed.
PS. To clarify my position on calling on my relatives that have passed, I also call on my grandfathers and uncles, but mostly for assistance when I am handling power tools, etc. In many ways I remain a traditionalist.