Archive for September, 2008

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Breakable; original watercolor by Karen Faulkner

On September 22, 2007, my husband and I left a restaurant with what my husband thought was some severe heartburn. He drove us home (unusually fast for him) and we were not in our house 5 minutes before he came into the bedroom to tell me that we needed to go to the ER. Thinking be might be overreacting to some carne asada he ate I was not particularly worried. But I should have been. I drove us to the ER. We were rushed right into a room, machines beeping, nurses buzzing, doctors talking, and within minutes the EKG told us he was having a heart attack. Suddenly the monitor signaled the nurses something was terribly wrong. They asked my husband how he felt and he said “dizzy”. This could have been the last words I heard him say. In flash, I was pushed out of the room and left alone behind the shut door. A nurse took me to a room where I called my mom to come for support. I was in tears when another nurse came in and told me my husband was “very sick.” I asked her straight in the face if he was alive. She couldn’t answer that question and I’ll never forget the feeling I had seeing look on her face. Within that same second the doctor came and said “He’s awake – you need to come see him.”

My husband’s right artery was complete blocked. His heart stopped there in the ER and he was shocked back to life. The good news was that he was alive. The cardiologist told me that had he been anywhere but in the hospital he would not be so lucky. The next several days were a blur. A week later he went back in because of more chest pain and had to have his left arteries opened with stents. Those first couple months were full of anxiety mixed with thankfulness. It has been a strange year for us – but one of the happiest and memorable for me. I have never felt closer to him or more willing to do whatever we need to in order to be healthier and happier.

It is a strange anniversary to celebrate, but this weekend we remembered a terrifying but amazing occasion. I feel so thankful and honored to be with him and to have the friends and family that supported us in that time.