He is doing well, but is still a very sick boy. Tomorrow, they hope to take him back to cardiac catheterization and put a stent in that third artery.
The cardiologist told us today that the type of heart attack Mr VOW had is called “The Widow Maker.”
Well, shit.
He has had excellent care (obviously!) from everyone–paramedics, ER staff cardiology, and nurses. Thank God for them all.
~VOW
VOW, I am sending healing thoughts. Tell him to be a good boy, then go home, unwind, and get a good night’s sleep for for yourself. You must be worn out.
Jeez, VOW, just caught up with this. It sounds like Mr VOW is in the best place and receiving the best care. Think positive thoughts and try to get some rest.
Love.
J
Yes, take care of yourself, this shaping up to be a long haul.
Good luck.
{{{{Vow and Mr. VOW}}}}
And you’re allowed a breakdown or 8. that’s scary.
{{{VOW and MrVOW}}}
((((((The Vow Family))))))
Now the doctor is saying he has congestive heart failure as well. The recovery from the heart attack is slower because of the fluid build up.
Of COURSE I googled the shit out of “heart attack,” “widow maker,” and “congestive heart failure.” And of COURSE now I feel like a big black cloud hangs over everything. Will we ever get back to Arizona? We’ve been married 45 years; will we see fifty?
Your mind goes into dark dark places sometimes.
Our kids, our kids’ spouses, are such bright shining places amid all the gloom.
I’m standing on a ledge, looking into the abyss. I have a lousy sense of balance, and I’m terrified of heights.
~VOW
Oh, VOW…step back off that ledge. You will be needed whatever happens. People live with congestive heart failure. It’s a managable condition with meds. He’ll have to do some lifestyle changes.
{{{Hugs}}} to you and yours, my friend.
Let us know if we can help. Just PM me.
He’s 6’2", 300 pounds, a lot of which I now suspect is fluid that has built up gradually because of this unknown congestive heart failure.
Unfortunately, he has the eating habits of an eight-year-old. Remember the 'Mergency discussion about his stash of Hershey bars and chocolate peanut clusters?
His biggest vice is Coke…the carbonated stuff that comes in red cans. He lies-lies-lies when talking to doctors about his Coke consumption. “Oh, I only have two a day.” It’s more like 6 or 8. I had a doctor say to me, “Why do you BUY this for him?” Because if I don’t shop around and get it at the lowest price, he’ll go out on his own and pay big bucks to slake his thirst at the moment. In our penny counting days, he MURDERED my budget doing that!
The man had a childhood of deprivation, and that creates a mindset that never, ever is overcome. He eats in volume. I work to make sure the volume is healthy, but he can make a trip to the store and come home with pies, cookies, and cake.
Try to talk to him about it, and he makes a joke, or tries to find a pun in the words, or deliberately misunderstands, or argues. I’m worn down to the bone.
Add to this, I have been observing little tiny signs of …we can call it fading, probably due to the Parkinson. He is not so impaired that his driving skills are affected. Believe me, I WATCH EVERY LITTLE THING. But I know the little cracks in cognition because of the Parkinson’s will make the lifestyle education that much more difficult.
But see, I really really really need him around, because he’s half my very soul…
~VOW
Oh, ~VOW, my heart goes out to you.
That Coca-Cola has to go. Start with that.
You can change the eating things over time.
Mr.Wrekker is a big man, as well. I have to watch or he will eat everything not nailed down.
( He came in from frog gigging about 4am Saturday morning and wanted bacon. I cooked a lb. of it. He ate a lb. of it. I can’t say I was shocked.)
I’m so worried about your ‘big’ guy.
Keep us posted.
{{{Hugs}}}
Mr VOW can eat a 1/2 lb of bacon and call that “breakfast.”
He only stops eating when he hits the table.
~VOW
All best wishes and hugs, VOW. Sorry I don’t have useful advice and tips, but others have made good suggestions and I second that emotion.
Oh. My. God. Are they still asking the wives why they buy this or that bad thing for their husbands??? Do they not understand that if anyone wants an unhealthy thing they’ll get it however they can? They still assume it’s the wife’s job to keep the husband healthy? They pulled this shit on my mom when my dad’s gout would flare up.
I would show them three fingers and tell them to read between the lines.
Still thinking the best for your family VOW.
Just recently my Surgeon told my husband to keep me in line til time for my surgery. I wanted to kick him in the shin.
I’m often dismissed or ignored by people of authority.
I guess I have a chip on my shoulder.
(((((hugs)))))
My father nearly starved to death as a child. He developed diabetes as an adult (in the 1950’s/60’s, when good control by modern standards wasn’t really possible). He used his insulin, but there was no way he was staying on anybody’s idea of a diabetic diet.
My mother did her best in what she bought and in what she cooked, (and the household work was allocated very 1950’s-style); but my father was a grown man with his own wallet, and there was no sense at all in refusing to buy things he would just go out and buy on his own.
And my father was a grown man with his own wallet. If he’d wanted to take up hang gliding, or mountain climbing, or any of hundreds of other risky behaviors done by many people for the fun of it, that would have been his choice. Why should eating what he wanted not have been his choice?
Anybody who gives you a hard time because Mr. VOW eats what he wants is being both absurd and obnoxious.
(And, for what it’s worth, my father outlived his first heart attack by nearly 40 years, despite having a couple more in the interval. And we’ve got better medicine now. May Mr. VOW also have another 40, soda or no soda.)
((((VOW))))
I’m glad I missed the crisis. Sorry you had to go through that.
It may not apply, but at some point I got old enough that I couldn’t taste the difference between diet and regular coke.
OMG, that idiot doctor. Sorry, he’s probably not an idiot if he got through med school and has privileges at such a respected hospital, but he’s an arrogant sexist.
Have you and Mr. VOW spoken with a nutritionist yet? It seems to me you need someone who can help him clearly understand the foods he can and can’t eat so the job of Food Police doesn’t fall entirely on your shoulders. Maybe she could also work out a dietary plan that would allow the occasional Coke? I’m thinking it’d help if you could say, “Honey, I’d cook you that bacon, but the nutritionist said it’ll kill you, and I can’t do without you, ya big lug.” or “The nutritionist said one scan of Coke a week, and we decided Wednesday is Coke Day, remember?”
Doctors mention spouses’ shopping habits because they’ve seen plenty of enablers in their time. There are also a lot of spouses, or parents, who won’t give up buying this or that because they want it for themselves.
Not saying that you are, Vow, but it does happen, a lot.