It's 2:30 a.m. and I'm wide awake watching the F1 race I taped last weekend. I'd much rather be asleep but an hour ago my brain came awake and would have none of a return to idleness. After the day we had yesterday I'm surprised.
At about 6:15 Pam left for her daily walk. She's done a great job the last couple of months at going out each morning for a brisk walk of anywhere from two to two and a half miles and has reaped the benefits of that self discipline.
I'd already had my breakfast and was getting ready to go do chores. I normally feed at 7:00 but the plan was to be at Home Depot by then to pick up another sheet of plywood to finish that initial stage of construction on the trailer. Pam's brother and wife, and nephew and family - 8 in all - were coming for a Labor Day lunch at 11:30 so maximizing the morning was our priority.
Pam came back into MoHo five minutes after leaving with a troubled look on her face and told me she had pain in her chest. Yes, I was concerned but figured it was a passing blip so I went out to feed. When I came back in 20 minutes later she said, "I've called 911."
In 10 minutes the EMT's were here and told us an ambulance was on its way. By this point Pam was in obvious pain that was getting worse as the minutes passed. It was radiating down both arms and her back. The EKG they did showed issues that were ambiguous but clearly troublesome. The biggest concern was her blood pressure that was 181-120! When the ambulance arrived they got her on board while I got the trailer unhooked so I could follow in the Blazer.
"We won't go with lights and siren" was a nice thing to hear. It told me they felt her condition wasn't critical and that I wouldn't have a problem following them to a hospital in Springfield I'd never been to. And that's why I got pretty upset when about 5 miles out I watched the lights and siren come on and the ambulance rapidly accelerate out of sight.
I had to pull over to enter the hospital into my phone's GPS so by the time I got to the hospital she was already set up in the ER. They already had her all hooked up to machines and an IV in her arm. She put her pain level at a 9 and said it was now in her back, too. Me? I'm at the head of the bed keeping quiet while they worked and praying my heart out.
The meds did their job and her pain level quickly dropped to a 2. A couple of hours later she was in a room for overnight observation and feeling quite normal.
We obviously called her brother and cancelled the Labor Day lunch gathering. I kept in touch with the boys in AZ through a series of phone calls that started on the drive to the hospital and was VERY thankful to tell them everything was looking much better.
So here I am unable to sleep wondering what news we'll get. When I left they'd decided that based on the absence of elevated troponin levels it wasn't a heart attack. But something clearly went seriously wrong, so what was it?? And what can they do to prevent a reoccurrence?
We pray, wait, and pray.
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