An update from Baker Rd.

"Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
For his steadfast love endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
Ps. 107:1-2

The Lord has been very, very good to Pam and me, and the last 30 hours call us to "say so."

First, a quick recap.
On Monday the 3rd Pam left for her daily walk but came back after getting no further than the end of our driveway because of significant and increasing chest pain. While I was out feeding the animals it got still worse and she called 911. A 3-day stay in the hospital and a full range of tests led to the diagnosis of "microvascular angina," a constriction of one of the thousands of tiny blood vessels that surround the heart. It results in the same symptoms as a heart attack but does no damage to the heart and is generally inconsequential. She was released on Wednesday and after a very busy few hours we flew Thursday to Phoenix for a planned visit with the kids and grands. We left with questions; Will it happen again? How will she know the difference between another episode of what's also called Syndrome X and a real heart attack? But those could wait until an appointment with a cardiologist once she was back home.

I returned from Phoenix Monday to take care of chores lest we spend our massive wealth paying the kid across the road to feed the animals while we're gone. Pam, aka Grammy, was to stay another week, returning on the 17th. Yes, I was a little nervous about leaving her behind given what had just happened, but the grammy force was not to be denied. She was staying!

When she called Tuesday evening she said, "I thought about not telling you.... I had a couple more episodes today but they didn't last long and baby aspirin did the trick."
Oh yeah, I feel SO much better now.

Yesterday (Thursday) at 3 a.m. the phone rang - never a good thing - and Steve used the same words I'd used when beginning my conversation with him ten days earlier: "I'm following an ambulance." The pain had started a little before midnight and by 2:30 a.m. it had increased, radiated down to her hands, and showed no sign of abating. She woke Steve, they called an ambulance, and she was transported to Abrazo West Hospital.

I won't try to convey my anxiety over the next 12 hours as phone calls and emails came about every hour. They did every test in the book and quickly realized something serious was going on.

Troponin is an enzyme the heart releases when it's in trouble. A normal level is <.04 and Pam's level was 9.0 midmorning and rose to 11.0 by early afternoon. Her blood pressure had spiked to 180 / 120 and the pain required a dose of fentanyl, then codeine, then another dose of codeine before it subsided. An echo cardiogram and cardiac CT scan showed nothing. The cardiologist said he originally thought to do an angiogram the next day (today) but decided it couldn't wait and did it right away.

The result: a complete blockage of one of her cardiac arteries and resulting heart attack. The outcome: the artery was opened with the balloon procedure and a stent put in place. Because the angiogram was done on short notice she hadn't prepped for it - she ate lunch - so it had to be done without anesthesia. Oh my. They put her on pain meds immediately afterward and she spent the rest of the evening and (hopefully) the night recovering. I'll talk to her later today, hopefully soon (it's 5:30 a.m. now).

The cardiologist said she will not be cleared to fly home Monday. He wants to see her a week from now, will assess her recovery, and decide then when she can return to Baker Rd. When he gives that OK I'll fly down and accompany her on the flight back.

A few thoughts looking back over the last 27 hours:

• The Lord is gracious and good. Things clearly could have gone much differently but for his care.
• I cannot imagine going through this without complete confidence in my kids - all four of them -  to do all that I would have done and more, and be so diligent about keeping their dad up to date. It's probably a good thing it will be a week-plus before I see them. I might kill them with my hugs and then drown them with tears of gratefulness.
• Why didn't the cardiologist here see the complete blockage when he did an angiogram a week ago? That's a question we'll be pursuing. 
• Alaska Airlines has been wonderful. They refunded the miles we used on Pam's now cancelled return trip and even refunded the $5.21 booking fee. Her flight back is now covered. I have to check but we might still have enough miles left to cover my flight down and back.
• I'm about to learn how to survive for a record amount of time without my wife to look after me. I'm going to have to brave grocery shopping and - shudder - the laundromat. So prayers are still appropriate.

I'm optimistically considering this event essentially passed. She still has some recovery and will likely be in the hospital for a few days. But the problem has now been diagnosed and fixed so things should only improve in the days and weeks ahead.

We'll never know what could have been and I hesitate to speculate. On a Friday morning in a quiet and lonely MoHo I'm giving thanks to the Lord for he is good!