Well, it is as official as it can ever get. Chris did have a heart attack. She is still in the hospital right now.
Nathan
took me up to the hospital so we could get there at 1:00 a.m., the official witching
hour … er … visiting hour. Hey, it was
Friday the Thirteenth after all. In the
year 2020. Way too scary for me. Lauren from church was already there. She works at UTMB. She has a badge. She can use her badge to go places. Witching hours are meaningless to Lauren.
Chris
went to the heart cath lab at around 11:30.
As it turned out our friend Teri from church was working there, and she is
a force to be reckoned with. Speaking of
forces of nature, by this time April had come up from the ER to be with us as
well. Must be something that in inherent
with nurses. Or maybe they teach it in
nursing school. She took over,
introducing us to people and carefully explaining the procedure. That was really helpful since the Fellow who
was also doing some explaining never stopped pacing and never stopped to even
look our way. Not that I could hear him
that well anyway. He was wearing his
faithful mask. When they came and got
Chris the three of us retired to the waiting area. April found us some snacks for a light lunch,
and we settled in for the long haul. But
it really didn’t take all that long.
Teri came out and told us she had heard through the grapevine that they
were dealing with at least one significant blockage. First step there was to put in a stent.
After
about forty minutes I was called back into the recovery area where I got to see
Chris. She was awake and alert, and she
told me she had been throughout the whole surgery. Seems they needed to talk to her while hey
were doing the procedure. Interesting
stuff. After just a few minutes the cardiologist
took me to join him and Nathan and April and now Lauren in the conference room. There he showed us the x-ray images of what
Chris’ arteries looked like before and after the surgery. She had a 30% blockage in one. That one we will treat with medication. But the other one was not so good. She had a 95% blockage in the LAD. That’s the artery that supplies more that
half the blood to the heart. Yep. It was pretty much a miracle that she passed
out on the treadmill at the doc’s office.
This one could have been a considerably worse scenario. Her restrictions are pretty simple. No driving for three days. No lifting over five pounds for ten days. Cardiac rehab is strongly recommended. I really liked that guy. Maybe she can get in with him now.
From
there we were taken to a room on the cardiac floor, in the section that is technically
a step down unit from ICU. The nurse sat
right outside the door. And after April
went back to work and Nathan left to check on Cailyn, things began to settle down
some. Then, suddenly, the nurse stuck
her head in the door and called out, “Mr. Vaughan, could you come out here for
a moment?” OK. We haven’t even been up here a whole day and
I’m already in trouble? It was still
during visiting hours, so I knew it wasn’t that. Oh, well?
I trudged out the door to take my punishment. The nurse called me over to her desk. In quite the conspiratorial manner she
motioned for me to come closer. This was
really getting weird. The she began
whispering. Well, kind of a stage
whisper, because I did hear her, amazingly enough. “There is a delivery at the front desk downstairs
for Mrs. Vaughan. But we have a
problem. There is no one available who
can bring it up to the room. Do you
think you could go get it?” Then,
looking around, she added, “I called you out like that because I didn’t want to
ruin the surprise.” Well, that was
sweet. I immediately set out on my
journey, and before I could hit the elevator button Chris was texting me. “What’s going on out there?” I answered, “They are sending me on an errand,”
and left it at that. She answered back
something along the lines of “Whaaaat?”
I let that one go. The delivery
was a really nice vase of flowers from the Galveston Fire Department guys. Thanks so much, guys. She really loved it.
Nathan
and April and Cailyn came back and picked me up when the witching hours
ended. They even brought me over a bowl
of homemade beef stew. I was in bed by
9:30 or so and slept until 6:00. That’s pushing
a new record for me. Eight and a half
hours. Wow. April is supposed to give me a ride up to the
hospital today. We are crossing our
fingers that Chris gets to come home this afternoon. Keep those prayers coming.
1
Peter 5:6 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that
he may lift you up in due time.”
Father,
thank you for your oversight of all the madness that has happened in the last three
days or so. It helps to be reminded that
you are ultimately in control. Amen.
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