Isaiah 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Revelation 1:17 ... And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not;
Sunday evening Edward and Annetta went home, leaving Irene at the hospital with me. Ever since they had put the stents in I did not have any chest pain, but I still had that throbbing headache. Finally I asked the nurse if I could have something for the headache. (I don't know why I didn't ask earlier...) She brought me Tylenol. I felt like telling her it probably wouldn't work, but didn't. I had not yet tried Tylenol. Maybe it would help. It didn't. Later in the night she gave me Percocet which is a combination of acetaminophen and oxycodone, a narcotic. She also discontinued the nitro in my IV. I still had headache. Maybe it was slightly better, but not enough that I felt much of a difference. The IV in my left arm was uncomfortable. My right arm where they had inserted the catheter was very sore. The pulse-ox taped to my finger bothered me. I tried in vain to find a comfortable position and fall asleep. I couldn't sleep because I had a headache. I had a headache because I couldn't sleep... They turned off my lights and closed the door, but I could still hear all the activity from the nurses' station. The phone was ringing, people were talking, moniters and IVs were beeping. Irene was also having a hard time getting some rest. They had brought a recliner into my room for her. She thought maybe there'd be a couch in the waiting room that would be more comfortable, but there was a strange woman out there and she felt uncomfortable, so she came back. Everyone was very kind to us. It's just hard to sleep in the hospital. We finally did sleep a little.
Monday morning the activity started. The nurses' station and hallways were swarming with doctors and students. Creighton is a university hospital. Early in the morning a lady came into my room pushing some kind of a machine. She was here to do an echocardiogram (ultrasound) of my heart. Someone from the lab was coming every six hours or so to draw blood. Another person pushed in scales to weigh me. After a while Dr. ?? (I never did hear his name) bounced into the room. He looked Asian or Middle East and had a heavy accent. Apparently he had been in the cath lab on Sunday and helped with the angiogram. I didn't remember seeing him, but he proceeded to tell me what they saw and what they did. He drew some pictures on the white board. He said the artery was stretched thin, maybe from the extra volume of blood during pregnancy, and got a tear. This is what it looked like before and after they put the stents in etc. He really stressed the fact that I HAVE to take the medications, even if it means I cannot nurse the baby. I could die if I don't take the meds. He said some cultures would say, "It's more important to nurse the baby, so I won't take the meds." Well, I didn't want to hear that I can't nurse the baby, but I knew that being here for the whole family was more important than nursing the baby. I wish I could hear again all he said. Everything was so new to me. I thought I understood what he was saying, but now I realize how little I really did understand. I do not remember that he said anything about "spontaneous coronary artery dissection".
Edward left home right after breakfast, so it was about 8:30 when he came in. Soon after he was there Dr. Biddle, the cardiologist, came in and sat down. He too explained what had happened and what they did. It was a "text book" case of post partum heart attack. He said my arteries were clean (no plaque build up) and this was caused by hormonal changes related to the pregnancy. The further away I get from the pregnancy the chances of it happening again grow less. He made it clear that I do not have heart disease. This is just a freak thing (more on that later) that happens to some people. He explained how they put two stents in and there is another area that they are watching. There was damage to my heart muscle. The front and tip of my heart were damaged. Normal ejection fraction is 55 - 70%. If I remember right he said mine was 25 - 30%. But he said they expect that to improve and I should have a full recovery in 3 months. They would keep me in the hospital for 4 - 5 days yet. Since this was pregnancy related he said another pregnancy would/could be life threatening, so no more babies. And I could not nurse this baby because of all the medications. He was very nice, but wow, this was a lot to process in our minds. I asked about my headache. The ER doctor in Atlantic thought it might have been angina, but Dr. Biddle said he doesn't think so. Because this was a spontaneous dissection, I most likely would not have had any symptoms before it happened.
Dr. Biddle
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