2.9.25
Everyone has heard the old adage “When it rains, it pours” or at least remembers the picture of a little girl under an umbrella on the label of a famous salt company, well it seems as if for many, that adage is summing up the start of 2025. To top it off, Mother Nature who started winter off in the mildest of ways temperature wise has now apparently concluded that it really is winter after all. As such, she has brought in a deluge of snow and cold seemingly to make up for her almost springlike preceding two months – no, I am not complaining as we need the snowpack and moisture it holds.
This has however, been quite a challenging year so far. First off, I am very thankful that the busy holiday season was over before my heart issue kicked into a higher gear. Secondly, I feel so grateful to all who reached out to me, sending well wishes and kind thoughts after reading my last Sunday story in which I shared what has been going on with the old ticker. How it warmed my heart and made me feel so humble at the same time.
The angiogram was wonderful! Well, by that I mean the results were wonderful for in the words of my cardiologist who did the procedure, and this is a quote, “I am amazed that a 64 year old woman has such totally clear and wide open coronary arteries!” Needless to say, that was icing on the cake, especially since Dr. Sultan kindly let me keep my glasses on so I could watch the whole procedure as it happened. He even let me bring the catheter and guiding wires that were inserted in my artery and threaded all the way into my heart home!
The only downside of the whole affair was that by the time I got to the recovery room, I had developed an arterial bleed causing me to have a nasty hematoma in my right arm. Apparently, I drew the short straw as one of the folks who had a mere 3% chance of such a thing happening. The doctor was called in and under his guidance and the diligent work of the stellar nurses, they got the bleed under control before it reached my elbow. A vascular surgeon had been put on standby just in case, but thankfully his services were not needed. After continual work on my arm by the nursing staff over the next four hours, the battle was won enough that my hand was no longer numb and the swelling in my arm had started to reduce. What made it so challenging – and very painful – was due to my arm, in the words of one of the nurses, being quite muscular. The blood had nowhere to go but between the muscle fibers!
I was finally allowed to come home, with the strong admonition to take it easy as it would take a good couple of weeks for my arm to get back to normal and the bruising to subside. I wasn’t to lift anything greater than 10 pounds and once again, the emphasis was on taking it easy! Darrell has seen to that as he has been keeping an eagle eye on me! So here I am, approaching the fortnight mark since my angiogram and my arm is slowly, slowly improving.
The next step on my heart journey, now that the plumbing side has been given an A+ rating, is to see the electrophysiologist to check out the electrical wiring of my heart. Right now, I am wearing another heart monitor to record how much my arrythmia may have changed since I last wore one in October. I know it will show an increase in the number of Funny Little Beats; it just will be interesting to see just how much my arrythmia has worsened. Hopefully the results will help me get in a tad earlier to see the electrophysiologist as I can’t bear the thought of waiting until the end of March to see him! This condition of mine, for someone who is usually on the go constantly, is frustrating beyond words. It would not be so bad if it were not for the accompanying severely low blood pressure that makes me feel as if I am going to keel over!
Yet despite all my mumbling and grumbling and yes, often feeling quite sorry for myself, the realization of how fortunate I am, hit me. On the same day of my angiogram, a wonderful family I know well, lost a loved one in a tragic accident. A mother and father lost a son, a sister and brother lost their beloved older brother, and a young wife and mother lost her dearest husband. Learning this news made my trials and tribulations seem petty in comparison.
As I saw the outpouring of love and compassion for this family, who are stalwart members of a local community, it reminded me once again how life can change in the blink of an eye. We may often fall into thinking the world is against us, being harsh and unkind. We may grumble, believing we have been dealt a terrible hand in the card game of life, feel sad and sorry for ourselves and disgruntled at the heavy cross we have to bear. Yet if we take a moment to pause, to open our eyes and look around us, we will see those who’s cross is larger, weightier and more cumbersome than ours. There are many carrying much greater burdens than us yet carry on bravely they do.
This morning, after a challenging day with my heart yesterday, I look out my window at the snowy landscape and appreciate the beauty of it. Instead of thinking how exhausting it will be to trudge through the snow on my way to milk Heidi, I feel glad that I am still able to do so, albeit it may take more time! When I come back to the house, I know my dearest will be waiting for me, the fire stoked and a cup of tea on the brew. Compared to so many, I will feel the cross on my shoulders lighten… and I will be thankful for it.
