**This story was originally written in April of 2018. I had this procedure to prevent a stroke. Four months later, my own father passed away from complications from a stroke. I'm so thankful for the blessing of having this procedure and for the skill of my doctors. I want to encourage others, especially women, to take an active role in heart health.
This photo was taken right after I arrived home from 5 hours of heart surgery the day before. Bob is 20% hugging me, and 80% holding me up. Moments later, I said, “I think I’ll go lie down for a while.” Over a day later, I woke up and felt like a bus had hit me.
The operating room at Providence Hospital was greatly impressive like a cross between Star Trek and General Hospital. My Electrophysiologist, Dr. Stephanie Grosz was amazing and gave me great confidence. You always want your surgeon and pilot to be confident people.
Recovering with a teenaged photographer in the house . . . The Press Register makes everything better.
Tubes left my throat sore, (pearls helped), bruises from being stuck (you can see a little bit of it on my right arm), and even sore eyelids from taping my eyes shut (the intense blueness has always caused distraction, and the operating room is no place for that). ♥ My ankles hurt from monitors and I was foggy-headed and tried to explain to my husband about my ankles but couldn’t think of the word, so I told him my “foot wrists” hurt. I laughed when I said it because I knew it wasn’t right.
After several fitful nights of little sleep, the pains have faded, but I’m still sleepy all the time. I thought I’d get a lot of reading and even some writing done, but I keep falling asleep like a teenager in church.
My caregivers have been sweet (Joseph the 18 year old gets the award as the best nurse). This is a picture (below) of the breakfast my husband brought me one morning. I call it “carb delight.” Toast, more toast and a roll. But hey, he brought it to me in bed, so I thanked him and fed the dogs a few bites when he wasn’t looking. The first morning there was a big issue and I wasn’t a happy patient. Bob had to duck to keep from being hit from flying . . . toast. After that, things were adjusted and everyone was nice. Believe me, he deserved it.
Thank you so much for your kind notes of concern and your prayers. So many sweet notes of support, and many of them gave me a big laugh. You are not only nice readers, but you are hilarious as well — and we all know laughter is the best medicine.
I volunteer with some children every week, and they made me this giant Get Well Soon card. I almost cried, it was so sweet!
God is good and has blessed me with a great doctor, good friends who are entertaining and feeding me, and modern medicine is truly a miracle from God. Strokes run in my family, and I can’t help but think that if this PVI procedure was around a few years ago it could have possibly helped some of them.
Thank you again for all of your love and kindness.
And of course, I’d be a failure as a blogger if I didn’t make a Pinterest board to tell you more about A-fib and A-flutter. It’s always good Southern thing to slap cuteness on top of a problem, right? Click HERE to see it and learn more about how to prevent strokes.
And here's another post for more information on the PVI procedure.
