My Mama

On Friday May 24th my family received a frightful phone call.  My mama had suffered a heart attack that morning, and she drove herself to the doctor's office where she then collapsed.  She was then rushed to the hospital, and as we still piece together the story, she had actually died and was brought back in the ER by a doctor who said he'd never seen someone so far gone come back.  She was intubated for mechanical ventilation while her heart hopefully would heal from the shock it had lived through, and because while in the cath lab she had thrown up and had aspirated some of that back into her lungs.  The hospital didn't actually call my Dad, but he knew that my mom wasn't feeling well, and had said she should go to the doctor.  She did not have the usual signs of a heart attack, but had what she thought was appendix pain and a stiff neck.  By the time she got to the doctor, she said she was having a hard time breathing.  My Dad kept calling her phone that day, and it wasn't until that evening when a security guard was going by her room and he answered it that we found out what had happened.  On the way to the hospital, he called me, and then I called everyone from there.  My Dad stayed by her side as much as was allowed that first week.  She had two stents put in to open two of the main arteries, the circumflex was occluded 100% and the left anterior descending artery was occluded 99%.  It was a pretty major event. We went out there that Monday to see her and help where we could.  She was still intubated, but had pulled the tube out herself when the sedation had worn off a bit.  Her heart at that time couldn't handle the strain, so they had to reinsert the tube.  After a week though of intubation, they were able to take her off ventilation successfully, and her heart was doing the work.  She then was moved from the ICU to the progressive care unit (PCU), where she is still currently.  Right now they are working on getting all the fluid out of her lungs before they send her home. I went out again last week, and James got to go with me to see his Grammies.  He knew she was sick and in the hospital.  He's been praying for her at every prayer to not be sick anymore and to be able to go home.  Each day she is getting a little bit better, but it is a long recovery.  We have been overwhelmed by the love and prayers and words of encouragement.  Thank you!

 My mama and me when I was a year old

 Mama and our horse Cinnamon

taken a week before the heart attack

 Mama in the PCU a week and a half after the heart attack, 

she'd been sedated for about a whole week before this.

Two weeks after the heart attack with James

Looking and doing better and better each day!

She can now walk unassisted, but her voice is still very hoarse from 

when she took her own tube out, that could take up to a month to come back.

More updates will follow her progress.