Saturday, August 24th:
Madalyn and I were enjoying playing outside and Kevin was working. He had a business luncheon and then he worked until 5:00 that day. It was a typical Saturday for us.
When Kevin got home at 5:00, he came in saying that he had horrible heartburn, at least that was what he thought it was, since about 1:00 that day and it had gradually gotten worse. He normally doesn't get heartburn and so this was unusual for him, but he figured it was what he had eaten for lunch. So I gave him some Tums. Kevin's parents came over to eat dinner with us, and Kevin was still continuing to complain about his "heartburn". So after dinner, his mom gave him something else. He said that he felt like something was stuck in the middle of his chest and it wouldn't go up or down. By 8:00 that night, he was still having trouble with the "heartburn" and now he was having trouble taking in deep breaths. It was also painful for him to sit all the way back against the chair. By 9:00 his breathing trouble had really increased. Being an asthmatic, Kevin used his inhaler and his breathing machine, but he was still unable to catch his breath. If he would get up and walk, he would have to stop. By this time he was also running a low fever and complaining about being cold. We thought maybe he had an infection setting in due to his procedure of removing the polyp from Friday. I told him that if he felt like he needed to go to the ER, then we would. At 9:30, Kevin said "if you want to go to the ER, then we can." I knew at this point, something was really wrong with him. I called his parents and they came to stay with Madalyn because she was already asleep and we didn't want to have to wake her up.
10:00pm-we arrived at the ER in Barnwell, and we didn't wait too long, they got him in pretty quickly. They put oxygen on him, which really helped him because he wasn't struggling to breath now. They did an EKG on him, and the next thing we are being told is that they are going to fly Kevin to Providence hospital in Columbia to see a cardiologist. Kevin and I were both thinking "are you serious?" You are going to do what? Then they did some blood work on him. His EKG showed that he was having a heart attack. By this time my sister-in-law, Tori, had come to stay with Madalyn, and Kevin's parents came to the hospital, along with his other sisters and brothers.
Sunday, August 25th:
12:00am-After getting the lab results back, we find out that Kevin is still going to be admitted to Providence hospital, but he will go by ground. He isn't having a heart attack, but he had what is called "Pericarditis"which is when the sac around your heart becomes inflamed due to an infection. Kevin's mom drove me home to get a bag of clothes and things together because we had some time before they would transmit him.
2:00am (or a little after)-The ambulance takes Kevin to Columbia, and Mrs. Katie and I follow. Or well we tried to follow, we lost sight of the ambulance once we made our way back through Blackville to head to Columbia and we didn't catch it again until we meet the men coming out of the hospital after they had dropped Kevin off.
3:00 am (or a little after)-We get to the hospital and my parents are there and they start drawing blood on Kevin. (It's amazing that he has any left as much blood as they drew). They took 6 vials along with 4 Tabasco Sauce looking bottles full. (Not to mention the blood that they took in Barnwell).
5:00am-My parents were headed to our house to take care of Madalyn and Kevin's mom headed home. Things started to calm down then. As I tried to close my eyes and rest, it was finally hitting me what all had happened and what all was going on with Kevin. Realizing that he was very, very sick right now; it was a scary thing. I looked at my phone to see what the verse of the day was on my Bible app and it said "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand", Isaiah 40:10.
6:15 am-they started coming in again and it was a crazy day with doctors and nurses coming in. The blood work showed that it was definitely the Pericarditis and not a heart attack. They did a echo cardiogram (ultrasound) of his heart and there was some fluid around is heart. They were testing his blood to find out if he had a bacteria or fungi infection. If it was bacteria, then it would be easy to treat. If it was fungi, meaning a fungus had started growing on his heart, then he would be in the hospital for weeks. The day continued with them drawing blood, etc. My uncle Keith came down to visit for the day and be there for moral support.
As you can see he's starting to feel better.
Monday, August 26th:
The cardiologist that I saw a few weeks ago was Kevin's doctor and he told us that Kevin's infection was viral and he caught it just like catching the common cold. It wasn't related to anything else nor there wasn't a high odds of someone else getting it either. We spent Monday in the hospital. Kevin was started to feel better. He had a few visitors: his Uncle Jim, his cousin Brandon, and his cousin Brantley.
Tuesday, August 27th:
They took Kevin to do another echo cardiogram and he still had fluid around his heart, well its actually at the back of his heart, but it hadn't gotten any worse. So the cardiologist told us we could go home. Kevin goes back next Wednesday afternoon to get another scan and hopefully it will show that the inflammation is going down and the the fluid is going down. Kevin is on some medicine and light duty for work. He can't do any heavy lifting. The doctor said it would take several weeks for this to go away. Kevin will also for the next few months have to go and see him and get a scan done to ensure that things are progressing like they are suppose to. The doctor also said that they caught this in time and there shouldn't be any long term damage done to his heart. He was so happy that he got to go home, which I was too.
As you can see, he was ready to leave. He had to wait on them to wheel him out.
Madalyn was happy to have her Daddy home and they spent some "quiet" time coloring.
Madalyn had a few of her Daddy's favorite treats for him when he got home.
Wednesday, August 28th:
This morning, Kevin wasn't feeling too good. I had his mom call the doctor for me since I went to school to see what we could do for him. He was pretty sore in his chest and shoulders. They told us we could up one of his medicines and for him to not do anything until he sees the doctor next week. In other words, he is allowed to go to the chicken houses to look at things, but he's not even to pick up eggs. Which honestly, he doesn't feel like doing anything. He's been sitting most of the day and if you know Kevin, you know that's not him. But he's sick and has a lot of recovering to do.
Thank you so much to all of our family and friends for all that you did for Kevin, Madalyn and myself. We so greatly appreciate it! Thank to family and friends who visited, taking care of Madalyn, sending me text messages to let me know you were praying for Kevin, cleaning, cooking, and even cutting our grass. We are so humbled and blessed by all the out pouring of love that we have received over the last few days. Most of all we thank everyone so much for their prayers and for continuing to pray. Kevin is better, he got to come home, but he's not well yet. So please continue to pray for him and that his body will be healed.
Madalyn had some fun while we were in the hospital. She got to ride a horse with Pop. The whole time I was taking her picture on Saturday, she kept asking to ride the horse. So Sunday, Pop gave her a short ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment