Long road

So much has happened since my last post.  August 14th was my last post, which I actually didn't realize I had posted.  Looking at it, I took a lot of selfies on vacation, and I left out the best picture I took of Chris.

Let's just start at the beginning.  August 15th.  Chris woke up and told me he couldn't see out of his left eye.  I just figured he was still half asleep, he was going to go take a shower and wash the junk out of his eye.  He came out and told me that he still couldn't see anything in his left peripheral vision, he thought maybe he had scratched his eye in his sleep.  He decided he was going to go to work and see if it got better.  He had a trainee (someone he was training to do the work), so he was going to make that person drive for him.  While at work he text me and told me it wasn't getting better and if it was still bad, he was going to go to the dr "tomorrow."  I told him he should go to Urgent Care after work since they're open until 7pm.

I had ridden the bus that day because Damian was taking the car to go overnight backpacking, so I didn't get home until after 6.  While on the bus Chris text me again to let me know that the Urgent Care was walking him to the ER, he said it was because of his blood pressure being too high.  When I got to Mount Vernon I went straight to the hospital, I walked into the ER room as Chris was talking to the Dr.  He was saying "yeah, I went off my blood pressure meds about 7 or 8 months ago."  I said "What!?" and the Dr turned around and noticed me there.  Oh, and he said that he stopped taking aspirin as well, which is something that everyone with high blood pressure should be taking, along with meds.

I had to go home and get Maddox from his daycare, I asked our neighbors if they would mind watching Maddox while we were in the ER.  They said they would even though their oldest son was leaving early the next day to go to college and they were having people come over, but they were really great, and actually, Maddox loves their oldest son, so it turned out okay.  I went back to the ER where they were getting ready to do some tests to find out if he had a stroke.

Anyway, after a CT scan and an EKG it was confirmed that Chris had had a stroke while he was sleeping sometime the night of the 14th and the morning of the 15th.  They admitted him to the hospital, they said that the first 24 to 48 hours is the most high risk of having another stroke.  I went home for the night to get Maddox and go to bed. 

Unfortunately, both Chris and I had used all of our PTO (paid time off, which includes sick and vacation leave) on our vacation the week before.  So I went to work on Wednesday with the thought I'd leave early if I could.  I was able to come home early Wednesday and stayed at the hospital with him. Wednesday they did an ultrasound on his heart to make sure there were no blockages, valve problems, or clots so they could release him . . . good news, none of that.  Bad news, it was discovered that Chris's heart is functioning at about 10%.  As one of his dr's said, a heart's normal functioning is at 60% , the remaining 40% are used as reserves to use when in danger, exercising, etc. 

For some reason we still thought he was going to be released on Thursday, however, when I visited with him before going to work, I talked to the nurse and she said at least another day, possibly more.  They wanted to keep him under surveillance.  After I got to work Chris called me later to tell me that he was told that during the night his heart had stopped 6 times in a row before getting back into it's normal rhythm.  I called the nurse to talk to her about it because Chris has had a arrhythmia for a long time, where his heart will skip a beat or two and then go back to normal.  The nurse said that there are many different arrhythmia's and his has evolved into a very dangerous kind.  He was attached to shock pads, sticky pads that have attachments to jump start his heart if it stops, but was still able to walk around.

I think Thursday was his hardest day, and of course, I was stuck at work.  His mom came by for awhile and was there when the dr came in to tell him about his heart stopping.  He was told he has to stop all nicotine and all alcohol and to take his meds like his life depends on it, because it does.  When I got there in the evening, I think he had talked to a different dr, possibly a cardiologist, and she gave him a little hope.  He was also moved to the "critical care" wing of the hospital, which we were told he should have been in all along, but they had no rooms.

Nothing new happened on Friday, although they did take off the shock pads.  Damian came home Wednesday and was hanging out with him some while he was in the hospital.  He took several days off to be around for him. 

Saturday morning they did a nuclear stress test, he was injected with nuclear fluid that they can see, and then given a med to speed up his heart.  (That was a very frustrating morning, the nurse working that day was awful, no communication at all, and told us that he wouldn't be getting the stress test, and then at noon, suddenly she's wheeling him away to do the stress test because the dr overrode something.  It was horrible communication with her.)  Anyway, after a couple hours the dr came in and said he was going to be released.  Nothing concerning, or new at least, came from the stress test.  He has to take it easy.  He is in danger of going into cardiac arrest, but he's okay to go home as long as he's resting a lot and not drinking at all.

He was cleared to go back to work on extreme light duty and was set up with a cardiologist appt and a regular dr appt.  He was told he needs to see a neurologist about his brain/eyesight but no where in Mt Vernon has any openings until November, so he's going to go to the town where I work so that he can get in sooner. 

He's been working about 4 hours a day since last Wednesday, but is very, very tired.  His job is an extremely active job, he installs cable for a contractor for Comcast, so he's unable to do much of anything.  He goes to the warehouse and stocks stuff and makes connector cables.  I think it's pretty boring for him. 

I've been pretty worried, not just about him, but also about our finances.  We had just begun to recover from 2015 when we lost our house and then had several big financial hits, plus Damian's graduation . . . needless to say, I've been extremely worried about being able to keep lights on in our house, or even be able to pay our rent . . .

My sister is amazing and started a gofundme page for us.  I hate asking people for money, and there is no way I would have done it myself.  I've had to swallow my pride on this one and get the word out there on Facebook and on Instagram.  It sucks.  I hate it. 

If you are able, please look at the gofundme page, donate, share on social media, and keep us in your thoughts.  Even though Chris is home, he's far from better and this will be a long journey for us.

https://www.gofundme.com/wheatcroft-family

Oh, and if you're on blood pressure meds, don't go off them.  His stroke was not "minor" it was considered "significant."  He just got lucky that it affected the part of his brain for his eyesight and not somewhere else, otherwise we would have way more problems than his eyesight and weak heart . . . oh, and the weak heart is likely because of his heavy drinking combined with his high blood pressure.

running contemplation and vacation

Well, I haven't run since August 1st, and before that was July 25th.  Other than that one 3 mile run on the first, I've had a 3 week hiatus from running.  And let me tell you, I'm actually not missing it that much.  Oh, I get twinges of missing the long run, but again, it's as I'm driving down the freeway and the morning is so pretty and I see that stretch of road I ran 2 years ago.  Is this the end of my running career?  Honestly, I just don't know. 

When was the last run that I finished that I felt great after?  Well, actually, my last long run of 13 miles was pretty great.  And after running 6 miles under 9 min/miles was really great.  But I'm not really itching to get out there and run right now, not like last year with my sprained ankle. 

And to be honest again, my hip still aches sometimes.  It's stiff when I get up from being in one position for a long time, and the other day after a long drive, I tried to sit down "Indian style"  (did you know "Indian style" is no longer a thing, kids now call it "crisscross applesauce") and I couldn't get my leg in the right place, I had to let it stretch out a min before I could actually sit that way.  For the most part it doesn't bother me at all, I don't even notice it.  So I don't know what to do.

Last week not running was actually not hard to do at all.  I wasn't even home.  We went to Deer Lake for the week.  It was a nice, hot week, but very hazy.  There are a lot of wildfires right now, and the smoke from the haze has been awful throughout Washington.  We were a little further north than where I live, and my understanding is that most of the haze is coming from Canada fires, so even though it was hot, it felt cloudy.  We didn't see any stars, and that's normally something we do a lot of, stargazing, while we're there.  The sunsets were basically just a big red ball disappearing into a cloud of haze way above the horizon.  Also, Damian didn't go, he thought it would be too boring, and he didn't take the time off of work.  It was still a very good week though.

I thought about waking up to run this morning, but that didn't happen.  The first day after vacation is probably not the best day to try to drag myself out of bed at 4:30am to run.  I may try this afternoon . . . or tomorrow.  I haven't completely decided yet.

After the last run I did on the 1st, I wore heels and I think that may have caused more discomfort than anything else, so I've also committed to wearing flat shoes, which at the moment is a much harder commitment than not running.  ; )

Last week I did a lot of paddle boarding.  I was usually on the water about 10am for a half hour or longer and then a little "putting around" in the afternoon and then again in the evening for another half hour or longer.  I went up and down the edges of the lake both ways.  The farthest I went was 2 miles, once one way and the next day the other way.  That took me an hour to go 2 miles.  I really enjoyed it, a lot.  But . . . I have a fear of water that I can't see the bottom of . . . and of things touching me in the water.  I grew up swimming in a swimming pool, so lakes freak me out.  I never went very far out, but I know it was way over my head and most of the time I couldn't see what was beneath me.  I would have little moments of nervousness (I was going to say little panic attacks, but it wasn't that severe) thinking about falling in.  I didn't fall in, but often thought it would have been good for me to, to at least see that I would be fine.  I couldn't force myself to jump in though.  Maybe next time.  ; )

Well, I think I will end this post with a photo dump.  Here is my week in photos =)



Maddox was really good on the paddleboard

This was my spot all week when I wasn't in
or on the water.

I discovered I loved this hat.  I didn't get it out till the middle
of our trip, but it was fantastic!

lots of reading happened too



Maddox made friends with the neighbors

I found a turtle one morning under my paddleboard

Chris on the paddleboard

My Mom even tried it, but she couldn't stand up

This was my outfit all week, swimsuit on, coverup
over it while not in the water.

What passed for a sunset through the haze

It really wouldn't have been vacation without
wine on the water.  =)

We saw quite a lot of wildlife this year.  Turkeys while driving there,
a garden snake, a skink (lizard with a blue tail) and this moose.
He's in the tully's in the water.

We watched movies in the evening because there
were no stars.

sitting with my butt in the water on the last day
because it was so hot.

Last sunset of the week.

Oh, and we passed several sunflower fields

They were looking at the bees.

The last night (Saturday) was my mom's birthday and we went
back to their house.  We also got to watch some of the Perseid
Meteor Shower there. The haze was not as bad there.