Obviously, I hardly ever write a blog anymore. I don't even know if anyone else besides me is looking at this anymore. For that I am a little sorry, but since I can't post pictures anymore on here and I'm not doing very well on weight loss, I've kind of lost interest in writing every day.
I did learn to use the Apple photo program, but this blog cannot upload pictures from there. My plan is to try to learn the Google photo program around the first two weeks of August when we are at Evey's house. I'm hoping she or Eric can help me with that since Eric's mother uses it. This is a Google blog format, so I'm hoping they might be compatible.
Meanwhile, I have been posting pictures of our adventures up on Facebook for those of you who are my friend there.
So just to catch up from the last three weeks, here are the highlights, more or less in the order in which they happened.
1. My weight is down a little. This morning I am 276.2, which is a loss of 3.8 pounds in the last three weeks. Of course, those who know me must know I didn't just steadily lose 3.8 pounds. In between being 280 in the June 5 blog, I ballooned up to 285 again and then down to 276.2. So that's how it goes. Currently, I am feeling in control, so who knows how long that feeling will last.
2. We went to Medieval Times with two other couples, the Goldbergs and the Sterns. Lots of fun.
3. We saw Rent at the Dr. Phillip's Center. We had never seen it live before, just the movie. In fact, Mark had not even seen the movie, so it was completely knew for him. Broadway Across America always does a great job. That was our last show for this season. We went with the Goldbergs and had dinner out afterwards in Celebration. Delicious.
4. We learned that the Rabbi our synagogue hired from Brazil is not going to come after all. His wife is having issues with her pregnancy, so they withdrew from accepting the job. We are back to square one. Our current Rabbi led his last service this weekend and has actually already moved to Columbus, Ohio where he will be the senior Rabbi of a large congregation with two rabbis. It's a great move for his family and only a few hours to Cleveland where his in-laws live. We wish him well on this next step in his career.
5. SOJC choir started up their rehearsals again, first one since the first week of May. Only 5 of the 10 singers showed up, so that is frustrating to me.
6. We went to the Mad Cow Theater to see Bad Jews. Mad Cow is about two blocks from Dr. Phillips Center, so we are used to that drive. There are two theaters in there, but we were in the small black box theater. Bad Jews was a four character play about two brothers, a female cousin, and the fiancee of one of the brothers fighting over their recently departed grandfather's chai necklace. It was funny and poignant and a tear-jerker at the end. Excellent. Again we went with the Goldbergs and had dinner at Town Tavern in Celebration afterward. It was POURING rain when we got to the restaurant, and we were all SOAKED running into it. Ah, Florida weather! LOL
7. NOW FOR THE BIG NEWS ABOUT MARK.
On Tuesday, June 19, we were scheduled to go to Universal Studios for the day. When I woke up at 7 a.m., Mark was lying on the bed and said, "We aren't going to Universal today. I think I'm having a heart attack. We need to go to the hospital."
So I dressed quickly and took him to the local hospital, Poinciana Medical Center ER. They were wonderful there. They got him on an IV and checked his vitals and blood. His heart enzyme, troponin, was sky high, an indicator of heart attack. Because Poinciana doesn't really have a cardiac unit per se, after about two hours an ambulance transported him to Osceola Regional Medical Center where they do have a big cardiac unit.
Everyone there was also wonderful. Shortly after 4 p.m., he was taken into the catheritization lab where they looked for blockages. Just like in 2010, his vessels are all clear. In fact the doctor said his arteries look like those of a 25 year old. Just like in 2010, he had had a toakotsubo. If you're reading this and don't know what it is, it's easy to Google! It's extremely rare for someone to have a second one, but here he is having it, being rare.
There's nothing much to do for it except rest. This one seemed less severe than the one in 2010. The doctor said the Tuesday afternoon catheritization and the Wednesday morning echocardiogram showed that it was already resolving itself. Mark stayed two nights and was discharged Thursday around 1 p.m. with instructions to rest through Sunday. He can go back to normal activities on Monday.
He's doing very well. He has rested. I haven't let him do anything except make his own breakfast and lunch, which is easy. I even did all the grocery shopping on Thursday, which everyone knows I NEVER do! LOL I have done all the cooking, cleaning, and laundry, too. Such role reversals in our house! I even learned how to make a pot of coffee. LOL
Since this happened, he's really struggled with his blood sugar numbers, not to mention his pulse and BP. The med for BP and heart rate has been increased by 50% to 150 mg twice a day of Metropolol. This morning he finally had a mostly normal blood sugar. Since last Saturday, he hasn't had a normal sugar reading, so having a good one this morning is a big step forward to getting back to normal.
The doctor wants his BP at least over 100 on the top number. He had super low ones in the hospital. Twice his top number was in the 70s and the lower number in the 40s. That is VERY NOT GOOD. Also the doctor wants his resting heart beat in the 60s. FINALLY, last night that also happened.
So he's on the road to recovery and feeling much better. One more day of staying indoors and resting, then tomorrow he is going to go to water aerobics. I'm going with him just in case it doesn't go well. HAHA! I really think it will be fine, though.
What causes a takotsubo? Stress and violent bursts of adrenaline and other stress hormones are the usual cause. Back on January 30, 2010 he had huge amounts of stress, didn't go to the hospital until two days later, and spent three days in Johns Hopkins. You can read all about it in this blog, the article dated February 4, 2010. I just looked back at it. I don't think I even used the word takotsubo.
This one was caused by a bad dream. Yes, that's right. A BAD DREAM. The cardiologist said that he has seen that happen before, not often, but it has happened. Mark was sleep-walking and panicked that he was in a movie theater and had to go to the bathroom but couldn't find it. When he woke up, he was in standing in the bathroom, holding his cellphone with the flashlight on, and realized his heart was pounding out of his chest with terrible chest pain and pressure. That was it. He had the takotsubo during his bad dream/sleep-walking episode. Scary, because you can't control having a bad dream. Sigh. Of course, that was at 2:15 a.m. and he didn't tell me until I woke up at 7 a.m. GRR. He said he didn't want to wake me. At least he didn't wait two days to tell me this time.
We are all just glad that he survived this second cardiac event and seems to be recovering fully.
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