When your husband has a heart attack

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Recently my husband experienced a heart attack followed by open heart surgery. I'm sharing this account of our experience with the CIAN readers as it may be helpful for others who have gone through this experience or for those who know people who have. 
 


When Your Husband has a HEART Attack 
Two weeks ago today Monday February 1 started out like any ordinary Monday. When my husband was ready to leave the house for work he gave me a kiss good-bye. I told him I loved him and he told me he loved me too. Then I asked him to be careful driving to work. He said he would. Not long after he left I started to get myself ready for that day. I got my kids lunch ready for school that day. I took my kid to school came back home. When I got home I started doing my usual. Take the dog out to use the bathroom, get my breakfast ready to eat and eventually open my laptop and do my normal Monday cleaning.

That Monday I did my normal routine with promoting my books, checking Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and all those social media sites. I also did my normal chatting with my husband while he was at work. It's always nice for me to be able to chat with my husband while he's at work and I'm at home doing my thing. As the day went on everything went as usual. When it was time for me to pick up my daughter from school and take my son to basket ball practice, I let my husband know like I always do. He said his usual "okay be careful driving" and I said my usual "I will".

That afternoon while my daughter and I were waiting for my son to finish basket ball practice I received a text from my husband. He told me he wasn't feeling good so he was going to leave work early. I knew his ankle was hurting him that Monday morning so I didn't think anything of it. I just asked him to be careful driving home. He told me he would. When practice ended I received another text from him. That one said "Where are you ?!" My husband never sends me a text like that so right away I knew something was wrong. How wrong I didn't know, but I knew something was wrong. So I called him to find out what was going on. My husband told me he was heading to Urgent Care at a local Hospital and that our oldest daughter was driving him. He told me to meet them there.

Again I asked him what was wrong. He told me he wasn't sure, but he might be having a heart attack.  A HEART ATTACK, what do you mean a heart attack was all I could think. So I got my kids into our car as fast as I could and told them what was going on. Half way home I got another phone call from my oldest daughter. She told me he was being rushed by ambulance to another Hospital. At this point I was scared. I mean I was SCARED!  At this point I needed to get me and our other two kids home so my husbands brother, wife and mom could get me to the Hospital to see my Husband.

When we finally got to the second Hospital, Ellis-- my sister-in-law helped me get from one part of the Hospital to the part where they had my husband. After a few minutes they finally let me see my husband. There he was laying in a bed with one of their Hospital gowns on and some tubes in his arms. I practically ran over to him crying asking him what happened. He told me he had a heart attack. I asked him why he did that and no I wasn't being serious, it was just something I did. He told me didn't know. We stayed there for a few minutes till the were ready to put him in his own ICU room.

Once they had him all settled they let me see him again for a little while. I couldn't believe my husband had a heart attack and was now in the Hospital. To me my husband always seemed like the type of person who couldn't be touch by something like that. He was to stubborn of a man in my point of view for something like that to happen. We talked to the doctors and found out what his best options were.

We also wanted to know what caused this heart attack. Was it him being over weight? Was it the foods he was eating? No, none of that did it to my husband. The doctor told us it was basically family genetics. Because there are heart problems are both sides of his family he was at high risk to have a heart attack at some point in his life. We were told he needed to have a quadruple bypass surgery. That's a lot of bypasses!

I wanted to stay with my husband, but I also have three kids and a house that need taking care of. So reluctantly that Monday night two weeks ago I went home scared and lonely. When I got to my bed room that night I looked at our bed. My husband wasn't in it waiting for me like he is every night. I didn't want to sleep in our bed by myself. I knew I had no choice. I also didn't want to sleep in the dark with out my husband. So for one week I slept by myself in our bed with our closet light on. I slept curled up in the middle using my husband pillow while our dog slept at the end of our bed.

That week my oldest and I spent every day with my husband in the Hospital while my other two kids were in school. And that week I cried myself to sleep alone in our bed missing my husband something terrible. Thanks to technology I was able to text with my husband that week and I even go to facetime with him a couple of times to say good night. I had decided the easiest way to keep our family and friends in formed with what was happening each day was to post it on Facebook. With each status I asked everyone to keep praying for my husband with the Bible verse 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray with out ceasing.

My husband and I were seriously over whelmed by all the people letting us know they were praying for a safe surgery and speedy recovery. We were over whelmed with how many people came to visit him in the Hospital before and after his surgery. We were even more over whelmed by the love and support his job showed to us. Everything had us in tears. To the point sometimes that we couldn't even read the replies from our family and friends on Facebook.

I am very happy to say that my husbands quadruple bypass was a successful surgery and he was allowed to come home one day early. He does have to take a bunch of meds now, but that sure does beat the alternative. He is recovering faster then anyone anticipated I think. Yes, he will have his bad days. That is to be expected,but so far he is doing good.

I have to say before his surgery there were things that he did that annoyed my like snoring. Now after his heart attack and surgery, I'm thankful I can hear it. It means he's there next to me in bed sleeping. Where he belongs. My husband's heart attack taught me not to take the little things for granted. It taught me that stuff like snoring isn't important. What is important is that HE is alive and with me. He is healing. He is my everything and I love him. We are in this marriage for better or for worse and I am doing my best to make this worse part better. Maybe not better, but I can make the best out of a bad situation. I love my husband and would do anything for him. His heart attack scared me. I am beyond thankful that God watched over my husband and spared his life through this heart attack and surgery.

I pray that we get to spend the next fifty plus years together in good times and in bad times.
     

Kathleen Smith is an independent author and blogger. You can read more from her at KathleenSmith.org

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