Bonds at home
I've been unusually ill, just when my husband has been down and out as well. I have also been lifted up in the most extraordinary way by my community.
Greg injured his back, then suffered first-onset a-fib problems, perhaps by coincidence, perhaps in reaction to oral steroids. A hospital stay with him later, I came back home with a bug. Apparently just as I was most clogged up with garden-variety bronchitis, I got a lungful of nasty garage-cleanup dust in connection with our plans to build out a ground-floor apartment in the garage under our house-on-stilts. Though I don't normally suffer from asthma, I suspect my airways were shrunk down to a point where the dust was the exact size to trigger spasm. Weeks later, I've only just now managed to open up my spasmed airways.
Meanwhile there are all these rescue dogs! And Greg really needs to limit movement and therefore to be waited on hand and foot. I had a dog-walker who unfortunately has a day job that got crazy busy, and in addition she fell ill. I advertised for more help, though, and not only did I snag some great workers, but several people insisted on helping out gratis. One I'd never even met before, but she knows something of my rescue work and does a great deal of it herself. On the whole it has been a profoundly heartwarming experience.
Today I am feeling very nearly normal, but still taking it easy until I'm sure my airways won't seize up again.
All the recent dogs rescued in extremis continue to do well, also an enormous boost to the spirits. There is a great deal to be grateful for.
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16 comments:
Sorry to hear about your difficulties. Best wishes.
Sorry to hear it, Tex. I'm glad you found some good help. Hope your both better soon.
I'm surprised, his back really is feeling better. He's probably headed for microsurgery, not fusion or rods, but in the meantime it gets slightly less painful.
Sorry to hear about your trials- as an asthmatic, I'm highly sympathetic to your specific issues here, it's not fun. Glad that the people around you are there to help, there is no substitute for community.
Ahh, Texan99, that's awful. I'm glad to hear your community has responded well, and that you're pulling through it finally. All the best for a continued, speedy, and complete recovery for you both !
These Albuterol nebulizers are the bomb. It was like relaxing rubber bands in my lungs.
When it rains, it pours. I'm glad your community provided an umbrella.
Those Albuterol rescue inhalers come in handy. So glad you have folks that stepped up for you.
I feel for your husband vis a vis the AFib. I have chronic AFib myself and am getting a procedure next week to get my heart back in rhythm for the third time in the last four years. Hopefully medication can bring your husband's heart back in rhythm and he doesn't have to have the Cardio version. (That's where they stop your heart and shock it back into rhythm, after knocking you out, and for men, shaving all the hair from chest and back.)
I've been trying to get educated on the MAZE and ablation procedures. I take it ablation is more for flutter than Afib with RVR, though he's had both, and that MAZE is open heart and must be followed by a pacemaker.
Lemmeeesee heah Tex. You got your dust. You got your pollen. You got your doggie-dander. You got your stress.
Other than that, you're just fine!
The ablation is what I'm getting since the regular cardio version doesn't work anymore. I don't know what the MAZE is and haven't heard my cardiologist mention it. Reckon I need to look it up.
Good luck to your husband on whichever procedure he has.
Tex, Sorry to hear of your woes. And glad people are stepping up.
A MAZE procedure apparently burns or cuts out a lot of the SA node, which is then sometimes replaced by a pacemaker. I think it's uncommon. More often they do "spot" work in the form of ablations, sometimes trying more than once before they hit the right pattern of misfiring cells.
I found this from the Cleveland Clinic regarding MAZE:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/17086-heart-surgery-for-atrial-fibrillation-maze
It seems straightforward enough.
Eric Hines
They used to say that ignorance was bliss. Now I understand that at least some things you would be happier if you didn’t have to learn about them. I’ve so far avoided having to learn much about heart conditions, but I’m learning a lot about stage 4 uterine cancer due to the malady of a dear friend. I’m sorry that you are also having to learn new things of this sort.
Grim, you speak truth. I was watching a show with my wife and there was a scene in hospital, patient on a ventilator. I was a bit annoyed that I knew the vent wasn't actually on because the tubes weren't pulsating with each breath as I know they do from watching my Dad. I can now read a ventilator read out pretty well. New skills not happily acquired.
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