You may recall that I had a little trip to the ER recently. Well, after my week off I had a visit with my primary care doctor to follow up.
I was cleared to go back to work and I really have not had any issues. She ordered two tests for me – an angiogram and a stress test. Those will happen next week.
While at the hospital they ran the enzyme tests to see if I had a heart attack, but they were negative. However, the baby aspirin and nitro that the EMS crew gave me may have stopped something according to doctors.
My angiogram was scheduled on a day that I was supposed to speak in front of a class of EEG students. When I called the director to see if we could reschedule the talk, I explained what happened.
Her background is in cardiology. She told me that based on what happened, it could be something ischemic. If you are unfamiliar with that:
Ischemic heart disease (IHD), also known as coronary artery disease (CAD) or coronary heart disease (CHD), is a condition where the heart muscle doesn’t receive enough blood and oxygen. This typically happens due to plaque buildup (atherosclerosis) in the coronary arteries, which narrows them and restricts blood flow to the heart.
Dizziness and sweating are symptoms. I experienced both before going to the ER. Lightheadedness is also a symptom and I get that on occasion. So it makes sense.
From all I have read on an angiogram, if there is any type of blockage they will place a stent in during the same procedure. I have a feeling this may happen.
There is some cardiac history in my family. My maternal grandfather died of a heart attack and my father has a stent. During that procedure we found out he had actually had a couple small heart attacks and he didn’t even know he had them.
Either way, my stress test will happen a couple days after the angiogram. One way or another, they should be able to tell if there is an issue with my ticker.
To say that the incident was a wake up call is an understatement. The day after, I rejoined Weight Watchers. Something I should have done a while ago. I’m two weeks in and down 11 pounds. I really hope to stay focused and have better success this time around.
I hope this blog finds you enjoying the remainder of the holiday weekend. My weekend, which was supposed to be very relaxing, wound up being full of the unexpected.
Wednesday afternoon, I got a call from my wife. Her dad had passed out at the doctor’s office. His blood pressure was up and down. They rushed him to the ER, and admitted him for a couple days. No heart attack, no stroke, and they didn’t find any blockages. There were a few things that neurology is going to look into in more detail. He is home now and relaxing.
My mother-in-law was at the ER for Thanksgiving and when she told us that she was going to drive through McDonald’s for dinner, we told her to go home and I’d bring her a plate. I packed up turkey, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and rolls. Andrew and I drove over to bring her the food. At the end of their street is a guy who goes all out with holiday lights. Andrew loved looking at them.
That’s not even his whole set up!!
Ella and Andrew haven’t been feeling all that great and when we woke up Thanksgiving day, we all felt a bit under the weather. We spent most of the morning and early afternoon battling fevers with Motrin and Tylenol. We watched a disappointing Detroit Lions game and had dinner. After that is when everything got scary.
Ella did not look right. Her nose and eyes were watering all day and her fever spiked again. She was far from herself. There was enough going on that I packed her in the car and made the trip to the ER.
They checked her out and said it was viral, which we kind of knew. It “has to run its course.” So we weren’t there too long. I was just relieved it wasn’t pneumonia. Her cough was awful.
We were supposed to go to the Detroit Zoo for their Wild Lights, but we were all under the weather. Thankfully, they had my order and were able to switch days for us. I’m grateful, because I would have hated to have not been able to use them.
We got our Christmas photos back and there were more good ones than bad ones. We sat with them and picked the ones for our family Christmas card. This is one of my favorite family ones:
Being inside has been driving the kids crazy. Sam had bought a few games on Amazon for Ella’s birthday, but decided to bring them out to help keep them (and us) occupied. It’s been a while, but I can honestly say that I still can’t win playing Hi-Ho Chery-O!
Today, I had to take Daisy to Puppy Training. I swear, I gave her a bag of treats during this class. We worked on Sit, Watch Me, and Touch today. The trainer started off the class with what was going to happen over the next 6 weeks. All the pups were given a bone to chew while she went over this. Daisy, of course, broke off a tooth and probably swallowed it. She was bleeding on the bone.
As embarrassing as that was, at least she didn’t pee during the class. Another dog, however, peed like three times. As the class drew to a close, Daisy started to get antsy and began to bark at the other dogs. She was pulling and trying to get off the leash. She was happy to finally leave and get in the car.
I put it on after I took this picture, but I bought her a name tag at the store. They engrave them there for you. It hangs off that loop where the leash goes. It hangs down a bit and “clangs” when she walks. It is making her crazy. It is funny to watch her try to chew at it.
The kids are feeling a bit better today, and I hope that continues with more rest. I’m hoping for some rest too!
Many readers know I work in Sleep Medicine. Every year there is a sleep conference in Detroit that we try to go to to earn our Continuing Education Units to keep our registry. That conference was last week.
Sam and I drove down to Detroit early Thursday afternoon. (The kids got a sleepover at Nana’s house.) The conference took place at one of the casinos. When we checked in, they asked if we wanted an upper or lower floor (we chose upper) and whether we wanted a city or river view (we chose river). It was a nice view!
After speakers were done on the first night, Sam and I went to a small mixer where guests could have a drink together. We hung out with a couple of my coworkers and folks who graduated from the same sleep program. They had raffles while we were there and Sam won a Tim Hortons gift card. My coworker won a $100 Amazon card.
We went up to our room and we were exhausted, but hungry. We decided to order room service ($$$$$). She ordered nachos and I got a burger. When it arrived, it was apparent that we should have just shared the nachos because it was HUGE!!
After the conference on Friday, we had hoped to go out to a nice dinner. Because room service was SO expensive, we decided to get something on the way home. After getting the kids from Nana’s, we ordered pizza and brought it home.
Just a side note: As parents, you can’t wait to get a night or two alone and away from the kids. Of course, when you do, you can’t stop thinking about them and are overjoyed when you see them again!
Clubs
My son, Dimitri, turned 16 on Sunday. I told him I wanted to take him out golfing. It’s something he and I have never done together and I knew it would be a good time for us to connect and chat. We decided to go Saturday morning, and the weather was perfect.
I haven’t been on a course in at least 3-4 years. I knew I was gonna really golf badly. He hasn’t been out in at least a year, since leaving the golf club at school. Thank goodness it was a slow day in the course.
I hate when you’ve always got someone waiting for you to tee off or shoot. I realize it’s part of the game, but I always feel rushed and often just want to hit so we can go. Dimitri and I were far from professionals out there, so it did take us a bit longer than usual. We finally let the twosome behind us play through.
He is like me in that he has his favorite clubs. He rarely uses his driver, but he can crush a ball with his 5 wood. I have a 7 wood that I used to hit well, but topped it every time Saturday. I had a few good drives, just enough to keep me coming back.
We bent the rules a little bit, and had plenty of mulligans (redos), and impost probably a dozen balls in the woods and water. Despite all of that, it was a great time together. He, naturally, beat me by two strokes. I can’t wait to do it again.
Croup
Sam called me while I was out golfing and said that both kids sounded sick. Both had low grade fevers and a cough. By the time I got home, Ella was sounding better after taking some allergy meds. Andrew’s fever was gone but still had a cough and that raspy voice.
Sam wondered if we should take him to urgent care or ER. Everyone we talked to said wait to see how he was in the morning.
That night at bedtime he cried a lot. He wound up in our bed. He woke us up with a nasty cough and wheezing about 3am. He fell right back to sleep, but it was enough to freak us out a bit.
At 6am he woke up sounding worse, so we rushed him to ER. Nana met us there and brought Ella back to her house. We planned to be there a while and Sam packed loads of snacks just in case.
They got us right back and he was seen almost immediately. We weren’t sure what to expect because we were there right at shift change. However, once we were in our room, the nurse came in, followed by the doc. Once the examination was done, she told us it was croup and she gave him a steroid and told us he should be back to normal in a couple days.
How fast were they? Well, we had finished with the nurse and the doctor AND the meds were administered all before the registration gal came to our room! We actually had to wait to get registered before we could leave! Total ER time – about 70 minutes.
Ella decided she wanted to have a sleepover again at Nana’s, so when Sam left for work last night it was just me and Andrew. He really improved throughout the day. Before bed, we stood on the porch and watched the thunderstorm together.
Andrew is still sleeping and Ella should be home later today. The house should return to it’s normal chaotic state shortly after her arrival.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 