I wrote on the 12th that Brad’s angioplasty, with stent #7, had gone well and he would be discharged from the hospital on the 13th and would probably soon be back to his regular “job” of having fun in a casino.
Well, he was discharged from the hospital on the 13th and was resting on the 14th when he was suddenly hit by violent vomiting and unrelenting diarrhea. Since this was the same scenario as just before his first heart attack years ago, I immediately called an ambulance to take him to the hospital. In the emergency room he was going in and out of A-fib and then suddenly went into cardiac arrest. After 5 minutes of CPR his heart started up again. (I didn’t learn of this until after the crisis was over. Probably a good thing I wasn’t there at the time or I might have gone into cardiac arrest myself!)
After being stabilized, he was admitted and went through extensive testing. It was determined that he had problems with a slow heart rhythm (in addition to A-fib) so a dual-chamber pacemaker system was implanted.
The day after Brad was hit with the vomiting/diarrhea situation, I came down with the same thing so we must have been attacked by the same “bug.” This was inconvenient to say the least since I couldn’t be at the hospital overseeing – bossing? – Brad’s various doctors and nurses, seeing that he got the best attention in a caring but understaffed facility. However, in spite of my forced absence (although I was doing a lot of phone management) Brad seems to be okay now and came home last evening. He always has said that hospitals try to kill him, by freezing and sticking him to death and waking him up so often he never is allowed to get rested. So he is feeling much better to be warm and cozy at home with no needles in sight and able to sleep when he wants and as long as he wants.
We both are still plagued with slight nausea and dizziness and all-over soreness – we feel like we’ve been run over by a truck. That “bug” that hit us both must be a wicked one and doesn’t want to leave the body easily. (We have heard from others in Vegas and other parts of the country that this “bug” is going around and leaves you weak for quite awhile.) But hopefully we both will be feeling better in a few days.
We want to give a big thanks to all who have stepped up to help us during this medical emergency. It is wonderful to have so many caring friends.