One Year Ago.............

One year ago on a Monday my mother suffered an extremely serious heart attack that was nearly fatal. As a matter of fact if my older sister hadn't been reasonably close by and answered her cellphone I am convinced that our mother would have died on her front porch. She had been having chest pain and saw her doctor earlier in the day but after doing an EKG the doctor told her that it probably wasn't her heart and sent her home. Hours later as she talked to my sister, my mother refused to go to the ER because she said that the doctor had told her that it wasn't her heart and so my mother felt that it would be a waste of time and money to go to the ER. My sister talked again with her later and she was worse so my sister told her that she was hanging up and calling 911. My mother didn't want her to hang up and when my sister called her back she said that she felt like she was dying and stopped communicating with her.

When my sister got to her house the ambulance was already there and had initiated emegency procedures. The hospital was on the line and when they pulled in the staff was there ready and waiting and had everything prepared to start treating her immediately. She had a heart cath and had stents put in and we didn't know if she would make it or not. My sister called me at work after Mom was at the hospital but I wasn't able to fly out until the next afternoon because I had to make arrangements with the babysitter for my son. After arriving in Lexington, Ky it was a little over an hours drive from the airport and my niece and brother in law (to be) picked me up and we raced home. It was late when we got there and visiting hours were over but the doctor had given me authorization to see her because it was unknown at this point if she would be able to pull through.

It was touch and go for awhile but in the following days she started to make her recovery and the doctor was amazed that she was able to come back so quickly after suffering such a severe heart attack. I ended up staying until Saturday and by that point she had been moved out of the intensive care and it was clear that she would recover. She was released from the hospital a few days later. I have to say that she's a tough old lady and it amazes me that she was able to recover and resume her life.

I feel certain that she was minutes if not seconds away from dying. There are so many "ifs" involved in this story. If the hospital staff hadn't been as prepared as they were then she would have died. If the ambulance crew had arrived a little bit later then she would have died. And the biggest one of them all, if my sister hadn't answered her cellphone (which is not uncommon for her) then my mother would have died that day. I have said a lot of prayers and given a lot of thanks since that day. Who knows why things worked out the way they did? I'm just glad that they did.

Over the course of the year I can see where we family members have gotten complacent again, after all, it is human nature. I for one haven't gone to the doctor to get checked out nor have I started excercising as I should. I'm overweight and don't get out a lot which doesn't bode well for the future especially since after Mom having her heart attack I found out that there was a history of heart disease in the family which I was unaware of. At the very least for my sons sake I owe him the chance at having me fully functioning so that I can be there for him as he grows up. I know I have to make some changes but it's hard to escape from patterns of behavior that have been going on for decades. Slowly but surely I got into this condition so I need to slowly but surely pull myself out of it. All I need is to get serious and look at my inspiration...............