It didn't get any better....

So, Friday rolled around, and KatieKatherine had her appointment at DHMC, with her cardiologist. She has to go back for a stress test after school is over. The really fun part?? The entire time we were waiting for the Dr., unbeknown st to us, my mother was having a heart attack! Her complaint was really nasty heart burn. Well, guess what, folks?? That's a classic symptom in a woman! If you rate pain on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, she rated her pain at a 12 and never said a WORD!!! "I just thought it was heart burn...." AAAHHHH!!!! By Sunday, Mother's Day, my brother and I (katiekatherine, too) had taken her to the local emergency room, where they ran tests. Her complaint was shortness of breath. So, Respiratory Therapy came in and measured her peak flow, which turned out to be in the realm of normal. Then, he took an EKG. He very calmly collected his things and left the room to give the EKG to the doctor on call. Bells and whistles are going off in my head. The doctor comes back into the room, telling us, very plainly, that my mother had had a heart attack. He then explained where this diagnosis came from: When you have a heart attack, and you don't catch it in time, the muscle, which is the heart, starts to deteriorate, and releases an enzyme into your system. This enzyme likes to party, HARD. It causes lots of damage when it's left to it's own devices. So, she was rushed, by Rescue, to DHMC. We followed, at a discreet distance, arriving there roughly 15 minutes after my mother did. By the time they let us into CVCC (cardiovascular critical care), she had oxygen (which she had here), a heparin drip (to prevent the blood from clotting) and nitroglycerin, to control everything else. Now, my mother is 69 years old. At this point, she looked 79. Her eyes were huge and she was scared. So were we. Even my big, scary, hairy brother was down right frightened. She spent the night, trying to rest. Her blood pressure was pretty low, for her. She's been struggling with high blood pressure for a few years now. Her hands and feet were cold and she looked so tiny & frail..... I got no sleep that night. I called the hospital at 6am (before shift change) to find out the latest news. She got a little sleep, but still had pain. At 7am, they took her to the Cath lab and inserted a stint into her right coronary artery. She was awake the entire time, and never felt a thing! (they insert it through the groin area) After she got back to her room, she no longer had any pain, so, one thing fixed!! When I called this morning, she slept MUCH better. She sounded MUCH better, too! During the night, she had a little "flutter'...arrhythmia, so they adjusted her medications. She was off the heparin & nitro, and on a beta blocker and the other drug they always give after a heart attack (I forget what it's called), so after the "flutter', the took her off one of the drugs. When the cardiologists came around to check on her, and listened to her heart, they discovered she's got a squeaky valve!! Lube job, anyone??? Myself, I'm completely worn out. I've gone through the entire gamut of emotions, in a very short period of time. I had songs on the radio send me into a complete melt down (which wasn't really a bad thing...trying to hold it together for Katiekatherine). I've spent more time talking to people on the phone that I haven't talked to in YEARS, and have done more running around!! We've put 600 extra miles on my mother's car in the last 5 days! And, I'll be putting another 100 on the car Thursday when I go see her, then my brother will probably take the car to go get her on Friday, so there's another 200 miles!! I'll be so glad when she's home!!