Livy Marie: February 2009

One of the joys of home schooling is knowing exactly what your kids are studying and learning it all right along with them. Well, sometimes that entails doing some not so nice experiments in science. My youngest 3 are doing a zoology study for science. Their current chapter was on rodents and what a better way to study rodents than to look at their skeletons! How can you do that at home.... well you dissect owl pellets of course! Now, let me clarify that owl pellets are not the owls poop, they are the owl's vomit! The owl swallows their prey and after the stomach acid takes what it needs it turns the bones and fur into a nice pellet and the owl spits it up! Us wacky home schoolers then buy these pellets to dissect and check out what was eaten! YUCK! That is all I have to say (actually I said throughout the whole process).

When I unwrapped the pellet we all just about gagged, it really looks like a big ol' turd! We then started to pick it apart (we had 3 of them to dig through) with tweezers and tooth picks. At first no one wanted to touch it with their fingers, but it is just about impossible to dig out the bones without doing so.

As long as you did not think about what you were actually tearing apart it was not so bad, but the minute I tore some fur (and it actually is still soft and furry) it is hard not to think of the creature before it was in this state! For about 30 minutes all the kids dug in, even my 4 year old!

After a while they lost interest and went to play (after washing their hands in bleach!), but my 10 y.o. stayed until she could lay out all the bones and reconstruct the creature. My son eventually came back and made his too. There was even teeth still in the skull bones!

We discovered our owls ate rodents, and a shrew. There was even a baby rodent in one. The bones were so small! The most disgusting thing we found was a tail! It was a great way to end our study of rodents. We really got a good laugh over it all and was quite the experience.

I hope everyone reading this had a great Valentines day with all those they love. It is easy to remember your significant other on this day, but I try to always remember my kids too, for they are the loves of my life as well. I actually got to take my littlest one out for a donut this morning. She does not get to much one on one time with mom or dad, so this was a special treat! After dinner we gave the kids a goodie bag full of sweets for the sweeties! Then we ended the day watching a movie together and pigging out on candy! It wasn't much, but I know my kids loved the planned time together.

Here is a story about my love of my life and his broken heart

It has been a while since I have gotten to write on this blog. A lot has happened in the last week that pretty much put a stop in our lives. I will give the story, although most know what has happened, but it is good to write it down. I had to call the squad on my husband late Feb. 6. He has been suffering from episodes of a very fast heart beat for about 2 years. That particular night it raced on for 2 hours. Finally I got enough nerve up to call paramedics. It was the hardest thing to do. I do not know why, I think it has to do with the fear that the episode would of been over by the time they got there or the fact that I had to admit something was seriously wrong with my husband. Needless to say they monitored his heart and it was above 250 beats per minute! Now that is fast! They get him stable by stopping his heart! Then it kicks back to it's normal rhythm. So off they take him to the hospital. I started calling my neighbor to come over and watch the kids. It took 4 times to finally get a hold of her and she was over in 2 seconds, bedhead and all! She is my first angel to help me through this whole ordeal!

I find him in a typical emergency room with a bed, a lot of monitors and a very hard chair. In that chair I sat while they ran test on him for the next 5 hours. He dozed on and off and I tried to catch some zzzzs while leaning up against a wall. At one point we had a doctor come in and tell us that his blood work showed his enzymes were slightly high. This is an indication of a heart attack, but he reassured us that he thought the test was wrong and wanted to run it again to check. He had never heard of anyone who had tachycardia (rhythm problem with the heart) having a heart attack from it. So it took another 3 hours to get the blood and test it. He came back looking rather shocked and told us the enzymes were indeed elevated, meaning Bill had a heart attack. Boy were we in shock as well not to mention scared! He then told us that Bill would have to stay at the hospital and that a cardiologist would be in to talk to us. That doctor told us that technically Bill did have a heart attack by definition only (meaning that if your enzymes in your blood are high that you had a heart attack). He believed that the enzymes were high just because his heart was racing for so long and that damaged could of occurred as a result. That doctor also informed Bill that the congestion he was experiencing in his heart was technically from congestive heart failure, but he told us not to be concern with that! Ha! Why do they even tell you those things if we are not to be concerned with it! So there we were with the terms heart attack and congestive heart failure spinning around in our heads! By this time it was 6am and I had to make a call to my neighbor to let her know I would not be home for a few hours because my husband had a "heart attack". Those were the hardest words to say, I was so scared, but knew Bill was even more frightened.

They then admitted him to the Cardiac Care Unit where they hooked him up to all sorts of monitors, IV's, etc. He really looked a mess and I could tell he was exhausted. His cardiologist came by and while he was still out in the hall, Bill's heart speed up to 187. They all rushed in and once again stopped his heart and got it back to a normal. That was a blessing, in that his doctor was right there to see one of his "episodes". His doctor then told us that Bill had SVT (Supra Ventricle Tachycardia) and that he would need an procedure called an ablation. You can click on those links to find out more about what those are. So they wanted to keep him at the hospital over the weekend and then do the procedure on Monday. We were fine with that because we knew he was safe there. After getting my kids to my cousin's house where they would spend the night (my second angel) I quickly went back to his room where we would "camp" out for the next 3 days. Of course I had to make a dozen phone calls to family and friends (I actually used up almost 400 minutes on my phone in one week... which is funny because I have a pay as you go phone that requires me to buy minutes every 60 days and what you do not use just rolls over. I had a TON of minutes to use and always joke around that I will never use them all.... well I am now down to 100!). I also went to the waiting room and slept on a couch for an hour, because once again his room only had a straight back chair?! They moved him to a regular room on the heart floor ... which had a fold out cushy chair that I planted my butt in for 2 days. My dad and Lin flew up from Florida to stay with my kids the rest of weekend. I was so overwhelmed that they would do that! They are my 3rd angles! This was truly a blessing because it got my kids minds off of all that was going on. Nothing like spoiling grandparents to keep you occupied!

The 4th angel was our pastor. He came in on Friday when Bill and I were still pretty shaken up about the whole thing. He said the most comforting words and his prayer really gave peace to the both of us. He also came again to pray will us before Bill was taken into do the ablation... at 6:30am! Once again it gave us peace in a difficult time. I went home on Friday night because I really needed the sleep and to let my dad in the house. Bill said during the night the patients on both sides of him went code blue. One did not make it, the other they were able to stabilize! He was amazed that the nurses could go deal with that then come into his room and with a smile care for him. We have a new appreciation for nurses and all they do - they were definitely angels.

On Saturday Bill's room was full of visitors! For about 6 hours we had family and friends come and see how he was doing. They were all angels too for taking the time to come to the hospital. It really made Bill and I see how important that is to get the love and support from people during difficult times. The kids came early that day and I could tell it upset them to see their dad in a hospital bed. After awhile though they were more at ease and we reassured them he was going to be ok after they fixed his broken heart! Sunday was a day of quiet and rest. I even went home for a few hours to clean my house and do some laundry. I did spend each night at home. I knew I would get better sleep there and that Bill was in good hands.

On Monday morning just as I was about to leave my house Bill called to informed me that they could NOT get him in that day to do the ablation and that it was pushed out until Wed., Feb. 11. They were releasing him to spend the next few days at home. So we rearranged all our plans. My dad unfortunately had to go back to Florida on Tuesday, I reassured him we would be fine, but I could tell he was upset he could not be here for my family during the procedure. I made arrangements for my friends to keep my kids Tuesday night and all day Wed. until we got home from the procedure. They have 4 kids and 3 are home schooled so I knew they would have no problems adjusting to 5 more! It is really hard to find a place for all my kids to go. There are only a few people I would feel totally comfortable with leaving all my kids. I know they are great kids and are not much trouble, but it is such a imposition for people. That is a lot of mouths to feed! So the Kotwis family are my angles too!

Off to the hospital to have the ablation done. It is only to be an outpatient procedure that would take 1 hour or so and then about 4 hours down time to have the wounds heal. They go in through the groin area and up a vein to find the bad circuit and then burn it. Angel #? comes into the picture. We have a friend at church that is a nurse at this hospital. She stops in Bill's room on Monday morning before he is discharged and informs us that she is a surgical nurse who does ablations! She scheduled herself to be Bill's nurse! That was the biggest blessing we could of ever asked for! She prayed with us before the procedure. She talked to Bill throughout it and she often came out to notify me of what was going on! I was sitting in the heart center's waiting room by myself.... BIG MISTAKE! Never go sit in a waiting room by yourself while your loved one is having anything done... no matter how simple the procedure is! I really did not want to trouble anyone, I thought I was strong enough to wait it out. I was even looking forward to being by myself. Well after the hour and a half went by and then two hours, I started to get worried. Our wonderful nurse, Mariann came out and told me that Bill had WPW syndrome, Wolf Parkinson White syndrome. Meaning that they had to go around to the back of his heart to find the "bad spot" and then fix it. This would require them to go up through an artery, which has a higher risk of stroke and is more difficult. She reassured me that it was fine, just not what they expected. She said it would take about another hour then he should be done. Well, that time came and went and she emerged saying the the Heparin they were trying to give him was not working. It usually only takes 2 minutes to get in the blood, it was taking over an hour. So off I go to wait some more.

This whole time I have befriended another family that was in the waiting room (I was the only one in there by myself... I think they felt sorry for me). It was a dear older woman whose husband had been taken back when Bill was. He was to have heart surgery to put a stint in. She was so worried, so I prayed for her a lot. I won't get into all the details but her husband was to need triple bypass heart surgery. It was not what they were expecting to hear and they all took it really hard. It just reminded me how much worse it could be, that Bill was going in for a simple procedure that would fix his heart. Many others had big surgeries ahead of them and the odds did not look too good. Bill and I both said we would start eating heart healthy so we did not end up in the hospital when we were 80 facing a failing heart!

Finally Mariann came out and said it was all over and they fixed the problem. It took a total of 4 hours. The doctor, Dr. Lee, sat down with me and explained it all... he even used a model of the heart that opened up to show me exactly what they did. He said he was 98% sure it was fixed! He is another angel! It is amazing what they can do in our bodies! I thank God for giving him the knowledge to know what to do, especially when he got in there and discovered it was something else. He told me that Bill's condition is rare that only 2% of his cases have been this WPW. He also said Bill was born with it and that he always sees it flare up in men in their 40s. He does not know why!

Since Bill had so much heparin in him and because the procedure took so long he had to spend another night in the hospital! So my kids stayed put at their friends and I stayed until I knew he was going to sleep then headed home to get some much needed rest. He came home on Thursday, Feb. 12 and had to take it easy for 2 days. He is up and around fine now. He is a little sore and very bruised in the incision areas.

So for all those angels I am so thankful that they were there in our time of need. There are countless others too. All those who prayed for us, people even had it announced at their churches and added it to their prayer list. I am thankful to all those who have provided brunch and dinners! My dear friend Trish helped to coordinate it all and help to rearrange it all when we had to stay at the hospital longer! To my neighbors who came to let Mercedes out and spend time with her, I am thankful for their caring hearts! It was those little things that made this journey so much easier! God sent his angels when we needed them!!

Sorry that was so long. It was more for me to get it all down in writing than to inform others. BUT please take care of your heart! Eat right, exercise, do not smoke, do not drink a lot, cut out caffeine, etc. You will be thankful you did!