Isn't this Cute?

Stopped by one of my favorite coffee shops today.  They've remodeled, including the bathroom.  Isn't this a cute idea for a light fixture?

I'm doing better-got on a more compatible blood pressure medication.  Found out I shouldn't have been taking the one I was.  Very dangerous for people with asthma!  I couldn't figure out why my asthma was getting worse and it was so hard to breathe-now I know!  I'm already breathing better and am walking all over the place!  The pharmacist asked if I had tapered off the old pill.  "No," I said, "They told me I could just quit."  No, I should have tapered-I've had a few problems, but nothing dangerous, and I'm almost to the other side.  I truly believe that if I stick to the new pill and the supplements for the heart I will be totally well in no time!  No more emergency rooms for me!

Anyway, if you want a light like that, buy some jars and pebbles and get a drill.  They really are cute!

Getting There

Thought I'd better let you all know I'm still kicking.  I kind of lost three weeks of my life, a couple of bills got paid a little late and my house is a pit, but I'm breathing.  I got really frustrated with the cardiologist-what he wanted to treat me with was making me sicker.  One of my Afib triggers is when my blood sugar drops.  The beta blocker he gave me made my blood sugar drop-huh?  So I was really a mess.  We tried cutting the dose in half but as it built up in my system the side effects got worse and worse.  So I decided to quit it on my own-DON'T EVER STOP THESE DRUGS COLD TURKEY!  Yikes, my blood pressure was on the rise!  So I quickly got back on my old, milder beta blocker.  I added a bunch of supplements, too.  The cardiologist was talking all kinds of procedures and blood thinners but I just don't think I'm ready for that.

So I'm doing acupuncture and yesterday I saw a Chinese herbalist that consults at my local, wonderful, supplement store.  She reinforced what I'm doing and added a couple other things.  She reassured me that I wasn't taking too much potassium, and gave me a little education on how blood levels work with your body.  I was supposed to be there 20 minutes but we talked for over an hour!

At the end of the day I am feeling much, much better, the episodes of Afib and tachycardia are decreasing every day, and I am sleeping like a champ!  I am trying to reduce my stimulants as well, but I think a very healthy body can handle a cup of coffee every now and then.  My blood pressure is perfect and so is my heart rate.

Stan's brother wants to come over Monday to finish a door frame he promised to do a long time ago, so now that I've paid the bills I'd better get the house in some kind of shape so I can entertain his wife.  Stan offered to help and I am holding him to that!!

Millie will finish her pacemaker procedure on Tuesday, prayers are requested for that.  I really hope she ends up with more energy and a better quality of life, poor girl!

Sydney has been here for a little over a week, it's been great to have him back.  He'll spend a couple more weeks with his mom, then back to home for the school year.  I miss the little stinker when he's gone!  So do his cousins, they played and played yesterday.  Syd and Sam will be fast friends their whole lives.  Well, off to the post office then home to clean.  Cheers!

Those Plans...

Remember yesterday when I said I was going to visit Sherry if God didn't have something else planned?  Well He did.  About 7:30 this morning my heart went into supraventricular tachycardia.  Goody, now I have two kinds of heart malfunctions!  Actually had both for many many years but now I have names and a cause.  I called the cardiologist and at 9:45 when they hadn't called back I called them and told them I was going to the emergency room.  "Well, you can have a 1:00 appointment if you like."  Grrrrr-"No, I think this requires more than an appointment." 

Once again I could avoid triage just by saying "heart arrhythmia or chest pains."  Into the wheelchair and off to a trauma room.  Today didn't take as long, all the tests were run last Tuesday.  The ER doctor came in and injected a drug in my IV that would (hopefully) immediately pull me out of tachycardia.  It did, not necessarily a pleasant experience, but it worked.  They watched me for a couple hours and sent me home.  I blame my more recent troubles on the beta blocker the cardiologist gave me, so I'm skipping it tonight and taking my old beta blocker.  The I'll call them tomorrow.  I am just ready for normal!

The blanket is progressing, I'm getting into the next repeat of colors.  It's sitting out on the deck right now, finally got cool enough without rain so I can work outside.  Maybe tomorrow I'll feel well enough to go see Sherry.  Must call her!

Crazy, Crazy!

The saying, "People plan, God laughs" really held true for me this week.  First I agreed to have coffee with my new friend Sherry and a young lady we both know on Monday afternoon.  The young lady grew up with my son and it was great to see her again.  We were having a grand time when Sherry got up to go to the ladies' room.  A little background-the coffee shop tore up their floors and are in the process of varnishing and buffing the concrete that was underneath.  They never thought, however, that it would leave a 3/4" difference between the shop floor and the hallway floor, and the restrooms were down the hallway.  Sherry tripped over the ledge into the hallway onto the slate floor, shattering her kneecap.  Thankfully, the urgent care was right next door so I brought my car as close as I could, loaded her up and drove around to let her off at the entrance to urgent care.  I stayed with her until her husband showed up.  She had surgery the next day to have the very messed up kneecap reassembled.  Poor girl, but she's doing alright, I talked to her Friday and she is even cooking for herself.  I hope to go to her place for coffee and a visit tomorrow unless God has other plans!

Early Tuesday morning, like 3:00, I was woken up suddenly with chest pains.  I rode it out as long as I could and Stan took me to the same urgent care at 8:00.  As we walked in I turned to him and said, "Watch me be pushed to the front of the line."  "No way," he said, "There are others waiting."  I walked up to the desk and said, "I'm having chest pains."  The rest was a blur of wheelchairs, gurneys, EKGs, and nervous nurses who were trying to put in an IV.  The ambulance showed up in seconds, literally.  It's a small town and the EMTs are housed in the fire hall, about 5 blocks from urgent care.

So off I go, a little embarrassed, in the ambulance to the hospital which is 10 miles away.  The EMT told me I probably wasn't having a heart attack-we chatted the whole way in and my pain was mostly gone at that point.  I had a strong feeling it was an esophageal spasm brought on by my lovely acid reflux.  At the hospital they joked I got the VIP room-the trauma room reserved for heart attacks and auto accident victims.

Long story short, I was run through the testing-more (many more) EKGs, CT scans, blood tests, you name it.  At the end of the long day-5:00-it was decided I didn't have a heart attack and they could release me but the ER doctor, a woman, requested that I go to the cardiologist on Friday to have a stress echo test.  She said women present with different heart attack symptoms so she wanted to be super sure.  I had to see my own doctor on Friday, too.  I spent those days doctoring my reflux, which improved every day.  Now, for years, like over 30, I have had heart flutters.  I have had all kinds of tests, but have never been able to capture it on an EKG.  Friday morning I woke up in A fib and stayed that way.  When I walked into the cardio lab, I told them it was their lucky day!  We got a beautiful take and ultrasound of my heart flutters.  Turns out my heart is strong and there is no coronary artery disease (yay!) BUT I have A fib, caused by a leaky valve.  Had it all my life!  Crazy!

Anyway, all we have to do, since the leak is miniscule, is up my beta blockers and take a baby aspirin.  Oh yeah, and run their treadmill again every year.  Stan does his in January, my treadmill will be in July-we are heart patients together!  I feel lots better, and today the esophagus is almost completely better-took a long, long time.  I am have a little trouble adjusting to the beta blocker, been sleeping a lot, but I'll get there and if this one doesn't work there are others. 

Riding in an ambulance was never on my bucket list, but I guess I can scratch it off!

Have been knitting-I started this blanket the other day.  Had to do a little tweaking and ripping to get the hang of the pattern, but I think I've got the hang of it.

You pick up the new color stitches as you go, then you don't have to sew any blocks together, just hide the threads.  It's supposed to be a pattern for leftover sock yarn, I found the pattern on Ravelry, but I decided to use up some worsted.  I think it will work.  It's small right now while it's hot and by the time it grows the weather will be cooler.