What started as a wonderful, heart warming Sunday evening quickly changed into one of the scariest moments of my life. Let's start from the beginning:
My beautiful munchkins were singing in the church Christmas program. It brought tears to my eyes to hear their sweet voices singing about that precious baby born in a manger.
As I was taking in the wonderful performance, my husband grabbed my hand and everything changed...
He said he felt weird, his heart was beating more than 130 bpm, his hands & jaw went numb...
We sat on the front steps of our church with ambulance lights twinkling on the stained glass windows as our children sang their hearts out inside, unaware of the fear and chaos just yards away from them...
*sigh*
As I sat in the ER wondering if my husband had suffered a heart attack my mind was racing.
I can't lose him!
Hope there's no permanent heart damage!
Will he be back to normal?
Could we have prevented this?
What if.......
It was a rough night. We found out he had arrhythmia (irregular heart rate) and it had just gone haywire. My husband has been a bad boy the last few years. He has a severe case of Sleep Apnea and is supposed to wear a CPAP machine to force oxygen in his lungs while he sleeps. He hasn't worn it for years. (Trust me, this housewife has nagged him to no end about this for a VERY long time) Also, he has very high Cholesterol and hadn't been taking his medicine. BAD HUBBY! Throw all this together with a weeks worth of not much sleep and a stressful time of year and you get to stay at the hospital thinking you are having a heart attack. The kids were in great hands with my parents and came to have meals with us in the hospital.
We are back home now, and very thankful for this "warning sign." My husband is committed to changing his future. He finally understands that taking care of him, is in fact taking care of us. We have started new eating and exercise habits. There is a lot of changes going on around our house, and many new things to learn. God has truly blessed us with open eyes and hearts that can heal. We have so much to be thankful for this Christmas season. I think the kids and I will be hugging a special someone a little tighter from now on :)
Up next, the many, many, MANY ways to cook fish. Ha ha
(if you don't get this, wonderful! Those that live with, or know someone with heart problems will understand. You have to eat a LOT of fish!)
au revoir, adieu, ciao, till next time...
