Thursday, February 4, 2010

A little too much excitement

After getting the good news about Bob's being granted another 6 weeks of highest priority for new organs, we settled in for the afternoon and evening - I did some work on the laptop, he finished his latest book and we took a couple of laps around the 10th floor. He was just finished with dinner around 6:30 when he started feeling the dreaded but familiar chest pains. He called the nurse immediately and the staff rallied quickly. This was a scary one, since it got intense much faster than ever before. Thank goodness he was already where he needed to be. If we had been at home this would probably have been my first call to 911. Nurses, cardiologists and staff from the First Response team arrived, an EKG was done in the room, and morphine and heparin administered. It took about 45 minutes for his pain to subside, but things calmed down.

As we were starting to relax and be thankful that everything got taken care of so well, people started gathering in his room again. This time it was his heart monitor that had everyone alarmed, although he felt fine. They went as far as to prepare him to be shocked, if necessary, to get his heart back in rhythm, and a doc from the ICU down the hall checked him over to see if he needed to be moved back into that unit for a higher level of care. He was adamant that he did not need the ICU, and his heart settled back down shortly.

He was provided with an unintentional distraction from all the drama, when next it was agreed that he should have a second IV line in his arm, "just in case". Well, 2 expert nurses and 6 needle sticks later, his arm won the battle and no new IV made it way into his veins. He was amazingly patient with all the tries, and even thanked everyone for their efforts!

I was comfortable enough with his status to head for home around 9 pm, with a nice heavy rain to keep my mind off the evening's activities. When I spoke with his nurse at 10:30 she said he was sleeping comfortably, which is certainly what he deserves after tonight. I am daring to attend a business lunch tomorrow, but since it's in SF I can just hop over to the hospital afterwards and visit with him after dialysis.

Hopefully things will return to the previous normal and he can wait for the transplant enjoying his books, music and calls and visits by friends and family.
Whew -
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RJ/Bob/Irv is a 61-year-old beloved husband, father, uncle, brother, motor racing fanatic, and Livermore resident who received a heart and kidney transplant in February of 2010. Bob's recent years have been defined by his health, which forced him into early retirement. Unfortunately, many of his days were spent in a dialysis center or at various medical appointments, primarily due to his living with diabetes for over 40 years. Numerous were panic visits to various Emergency Rooms all over California for treatment of chest pain. But now no more dialysis and no more late-night dashes to UCSF! The main focus of Bob's family, friends, and doctors has been a prompt transplant, so that he can get back to traveling with his Sweetie, driving fast cars, enjoying great music and laughing with his friends. This blog will function as a way to communicate with all interested parties and to keep everyone informed. And hopefully it can serve a great purpose also, in making people more aware of the importance of organ donation and how each life saved has a positive effect on dozens of related friends and relatives.