I want to thank you all for your kind thoughts and words. They are a crutch for me to lean on in this trying time. I hold foremost the enemy within and I am doing my best to not let it out of its cage. I realize I will be no good to anyone if I let a flare overwhelm me. I suppose we are never strongest than when it’s crucial that we be so.

It’s been two weeks now since my husband’s massive heart attack. It’s taken this long to determine what route to take in treating it. I was hoping for the possibility of a bypass where they would build new coronary vessels to do the work of the arteries that are no longer perfusing the heart.

Sadly, that is not an option. There is not enough viable tissue left for the doctor to form a bridge to. Yesterday, they placed an Automated Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (AICD). 

This tiny device will monitor his heart and, when necessary, will deliver a shock to reinstate a normal rhythm. We do not know what his overall prognosis is. The major organs do not do well when they are deprived of oxygen for a prolonged period of time.

For the present, he will continue to receive dialysis, while we wait to see if kidney function returns to normal. His mentation is now improving. His initial confusion was also due to the kidneys not clearing out the sedation he was given while on full life support. With dialysis, he is coming around.

It’s a long road ahead, a long, long, arduous haul. There are no easy answers; we just have to wait and let time heal, if it can.

I urge everyone to run, not walk, to the ER if experiencing symptoms of a heart attack. Unfortunately, the first instinct is denial. Please don’t listen to that. Go!