Rising From the Ashes

July has been one long month. Life had begun to look great and things were going good. Then our car's transmission stopped working, which led to the loss of the apartment. That is where life really took a turn for the worst. Greg and I were moving our things into a storage unit when his heart decided it had had enough. He could barely do much of anything, even moving a pillow caused his heart to burn.

After many nitroglycerins and much coaxing, I got him to the emergency room. The next morning he was sent to the heart hospital. There they realised that they could not place another stent. The stents he already had, the arteries next to those stents had become 100 percent blocked. Triple heart bypass here we go. That was good news and bad news. The good news is that with the surgery he would return to good health and be a "new" man. The bad news was that he was having open heart surgery. If that doesn't spell fear and anxiety I don't know what does. Facing life and death all at once was a very tall order.

The night before surgery I spent the entire night with him. We took silly photos, made each other laugh, and kept each other from falling apart. Both of our anxieties were at their peak but we were moving full steam ahead. When 5 a.m. rolled around, the nurses came in and prepared him for surgery. Panic struck as we walked with him down the hall and said our partings sealed with kisses, off to surgery he went. Needless to say, I didn't stop crying for a long time, it just wasn't noticeable.

Surgery began around 8:45 a.m. and around noon we were informed that he was fully transferred onto the heart and lung bypass machine. That came as a good sign with a hot poker stuck to the end. A bypass machine allows for a continued flow of oxygen and blood through the body while the heart is being worked on. Once the surgery is over they take off the bypass machine and let the heart pick it back up. That's the scary part, will the heart restart and take over. Well in this case, it DID! :)

The surgeon came out after surgery and informed us that the operation went great and everything was looking great. What a sigh of relief, but that is when the real tears started. It felt like I had breathed a breath once he was wheeled into the operating room. after six long hours, he made it through and is now on the road to recovery.

Long story short, his surgery was on a wednesday and he came home that sunday. He is now home and is doing great. I am so proud of him and am more full of love than I ever thought I could be.

THANK YOU ALL for all of your thoughts and prayers. Many of you helped me and his family through the darkest hours. Hugs and kisses to all. I will update again in a week.

WARNING: This is how his scars are healing. The four holes are from the chest tubes that drained the fluids away from his heart. You have been advised.