Here it is September 29, 2023, and I cannot begin to wrap my mind around what I have gone through since the beginning of May. Actually, starting even earlier in the year, as I had finally convinced my GP to do an autoimmune panel on me and got the results back the first part of April, a week before I had my annual checkup with my Cardiologist. Several of my siblings have autoimmune disorders. As I suspected, I have rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogrens syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and another one that my GP said she simply did not know what it was, that I would have to go to a Rheumatologist. I couldn't get an appointment with a Rheumatologist until October 3, which is coming up next week.
Meanwhile, back to April, I had my appointment with the Cardiologist and she felt like I might need a pacemaker because my heart rate kept jumping up with the least bit of movement. I've had irregular heart rate for years, and have been on medication that has worked well all of these years to control it. However, Marlee turned 13 last year and in July or August (?) she had to have emergency surgery to remove her spleen. She recovered well from that but her congestive heart failure was getting worse and I was carrying her in and out more often. Not all of the time but occasionally, and I would notice that I was getting short of breath and my heart rate would shoot up. By the first part of this year it was obvious that Marlee was getting much worse and I was mostly having to carry her in and out. Marlee died on May 3 and on May 5 I had a heart catherization. Rather than a pacemaker, on the 31st of May I was in having open heart bypass surgery.
I did really well with the surgery. My recovery was going extremely well. I was two months post bypass surgery and at the end of July I thought I had come down with a virus. The last weekend of the month I was so sick I could hardly stand up without holding on to something. By the time I was able to make contact with someone at the Heart Center the following week I knew that I was really really sick---I just didn't know what I had. I ended up in the ER where I spent all afternoon, and was admitted to the hospital that evening. A cardiologist came in and told me that I had had a major heart attack that had blown a hole in my heart, and that when this happened in an adult, it killed the adult immediately. They couldn't figure out why I hadn't died, but they could not do the repairs that would be necessary. I was in the hospital here on and off for two weeks and then they got me admitted into the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and I was transported to Cleveland. Apparently only the best heart surgeon in the country was capable of doing the repairs that I would need done. I was there for a week while the surgeons met to try to determine the best way to repair the damage that had been done to my heart. On August 25, I had the repair surgery which was lengthy. I spent another week in the hospital there and then was released to come back home where my local cardiologist would take over my care.
I was sooooo happy to be home!! I was a totally different person to the one who started this year, but Lordy I was just so relieved to be back in my home with the cats and my books and my bed. No matter the pain, and the fact that there will be someone here for the first two weeks home from the hospital, it was just so wonderful to be home. I am really so very grateful for everyone that was taking care of me, but I was in serious need of alone time. I am such an introvert, and I am so possessive of living alone that the two weeks with someone ( my wonderful friend, Janet) were really wearing on me. I hung in there for those two weeks, LOL, and then I had my space back. I still have a couple of neigbors that take turns coming over to take care of the litter boxes for me, but I'm pretty much on my own, well, as much as I want to be.
I have been working on this post for what seems like forever and I still haven't finished it. However, I'm going to publish this for now, and pick it up again later.
