A Scary Weekend

As most of you know, we had quite an eventful weekend at our house. Since many of you got details second or third hand, I'll fill in the blanks. If you don't want to read the whole thing, just skip on down to the last two paragraphs. I don't blame you, really. It's a long story. I just need to get it recorded before the details become fuzzy.

Friday morning my brother Cash and son Spencer, my brother Jared, wife Maren, and two boys got here to our house at around 9:00 a.m. to go skiing with Brent, Jensen, and me. It was the first absolutely gorgeous and warm day we've had, so we had a blast on the lake until 1:30 p.m. Brent skiied hard and drove the boat, and he also took the little kids out on the taco tube and rescued them all when the tube flipped. It was a fantastic way to start the summer. When we got home, Brent and my brothers were taking care of the boat, and Brent says it was then that he started feeling weakness in his arms, but he attributed it to some serious waterskiing. Everyone left then except me and Brent (Jared took Jensen), and Brent went upstairs to shower. At about 2:40 p.m., I heard him calling for me, so I went upstairs. His voice wasn't urgent, so I wasn't hurrying, but I did go right up.

I went in the bedroom and found him hunched over the bed with his forehead and arms resting on the edge of the bed. He was writhing around and complaining of severe pain in his middle back and numbness and tingling in both arms. I touched him and found that he was drenched in sweat. I was trying to get him to tell me what was going on, and at first he said he thought he had pulled a muscle in his back, but I don't think that's what he really thought. About a minute later, he was saying that something was really wrong and that he was in trouble. He also said that he was going to be sick. I tried to get him to lie down, but he complained that it was worse lying down, and he was in too much pain by then to move anyway. By then he was short of breath and lightheaded, and I was scared because I was pretty sure about what was happening. I tried to get him to let me call 911, but he just wanted me to try to drive him to the ER. I knew there was no way I could a) get him down the stairs alone, or b) get him to the hospital fast enough, so I went ahead and called 911. I have never called 911 before, but by then it's like you're living in an alternate universe and you just do what you have to do even though you're not sure it's you doing it.

The fire truck arrived five minutes later, during which time I had called Jared to tell him what was going on. The firemen were getting a history from me and trying to make Brent comfortable, but there was nothing that was helping. He was throwing up by then (I had gotten him a bowl before I called 911. There is no throwing up in the new house!), and a little incoherent. He kept asking for nitroglycerin and the firemen kept telling him they didn't have any. The paramedics arrived a couple minutes later, and based on the fact that he had been outside all morning, they kept trying to convince us that he was just dehydrated and hyperventilating. No matter how many times Brent told them he was really in trouble and no matter how many times I told them he had a family history of heart problems, they would not even consider heart attack. They told me to meet them at the podunk Caldwell hospital where they would rehydrate him and send him on his merry way.

They loaded him in the ambulance and I went to the car. About ten minutes later, they were still in the driveway and I was getting out of the car to see what was up when Dalin drove up from school. I can only imagine his panic when he came home to find an ambulance in the driveway and me in the street looking awful. I blathered on about what happened, and he ran to the back of the ambulance. We stood there, him basically keeping me up while I sobbed. The paramedic finally came out and told us they had determined Brent had had a "cardiac episode," so they were taking him to the podunk + cardiac hospital in Nampa. They took off, and Dalin and I grabbed some stuff and headed to the hospital.

By the time I got there, my mom and Jared were already there, and I was told Brent was in the "cath lab" having a procedure. We waited for a little over an hour for the doctor to come out and tell us that Brent's right coronary artery had been completely blocked, no blood flow at all, so he had inserted a stent into the vessel to clear it out. He said Brent was lucky to be alive, but that because he had gotten to the hospital quickly, his heart probably wouldn't suffer too much permanent damage. Dalin and I went back to his room in ICU where within 5 minutes he started complaining of the same type of pain and other symptoms. None of the staff seemed to be too concerned as they slowly moved around the room, but Brent got more and more distressed and was in a lot of pain. The doc kept telling me it was "post-surgical pain and discomfort," promising me he was just fine, and telling the nurse to give him more IV pain meds. Dalin and I went back out to the waiting area because they said Brent needed to rest and calm down. We hadn't heard anything more for an hour when a nurse finally came in the waiting room asking for me to sign some papers because Brent's latest EKG showed that he needed to be taken back into the cath lab to see what was going on. The techs rolled his bed by the waiting room to take him to the lab, and that was the first time the girls got to see him. They were both understandably very upset seeing him like that, and the next hour and a half were torture.

Finally, a different cardiologist came in to the waiting room to talk with us. He said that the stent the first doc had put in was too small and that blood clots had formed around and in it, completely blocking it again--another heart attack. He had cleared out the stent and expanded it during another angiogram, so Brent was out of pain and headed back to his room. I stayed at the hospital with him Friday night (and Saturday), and my mom took the kids to her house. Saturday brought a complication (a pseudoaneurysm) with the catheter site in his groin, causing him a lot of pain, so he was on massive pain meds and out of it most of the day. Sunday was much better. Brent was still uncomfortable and tired easily, but he got out of bed for the first time and was able to visit with people who came to check on him. Monday morning the doc said he could go home, so we got out as soon as we could, straight from ICU. YEAH!

So many of our friends and family came to visit us at the hospital, and many others have called and sent cards. Brent's parents have kept in close contact and offered support from afar. We have really appreciated everyone's love and support and the prayers that were offered for us. I have some amazing friends here in the valley, and I depend on them for emotional, and sometimes physical, support. My dearest friend, Laurie, was at my house to tell the girls when they got home on Friday what had happened and to take them to the hospital. She was at the hospital with me much of the weekend for support, even making an 11:30 p.m. run to my house for my blanket and pillow and such. Thank you to my oldest and best friends Jen, Liz, Julie, and Corla for all of their love, help, and keeping me sane, and thanks to new friends Linda, Christy, and Nancy for the many things they have done to help us. My brothers and wives are amazing, and they love and treat Brent like he was blood-related to them. I adore them. And of course, my mom saves me. There are events and crises in everyone's life that are made easier only with the love and shoulder of a mom. When I got to the hospital on Friday and she was there waiting for me, I sobbed like a little child in her arms. Thank you, mom. I love you, and we couldn't have gotten through this without you.

Brent's prognosis is good. He should be back to regular activity in about six weeks. We are so lucky. The doctors say that his heart attack was largely due to genetics, and they didn't really give us much information on preventing another (we are looking for a new doctor, by the way). The whole weekend and since, I have thought back on the last almost 22 years and marveled that such a man has stuck with me. Brent is an amazing husband and father, and we will be hardpressed to ever take him for granted. I look forward to eternity.