Did I say Murphy's Law? We had NO idea!!

I did not blog for the last few days because it appeared that my husband Mark had a heart attack Saturday night. Yes, you read that right, Saturday night during the SHOW. Crazy. Unbelievable. He did such a great job on his part of the performance that no one suspected a thing, and he didn't tell anyone anything either. He felt crushing pain in his chest from the time he left the stage after his first set of songs in Act One at about 8:30 or so. Of course, he didn't mention it to me until after midnight.

Long story short, he ended up in the hospital by Monday. Tuesday he had heart catheterization to look for the blockages. Surprise, surprise, NO blockages! He didn't actually have a heart attack by definition; they now call it a cardiac event. He had cardiomyopathy, a large part of the top of the heart just stopped working. They call it "stunned." He also has a birth defect in his heart. Wow. His heart rate is super fast, always has been, and his blood pressure had been creeping up over the years. These two things and possibly his diabetes probably contributed to this myopathy. The defect means that when his heart pumps, it actually squeezes his artery shut. Weird. His heart was pumping so fast that it didn't have time to fill up properly between beats, so it was not efficient or effective.

The good news is that proper meds to slow his heart and lower his blood pressure coupled with rest for a month or two should restart the heart and get him back to normal. His activities are severely curtailed for a few months, but it looks like we will still go on our big trip in March.

From the standpoint of my food, it was really hard not to want to give in to a binge at the hospital. I cruised through the cafeteria many times; ice cream was calling me, but I didn't listen. I stayed all night Tuesday. I ate ok, but too much. Tuesday morning I weighed in as normal before I left for the hospital and I was 206.5. I was VERY excited about that new low; however, this morning, I am 210.6. I estimated that I ate about 1600 calories on Tuesday and 2400 on Wednesday, so it's amazing to me that a four pound gain would occur in those two days, but that's what my body does under stress, I guess. Today I'm going to do Mark's usual chores of shopping and laundry. Our storage POD is being delivered today; another huge snowstorm is on the way for the weekend; I have a surgeon's appointment today because my hernia is back, and I may be facing another surgery myself. Can we say STRESS!!!!??? I need to stay focused because the last thing I need to do right now is sabotage my own health and progress that I've made. I need to stay strong and healthy for Mark right now. He has always been the strong one; he's taken care of me through so many of my health crises over the years. It's only fair that I stay strong for him now.