Friday Update

This afternoon my mom had her new pacemaker put in -- everything seems to have went well. Depending on how she is doing tomorrow, she could be released, I know she is looking forward to sleeping in her own bed again -- and getting as far away from the hospital as possible for a while. For those of you that want to talk to her -- she now has her cell phone so you can call away (despite everything she still loves to talk).

Through this entire 'event' it has been difficult not to realize how fragile life can be. If you have something that you wish was different, take this opportunity to mark a new beginning -- because life is short to have regrets.

Take care of yourselves, as always thanks for the thoughts and prayers. I'll try to keep the updates coming, but now that we're out of the 'danger zone' they probably won't be as frequent.

Thanks again,

Tim

Thursday Update

This morning my mom was transferred to the Downtown Hospital for her heart-cath procedure. Surprisingly, the results of the heart-cath showed no signs of blockage, while this is a good thing -- the cardiologist candidly said he's not sure what caused her heart-attack. He said that typically stress or shock could have triggered it, but given the context that she had the heart-attack, that diagnosis did not fit. As a 'precaution' she'll be having the new defibrilating pacemaker installed tomorrow. She likely be released from the hospital on Saturday, assuming everything goes right. Doctors say that she won't be cleared to fly for 2 weeks after the pacemaker goes in -- so they'll just have to deal with the crappy Naples weather this time of year.

Wednesday Update

When we walked in the room this morning she was sitting up in a chair drinking coffee (I brought her some ice cream from the Royal Scoop tonight too)! She was in great spirits and remembered our visit from last night and all day, which marked the first time she remembered a visit from us. By that measure her memory has continued to improve. As some of you know, my mom volunteers at Aultman hospital in the gift shop. She realized that she was due to work on the 30th and would need a sub. So she called the hospital from my dad's phone and proceeded to leave a message that she "just had a heart-attack and wouldn't be able to work.". Afterwards she said the receptionist was a little freaked out, and proceeded to laugh uncontrollably... only my mom... She still hasn't been moved from ICU, not because of health, they're just waiting for a room to open up. She's a little nervous about her procedures tomorrow, but she's hanging in there.

All said she continues to improve.

Here is a picture I took of her this afternoon -- thumbs up included.

Tuesday Update

Sorry for the lack of updates today -- it's been a long day, luckily we were able to all catch-up on some much needed sleep.

My mom is doing well today, her heart-rate and blood-pressure were down a good bit from yesterday -- so that's good news. Her memory is continuing to get better, and they have taken her off several medications so she was down to only 1 IV tonight. Thursday is going to be a big day for her, she's scheduled to get a heart cath, they will take care of any 'stenting' if they find blockage -- and they'll also be upgrading her pacemaker to one with a defibrillator in it (the Dick Cheney model). The cardiologist said that she won't be able to fly for at least 2 weeks, so she and my dad will be down in Naples for a while.

As always, thanks again for all of your continued thoughts and prayers.

Evening Update

Just got back from the hospital -- not much change since this afternoon. Her color looked much better, and she seemed more alert. One of the doctors mentioned she'll likely be downgraded from ICU tomorrow sometime. Consensus is that her memory is slowly getting better, she now knows what happened. She ate some solid food for dinner -- and best of all they were able to put her on her side -- so she was much happier.

Afternoon Update

Joy is still doing well, she's having some trouble with her short-term memory, however, her long-term memory is great. Doctors say that the short-term memory loss is common with this type of event, likely her brain is still a bit swollen -- they say that her memory should improve over the next few days. She doesn't like laying on her back, and she's not shy about telling us about it -- but she is in good spirits. They have tentatively scheduled a heart cath for Thursday, which Doctors say should lead them to a diagnosis.

Her nurse let us know that the CPR that my dad and Mark did saved her life without a doubt. Needless to say, we're all grateful for that, as my dad says -- he has at least 6 months of get-out-of-jail-free (I'd say he earned that).

Thanks again to all for your continued thoughts and prayers, without a doubt they have been answered up to this point.

Morning Update

At 7am this morning, we received a call from the hospital. The warming process had gone well! She is now able to move her arms and legs a bit and was able to move her head and track movement with her eyes. The are going to slowly begin to ease her off the sedative. This is excellent news, we'll all be going see her when visiting hours start at 10am this morning. Hopefully today, we'll have some more information on what might have caused the heart-attack and they'll be running some test to assess brain activity. Still have a long road ahead, but we've crossed some major hurdles thus far.