Congestive Heart Failure at 34….What???

It all started 3 weeks ago, John was going through a bout where he was coughing all of the time. At this point is chest was hurting him so bad I thought that he really had pneumonia. So he finally asked me to take him to the hospital. He went through x-rays and even a cat scan to determine if maybe he had punctured a long, but everything came back ok. He was released that night with an upper respiratory infection, given tramadol for the chest pain and Z-pack for the infection.
A week later we were in our family doctor’s office because his symptoms weren’t getting any better. The doctor informs us that the cat scan showed that though he didn’t have any signs of a punctured lung or pneumonia it did show that he had a broken 6th rib, which the hospital never called and informed us of. He was again given another round of a different kind of antibiotics, another script of tramadol for the broken ribs, started on a new blood pressure medication (Ziac) and an inhaler of albuteral.
For a week he worked. He went everyday driving an 80,000 pound vehicle, because that is the way he was raised. You work, sick or not to take care of your family.
This past Saturday, he was swelling in his stomach and had some edema in his legs. He told me that his stomach felt like you could stick a pin in his stomach and he would just pop. Soooo, back to the hospital we went. This time they put him on and EKG machine and had him hooked up to bp and O2 saturation monitors. His blood pressure was through the roof, and his O2 sats were decent. They took some blood, and did some more x-rays and the doctor came back into the room and informed us that My 34 year old husband was in Congestive Heart Failure and needed to be admitted to get the fluid off from his heart and lungs or he was going to be in sever respiratory and cardiac distress.
At 5am Sunday morning, he was admitted into the hospital and immediatley given a substantial dose of Lasix and 2 different kinds of blood pressure medication. One of them being Lacinapro. By 9am they had oxygen on him at 3% on nasal cannula because as he slept his o2 sat levels were dropping to 70. Through the day Sunday they just continued the blood pressure medication, adding a 3rd and the lasix support to rid his body of the fluids.
Monday…..5am, lasix was again administered but no bp meds on board this morning because his bp was 100/58 which is WAYYYY better than the 178/110 that we started at Saturday night. He had an echo on his heart this morning and now we are just waiting on the cardiologist to see John to determine what the next steps are that needs to be taken. We know that if his heart is strong enough then they will be perfoWe asked why this took so long for it to be diagnosed correctly and the nurse turned to me and said “Because a 34 year old man doesn’t have congestive heart failure.” All I can do right now is Thank god for the E.R. doctor that took the time to listen to all of the symptoms that he was having and doing the right thing and finding out what was wrong with my husband…I could have lost him this week if it wasn’t for him.
Things will be changing now for our family and I thought that I would invite you all in on our journey.
We have to change a lifestyle that we have been living for far to long. So as soon as I know he is out of the woods for good. I will be going home and cleaning our cabinets out. No more salt, no more soda, and we need to get Wii fit and wii active for John and I to do together. We are going to become a more active family and we have to do this to save my husband life.
So you are welcome to join me in our day to day journal of the way things need to be, the ups and downs and ins and outs of congestive heart failure and severely high blood pressure and the pains of starting a life anew.rming a procedure to reduce the amount of fluid that has built up in his abdomen.



Update:

The Cardiologist came in about 2 today and told us that John’s heart isn’t releasing right..It’s weaker then he would like to see it. A normal heart releases 55 % of the blood that it takes in and John’s is only releasing about 25%. In a couple of days after they get a little more fluid out of his body they will be transferring him to Fairfield Medical Center and doing a heart catheterization in the next couple of days to find out why John’s heart is so weak. The doctor’s at Logan have him on the right path to help make his heart stronger. They have his blood pressure under control and upped his lasix dose.

School Update.......Errrrr

Ok so I'm a perfectionist at certain things...My house maybe not so much but in my defense it takes a lot of energy to clean up after 5 children and a not so helpful husband. But school, now that's a totally different subject.

It's funny..I think that everyone should have to work for 5 years before they enroll in college...It really makes you appreciate the gift of a secondary education. So at 34 years old I strive to do the best I possibly can in my classes.

....And right now, I'm struggling. Now I consider myself a bit of a computer wiz. I catch on really quickly to new programs and don't seem to have problems learning how to fix stuff that is wrong with it. In all my years having a computer mine has never gotten a virus that I couldn't fix. With that being said...I HATE microsoft Excel 2007!!! With every ounce of passion in my body I hate this program.

I just totally bombed my first test since starting back to school and I hate to think what it is going to do to my GPA. So if any of my wonderfull blogger friends would like to tutor me I'm up for the challange but unless you are an advanced user don't bother because the questions I have are not normal!!!

On a good note...My legal class is going wonderfully and I totally got an email from my instructor today wanting me to email him copies of my homework so he could use it as an answer key. That was pretty sweet I tell ya.

.........Oh and Jana..............GO BEARCATS!!! Totally going to wipe the floor with your gayturds!!
<3~~Stacy

Lovin' the holiday season!!

I'm usually totally hating Christmas about now...worrying about what I can get the kids..If we are going to be able to get them everything that they want. Which this years I'm not going to be able to and I know it but you know what I can't base my holidays around if they get everything that they want. They will get some of it if not most of it, but the boys are getting older and you know as they get older it gets more expensive. Can't do it! Oh well they will be happy with what they get or maybe I will just take that back too LOL!

We always put up our Christmas tree the weekend of Thanksgiving and this year wasn't any different then any other. Of course John and I had to go out and replace almost all of my bulbs because the cats thought it would be funny to knock my whole tree down the stairs last year and all of my glass bulbs kinda got shattered...That was a lot of glass and soooo not a lot of fun to clean up.

Black Friday was a blast...wish I would have remembered to take a few pictures while we were out but the hubby and I literally ate lunch at 8:00 in the morning...I had Charlie's chicken philly sub and John had Taco Bell...Got some great deals at Old Navy and some stuff at game stop...They will be happy ..I HOPE!

Getting back on top of things!

It's been quite sometime since I have blogged about books let alone anything that has been going on in my life. Books are books they are my constant and I'm still reading almost everyday. Right now I'm reading all of Nina Bangs books again. I love her so much! But let me start at the beginning of when my life got so hectic.

I decided on a whim to call our local community action agency and see if they had any available grant money for stay at home mom's to go back to school...Guess what....They did....So I went from staying home everyday with nothing to do until the kids got home to going to see to get my degree in Paralegal Studies three days a week. I have 2 instructors and my legal class only has 3 people in it so can we say one on one teaching!! Everything is going great..I'm getting A's in my computer classes and A's in my legal classes and I'm loving every minute of it. I have met some amazing women who have become wonderful friends and I really enjoy being in class with them and getting to eat lunch with them 3 times a week. My kids tell me they are proud of me all of the time and have even hung my A+ test scores on the fridge with theirs!

I have a spectacularly wonderful friend who makes sure she gets my kids to and from practices and school while I'm at my long school day on Wednesdays. Thankfully football and soccer are just about done but Tyler is wrestling this year so practice for that starts in November. She makes my life so much easier and I just don't know what I would do without her...Thank you Karin!

The kids have gotten their midterm grades and all I can say is 3 out 5 isn't bad right? Jacob is almost getting a perfect 100% in kindergarten. Gabby has all A's and one B+ in reading and Ashley is getting straight A's in her first year of middle school. They are doing a spectacular job and I'm so very proud of them. The boys on the other hand....We'll that is a different story all together. Tyler has totally lost his mind this year and he completely flunking school...Thank god we caught it at midterm and he has time to get his grades up. I was a horrible mother and pulled him out of football until all of his missing assignments were caught up. He didn't complain though. I'm pretty sure he knew better. I just can't fathom how this came from my honor roll student..I just don't understand and probably never will.Cody's wasn't to terribly bad..his problem was he hid them from us. So I'm hoping he has learned his lesson about that. He got wonderful comments from all of his teachers. He tries hard, pleasure to have in class, needs to ask for help more but tries. That tells me that he is giving his all so I can't really fault him for that.

Cold and Flu season is upon us and I already have sick people living in my house. Jake is home from school today because he has to go and have his kindergarten boosters. I thought he was all caught up but I guess I was wrong. He is putting on a brave face but I HATE taking them to get shots period. Gabby and Ashley are both home from school until Thursday. Gabby has strep and bronchitis and Ashley just has bronchitis. So they are on Amoxicillian and cough medicine. And pushing the Tylenol and ibuprofen to keep the fevers down. Karin is going to keep them tomorrow because they will have a full 24 hours of antibiotics that way I don't miss school.

So I am going to try and keep up with this a little better again. I love having a way to tell about the ends and outs of my life. So until next time!

Win Destiny Kills and The Accidental Vampire

Win Destiny Kills and The Accidental Vampire!

As promised I'm going to start doing some random contests and this is the very first one! One very special person will win brand new copies of Destiny Kills by Keri Arthur and The Accidental Vampire by Lynsay Sands! Here's how you can win(it's very easy!): Each of these will get your name in the drawing once, so if you do all three your name will be in the drawing three times!

Win a ARC Copy of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Contest Monday: Win a Copy of Catching Fire
As I start off a new Contest Monday, I first want to thank everyone who entered the contest to win Shiver. Not only did that post become an instant hit, but it was my first post to reach over 100 comments! I really wish I had more than one copy to give away. However, someone lucky will get picked, and that announcement will be tomorrow. So stay tuned! Now, what could we give away that might actually have a chance competing with Shiver? How about a brand new ARC of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins?

About the Book (From Back Cover): "Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge."

How to Enter: To enter the contest, simply leave a comment on this post. Or, if you can't leave a comment, send an email to shadyglade (AT) mail (DOT) com with the subject line "Catching Fire Contest" and include your name, your email address, and the correct subject line.

How to earn Extra Entries:

1. Post about the contest on your blog or website. +1 for a sidebar post, +2 for a regular post. Post a link in your comment.
2. Become a follower of this Blog (post a comment to let me know).
3. Come up with and post your own Contest Monday (post a comment with the link).


Rules: The contest is open until Monday, June 29th, 2009. You have two weeks to enter this one! Open to US and Canada residents, even if you've won a contest in the past. The winner will be chosen by a random number generator. One free entry per person allowed. See above for instructions to earn extra contest entries. Rules about claiming prizes can be found here. Questions? Post a comment or email and ask.

Good luck to everyone! I'll announce the contest winner of this book on Tuesday, June 30th.

Of course, you can always buy your own copy of Catching Fire too. But you'll have to wait until Septemember 1st to read it:

*The amazing Contest Monday banner was designed by Liyana.


http://theshadyglade.blogspot.com/2009/06/contest-monday-win-copy-of-catching.html Here is the Link to The shady glad blog!!

Rick and Bobo by Nick and James Ventrillo

Rick and Bobo
by Nick and James Ventrillo
Published by: Vanir Books
ISBN: 978-0615288659
Reviewed by: Tyler Clement age 12 for reviewyourbook.com
Rating: 5/5

Rick and Ray are two brothers who get rich off from one of Ray's invention. Ray wants his genius brother to make him into a superhero. But remember you can't be a superhero without a super villain.

I read Rick and Bobo and really liked it. I think my brother and I can really relate to this book. I am very much like Rick. I am very smart and have a really short temper. My brother is a lot like Ray. He has trouble with school but it takes a lot to set him off. I rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars and I can't wait to read the next 3 in the quadrilogy.