Lucky?

I was washing finger paint off 12 sets of hands at camp on Wednesday when my brand new phone started ringing. People know not to call me at work unless it is an emergency...just text and I will get back to you when I can.

I looked at the caller ID and it was from Coach who lives with us...so I answered.

He had called 911 and paramedics were at our house. Seems he had just come home and found The Captain lying on the driveway between the truck he is working on and the porch. He was conscious but in pain. The paramedics spoke to me and asked his birth date, allergy info and which hospital I wanted them to take him to. It didn't seem to urgent. The Captain's chest hurt a bit but his stomach was where the pain was mainly. He had thrown up a little.

Since I had run to work early at 7:10 to meet a friend to walk before camp, I had no car. Coach came to get me from work. I called for someone to come relieve me BUT THE PHONES WERE OFF 15 MINUTES BEFORE LUNCH TIME!! NO ONE ANSWERED!! I left an angry message. What if I had had an emergency with one of the children? A parent came early to pick up her son and I asked her to stay and dismiss the students.

Coach came to get me and drive me home so I could get the car. I drove a few miles to the hospital and parked outside E.R. Once inside I saw The Captain on the bed in so much pain it was like he was possessed. He was rolling from side to side groaning. An ultrasound was displaying his heart and I overheard the discussion of fluids building up around the heart...pericardial effusion. I stood at his side and kissed his cold head...he had no idea I was there.  As they rolled him off for a CT Scan he caught my eye so I knew he knew I was there. A cardiac anesthesiologist I saw previously who walked in drinking a Rock Star came back in and told me it was serious. I asked if he had finished the Rock Star because I wanted him to be awake. He smiled and said he was finishing. The Captain was supposed to be brought back to E.R. but a nurse came by to bring me upstairs to the surgery waiting room and told me he was going straight into surgery from the scan. A surgeon came and introduced himself and said it was an aortic aneurysm that had ruptured...it went from the top to bottom and this was what John Ridder had and he died...I told him, "Save my husband," and he said he would.

I waited forever alone....finally The Biologist and the Nuclear Physicist showed up...then a co-worker and my friend the school nurse...then a friend who is a nurse at the hospital who had the day off and her husband....we all waited...and waited...and waited. The liaison came by and told us that it had calmed down in the O.R. now...it was a very tense start. She also said to call any children living away from home and have them come home.

We talked...and the mood lightened...and we waited and talked. FINALLY the surgeon came in with a smile on his face. He went to shake my hand and I said "NO!" and gave a big hug. He said they repaired the upper portion...there was still blood pooled but it would drain...and if he had to go back in for that he would be happy to do so as it would be simple. We had to wait an hour or so to see The Captain. As we waited, the friends left one-by-one and that just left The Biologist and her boyfriend the Nuclear Physicist. We were warned that he would look scary. ACTUALLY he looked soooooo much better than he did in E.R! The ashen color was gone and he wasn't writhing in pain. Later that night when I went back alone I saw his stitches. His chest was sawed open to give access to the heart...then it was wired shut and sutured with twist tie wires....very neatly like a quilter had done it. He was covered with tubes which were attached to every part of his body and had more hanging bags of fluids and breathing machines then I ever imagined possible.

Today I was told that from the time he entered E.R. to the time he was on the operating table it was just 62 minutes! Amazing!...and the scariest fact of all that the surgeon told me today....The Captain had 5 -7 minutes of life left when he was on the table...if it weren't for The Coach finding The Captain, or the quick response of the paramedics, or the quick thinking, Rock Star drinking cardiac anesthesiologist who phoned the other upstairs and told another cardiac anesthesiologist to prep the O.R. because he identified the problem and knew time a factor....and the time of day....because I was told if this happened at night there would NOT have been a surgical team that could have been put together as quickly as they assembled.

A night nurse asked me if The Captain has a nick name..."Russ" was my answer...he said, "Oh, we are calling him Lucky!"

SO there you have it...my life since Wednesday. We were supposed to have left on vacation this morning. Now it is day by day....today the ventilator was removed and when the sedation was lessened we had awakened the monster from Young Frankenstein....grunts and all. He is in a lot of pain and they have had to restrain him. I have had to help hold him down....not pretty! Let's hope tomorrow brings a little less monster!

*LIVESTRONG*LOVESTRONGER*LAUGH HARDER*THANKING OUR LUCKY STARS*