Unfortunately, while out on his usual daily 75 minute walk on Boxing Day, DH collapsed in a suburban street. Two young women rushed to his aid, and when he admitted to them that he wasn't 'alright', one of the women ran to the nearest house to get help. As luck would have it, a nurse lived in that house! An ambulance was called, and because for once, DH had his mobile phone with him, he called me. He was just a suburb away from our home but the ambulance got there before me!
DH was taken to emergency, all the time saying that he was just dehydrated...after a while in the treatment room with blood tests and even chest x-rays, he would be admitted to the hospital upstairs for observation The A/Professor who was the doctor on duty in Emergency had said he suspected a heart attack. DH still stuck to his dehydration story...and so did the cardiologist who was called in...at first.
Blood tests continued and the 8pm test showed that the level of the enzyme troponin, had doubled in the hours since DH arrived in Emergency. Yep! He had suffered a heart attack. The only apparent symptoms that he had, were nausea and fainting. Many years ago a first aid trainer I had, 'harped' on the nausea indicator often being overlooked...especially if there are no chest or arm pains.
So you can imagine that things are a bit different around here...the children and our friends have been wonderful and while I 'stumble around' feeling quite surreal and dislocated, I've had heaps of support. Even Eduardo the cat senses something isn't quite right and is sticking close to me when I'm home.
DH himself appears 'chipper' despite being connected to a heart monitor and with his repertoire of jokes finding a new audience with all that staff in the hospital :-).
I'm typing this at 5 am as I will be going into the hospital early this morning. At 6.30 am, DH will have an Angiogram which will reveal what damage has been done to the heart, blockages will be identified and stents put in if necessary. We may even find out about the Lifestyle changes that now have to occur.
( Showing how much I love DH, I gave him my iPad so that he can Skype Miss Nikki [so hard for her being so far away] in Canada...but he's Facebooking and having all sorts of fun, as well! lol)
