CapnHun's Day Off

CapnHun

Shared on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 10:38
Well, yesterday was a 'snow day' for us and made for a fairly interesting day off. I should start by saying my prayers for all those whose effected by the tornadoes Tuesday. Seeing such devastation on those communities made our snow troubles seem trivial by comparison. I hope all our 2old2play members dodged that bullet.

Tuesday after work Teddy announced that the doctor had scheduled his 'shock treatment' for Wednesday morning and he needed to be at the hospital at 7:30. For those of you who didn't know, teddy was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure back in October; he was hospitalized for about a week and we almost lost him. A pretty tough blow to the family considering he is only 40. Anyway the 'shock treatment' was a follow up procedure to get his heart back in rhythm, apparently he was still having some atrial fibrillation even after medications. We had to wait quite a while though because doc was waiting for some of the medications he had prescribed to level off in his blood stream and we had to play around with dosages etc. some to get the right balance.

I was supposed to work Tuesday, and he had arranged for his mom to be with him at the hospital. I wasn't happy with that because I wanted really wanted to be with him. I knew this wasn't a 'big deal' procedure but still. Anyway, I had to work, so despite waking up seriously early in the morning, I tried to push it out of my mind and get on with the day. The snow had started falling about midnight so we had a few inches on the ground. The weather people were predicting more, but they tend to exaggerate things (especially the morning crews) around here so I never get too excited. 5:20 the announcement comes in that school is cancelled (I was going to let them stay home anyway 'cause I get real nervous about car accidents and such around the kids schools. Plus I didn't need the coordination hassle). 6:00 it starts snowing fast and furious and I get ready for work so I can drop teddy at the hospital early and attempt to make it. 7:20 we are in the out-patient room getting set up when the kids call and say that my boss was not having us come in today, WOOHOO!!! Now we didn't have to get grandma out driving in the snow (a good thing for all the citizens of our fair city).

So I got to watch Teddy go off to sleepy-land and the doctor use the paddles on him. He even explained to me why he put one of the paddles on his back and the other on the right side of his chest  instead of on either side of the chest like you see on TV because all the electrical current goes between the paddles and the other way the only thing that was going to get the benefit from the electrical charge were his chest hairs. I didn't ask him that, he just volunteered the information but the nerd in me loves that stuff! This heart doctor is near legendary around here so I felt very privileged. Anyhow we got the bear back home as soon as he was awake enough to get dressed and climb in the van. The rest of the day was pretty much spent shoveling like everyone else around here. In the evening, I went out to help my youngest with a snow fort and man am I sore today.

Oh I was watching Discovery Channel at the hospital and they were having that show done by stunt man where they try and blow stuff up to dispel urban legends (Myth Busters?). We don't have Discovery at home and they were doing the episode where they are trying to figure out whether the 'crash landing' position is actually more dangerous because it puts the load on your neck making it snap making your death quicker (less suffering for you and less rehabilitation payments for them!). I didn't get to see the end result of those tests, did anyone here? It looked like they were having fun with the experiment although they didn't succeed in convincing  me that a dead drop fall of falling 45 ft from a crane would have anywhere near the same effect as a plane falling out of the air.

Comments

Caduceus's picture
Submitted by Caduceus on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 11:04
I hope the electrocardioversion takes. If that does not, if he is a good candidate, they may recommend placing a pacemaker. Good luck!
CapnHun's picture
Submitted by CapnHun on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 11:14
Doc said it worked immediately (thanks for the medical term. I heard it several times yesterday but in one ear and out the other). He seemed very confident that the job was done.

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