Have you missed me?Remember that I told you I was moving? I was having trouble breathing during December, but attributed it to the exertion of moving boxes of stuff, many filled with books. You know how heavy books are. One day, while carrying an overweight cat in a kitty-kennel, I was so out of breath that I got the door of my new place open, set down the cat, and sprawled on the floor. I thought maybe I was breathless from bronchitis or pneumonia, but the doctors now say I have had one (or more) heart attacks. On the morning of January 31, after a night of being unable to sleep because I couldn't breathe, I called my friend Donna to take me to the emergency room. That's when I learned I had congestive heart failure. They kept me overnight and helped me breathe better, but with instructions to see my primary physician that week. I did, and she sent me to a cardiologist -- who did a stress test, which I failed. Heart catherization showed the three heart arteries were 100%, 100%, and 90% blocked.
To shorten this story, I had open-heart surgery on February 19th, with four bypasses. I was able to leave the hospital after six days but, being unable to do much if anything for myself, went home with a friend who volunteered her home and her time to take care of me. I was at her house for eleven days before moving back to the new home I had not fully gotten moved into. I joked after the surgery that I must have gotten blood transfusions from a non-reader, because I had no interest in reading for days and days.
Wanna know what I've learned from this experience? How important it is to have loving friends. Two old friends and three women in my writers critique group have been my faithful supporters, re-scheduling their time for overnights at my house, getting me to doctor's appointments, bringing me meals, running errands for me, and generally "babysitting" me. Friends are wonderful.
18 comments:
Oh Bonnie! Yes I have missed you, thought you must be very busy getting settled etc. So sorry to hear about your broken heart. Sending 'get well soon' wishes your way. Blogging is good for your heart - not strenuous, keeping in contact, unloading your thoughts - looking forward to virtually seeing more of you!
Wow. That is major! I hope that you are making a full recovery, and I look forward to more posts from you soon!
Yes, I have missed you! I'm sorry to hear you had such a scary reason to be absent, but I'm glad your blockages have been found and fixed. Wishing you well!
I was wondering what happened to you! I hope that everything is good now and that you are going to be able to post more! Take care of yourself!
Bonnie! I hate to hear what you went through. I'm glad you had loving support and are on the mend now.
Bonnie, I'm so sorry to hear this and I do hope your recovery is relatively quick!
Bonnie -
I hope you're improving every day! I've given you an award because I think you're the absolutely embodiment of it. Stop by my blog to see what I mean.
cjh
Bonnie, I'm so sorry to hear of your heart troubles. I had missed you, but, like others, had thought you were simply busy moving (I know how overwhelming that can be). I'm glad to know that you are better now and surrounded by the lovingkindness of friends.
(By the way, sorry to be late commenting. I've had such difficulty with my dial-up internet lately (terribly slow and sometimes unable to even load a website) so I've had to cut back on commenting. Very frustrating...)
hey bonnie-
It was great to meet you in st. elmo yesterday. I tried to send you an email at the pardadigm address but it got sent back to me. Can you shoot me an email at chris@1perspective.com and I will send you the link to sign up for the St. Elmo email list.
Thanks!
Oh my goodness! I wish you well with your recovery from your quadruple bypass surgery!!!!! And I hope you are able to get back to your books and "regular life" soon. What an experience!
Oh Bonnnie, I've been wondering and worrying about you and so hoping that you'd pop up and let us know you are okay. Poor dear, what a horrible frightening experience all of that must have been.
I hope you're feeling so much better and that the outlook is good. Please do take really good care of your precious self.
Oh my gosh! I too was wondering where you went. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that but I'm glad you're doing okay. I'll be sending healthy thoughts your way, keep up updated.
Bonnie, I'm so sorry to hear all this! I hope that you are feeling much better AND that your reading blood has overpowered the non-reading blood! Let us know how you are doing.
Stopping by to say hope you're doing okay, Bonnie - you're in my thoughts and I do so hope that you're getting better every day.
xxx
I am glad that you are OK. I had visited your blog long ago and was checking those I had not looked into for a while. Glad to see that you are still blogging. Hugs. :-)
CJ, I can't believe I'm just now getting around to this award (which I noticed and then promptly forgot while mending). Thanks so much for the award and the kind words.
For those of you who are curious, here's her awards post:
http://cjreading.blogspot.com/2009/03/sisterhood-award.html
Hope you're feeling much better!
Thanks.
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