Some of you have heard that I was in the hospital this weekend. Just wanted to update you on what happened to me. On Thursday evening, I went running with a friend (and did 4.33 miles which I'm pretty proud of in training for a 10k race in a few weeks.)
On Friday morning at about 4am, I woke up with pain in my arms. Like a dull achy pain. I got up and moved around, thinking I might have slept on my arm wrong. After a few minutes, I took a Tylenol. 20 mins later I felt no relief and Tito was awake, and massaged my arms, thinking that it might be dehydration from running. After another 20 mins with no relief, I took a nitroglycerin tablet that I keep for emergencies due to my heart condition. This had no effect other than giving me a headache. So we decided I should go to the ER to get checked out since it was better to be safe than sorry.
Needless to say, due to my history, they kept me (although it took them forever to get me back to a room and NO ONE was in the ER.) They did a blood enzyme test and it was negative. Then they did another one 4 hours later and it was slightly elevated. At that point, they decided to keep me in the hospital and repeat my enzymes at noon. When they did, it was elevated again. So they admitted me. Of course, it took them 9 hours to get me a bed, so I spent a total of 17 hours on a gurney in the ER. (Tito's dad was watching Santi during this time at the house.)
I finally got upstairs at 10pm, and they put me on heparin and then I went to sleep. That night they tested my enzymes again and the next morning they came in and said that they were elevated from a .4 to a 4. When the doctor came in I asked him what that meant and he said I had had a small heart attack (which for me, this was my third.) They wanted to do a cardiac catherization and said originally that they'd do it on Monday. Then, since it was a slow Saturday, they were able to get me in and I had the procedure that morning. The catherization showed that they think that I had had a clot/blockage on a very small artery that branches off from my main coronary arteries. They said that the clot wasn't there when they went in but they saw evidence of it (left over pieces of the clot.) They said it was in such a small part that it wouldn't have even been possible for them to get instruments in there to blast the clot if it had been present when they went in.
But at that point, my heart looked good and the aneurysms were all still there, all still giant and from they could tell, all unchanged. I was shuttled back to my room where they elevated my bed which was flat, at a 45 degree angle down. I had to lay flat for 5 hours...doesn't seem to bad until you have a few hours left and your back is killing you from lying on the world's most uncomfortable bed! At this point, Tito, his dad and Santi were all there, so I was able to see them all before and after the procedure. When I was allowed up, I walked a bit and then finally changed positions.
So I was surprised when the docs came in this morning and said I could go home! They put me on Lovenox (hello old friend! I didn't think I'd see you again until the next time I was pregnant!) and Coumadin and told me to get rechecked in a couple of days to see if my blood levels were therapeutic.
Basically they said that I had a clot that formed in a tiny "branch" off off my main coronary arteries where my aneurysms are. So due to that, and the elevated enzyme levels, I essentially had a heart attack. A baby one, super tiny and no damage. They said when they looked at me via the cardiac cath that the clot was gone but that if it had been there it was in such a small spot they wouldn't have been able to get any equipment down there to remove it anyway. So the heparin they put me on the first day I was there apparently worked to bust the clot out of there, and keeping any damage from occurring to my heart.
Santi, Tito and my father in law came to the hospital today and I was so happy to be able to tell them that I could go home! And once we got home, I had a surprise - Santi rolled over! Back to front! On Saturday he almost went all the way...here's the video:
And today, right from when we walked in the door we put him down on the floor and within minutes he'd rolled over! I hadn't seen him and thought FIL had just put him down on his front. But then we put him down on his back and he rolled right over!
Here's that video:
No comments:
Post a Comment