So follow along:
We set up for a close and cozy Christmas just the two of us. Up the very curvy Apache Trail. Beautiful government woods around the Salt River. The campground was up at Tortilla Flats and just a mile before road paving stopped. Beautiful campsite and many birds. Lovely mountains across from us and the river below. Perfect spot for a wonderful holiday…………………**
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| Merry Christmas, All! |
Have you been watching the red asterisks? **
HINT....how we spent Christmas
Next morning (Christmas eve) we were reading our weekly financial statements. BUT Laurie couldn’t find the "ON" button for her computer. The numbers coming out of her mouth were were not the same as the numbers on the report she was reading. She couldn’t recognize the script. Hmm. What’s going on? The campground host (retired EMT) came by. Talked a bit with Laurie and said Dean needed to drive her to the hospital – not to wait for an ambulance….and our Christmas changed.
So we figured out which hospital we should head for. We even knew the name. Problem is Laurie couldn't read anything on the GPS so we guessed our route.
Day 1, The hospital ER folks were phenomenal. Laurie was onto a gurney and into an examination room in minutes. She was given some shots to slow down a very fast heartbeat and high blood pressure. (Dean sez that’s the “white coat fear syndrome” --- fear of the unknown in a new and scary situation.)
And the results of her first ElectricoCardioGram (EKG) in ER:
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| ** NOTE - FIRST TEST - SEE: ATRIAL FIBRILLATION |
Overnight standard hospital stuff: next to a bed with lots of moaning and groaning, no breakfast, no aspirin. No staff - it's Christmas! One thing I had not expected was finding a nurse rummaging my purse "looking for drugs". (Dean had my credit cards and money with him, thankfully)
No food, no cardiologist for the first 36 hours.
On day 2, "stop-by's" by speech and physical therapists both proclaimed I was pretty close to normal and no other therapy needed to be done. A neurologist came by for a visit. A number of tests were ordered. By who? Unfortunately, due to the holiday, it appears that technicians to administer and/or evaluate the tests were not available, and few tests were done. The next couple days were spent laying around waiting for tests to be done and being bothered approx. every four hours for blood pressure, oxygen level, and pulse rate collections. And lots of promises, but no doctor and few actual tests.
Stroke! Stroke! Stroke! She can go home in 48 hours. ....well, no, guess not, one of the EKGs showed Atrial Fibrillation.
Oh, perhaps "we" (meaning the hospital) guessed wrong. Lets keep testing EKG EKG EKG.
Day 3 - Guess what! I heard a doctor showed up but not a cardiologist. A hospitalist???? Think she does paperwork.
Day 4 morning an MRI (guess what? They showed cartoons while I laid very still.) AND a cardiologist(!) looked at test results and pronounces A/Fib. Another doctor comes in and says A/Fib. The hospitalist comes by and says A/Fib. The nurse reports that the cardiologist says I have A/Fib and that I can't be released until I have an Echocardiogram and he reviews it. Still have not met that cardiologist. His assistant told me to sit down and read my book.
Evening on the 4th day the Echocardiogram was performed.
On the fifth day, Laurie emulated her dad, and essentially walked out. The cardiologist had decided not to work for the hospital and won't read the echocardiogram. (The results from the echocardiogram were not available until I was out of the hospital a couple days)
We have since amassed over 200 pages of reports from everybody at the hospital from doctors, nurses, the lady who delivered meals and the the one who mopped the floor every day. Bills from all of the above are expected.
Oh, by the way, the first Electrocardiogram at 2pm on the day I arrived at the hospital says ... A/Fib
