An update on my summer crises

Last month I shared with you all the story of two awful things which happened this summer: my father’s death and my wife having a heart attack. People responded with a lot of concern and care, which helped things here immensely. I’m very grateful. Now I’d like to update you all.

My wife, Ceredwyn, how is she doing? Ah, this is good and bad news. The good is that she’s recovering. The bad is that she had a second heart attack. Oh yes.

A couple of weeks after the first she felt increasing pain in her chest. She’d been monitoring chest pain closely, unsurprisingly, and observed this carefully. It got worse. We discussed it, decided not to risk anything, and I drove her to the emergency room. She spent the next few days in the hospital with me and we experienced repetitions of the procedures she’d just gone through: cardio tests, EKGs, horrendous attempts at blood draws, another catheterization, and more tests. This time her troponin level was higher than the last, indicating more extensive damage to the heart tissues. So going to the hospital was exactly the right thing to do.

The staff were terrific, from awesome nurses to the astonishing cath team. They dove into her body again and found a tiny artery which seems to have been the culprit. Gradually her heart stabilized and, after several days, they let me take her home.

Ceredwyn is now the survivor of two (2) heart attacks. Which is not a sentence I ever expected to write.