A pound of prime rib and the ICU

Yesterday morning Bruce woke with symptoms of a heart attack (chest tightness, upset stomach, clammy, and dizzy) so we went off to the ER at 6:15 am. At the hospital they ran blood work (which they repeated at noon to see if the heart had produced any of the enzymes it does after some kind of heart incident), and an EGK. When the doc came is she had read the results of the EKG but did not have the blood work back. She found an abnormality on the EGK that the doc referred to "as significant" so Bruce was admitted to the ICU for observation and more tests. He had an echo cardiogram and a stress test. A cardio specialist came from Idaho Falls to do the stress test and look at the other tests that had been done. By 4 o'clock it looked like things were looking normal (except for the EKG) and that we might be able to come home that evening or the following morning. The nurse who did both the echo and stress tests actually drove the final report to Idaho Falls to the doctor's office so he could read them last night. The short story is that they can tell us what it WASN'T (which is a heart attack) but they can't tell us what it IS. He had the "perfect storm" of symtoms which unrelated would have been nothing, but together appeared to be very serious. We were home about 6:30 pm and Bruce is feeling fine. He even went this morning to a breakfast meeting with the new faculty where he made his presentation.

Now for the prime rib part. The evening before we had dinner with all the members of the stake presidency and one of Bruce's counselors cooked some prime rib that was fabulous. We all ate too much (Bruce thinks he ate somewhere between a pound and a pound and a half of meat) and we wondered if that had given Bruce some good old heart burn. Anyway, after we knew that all was well, we laughed that Charlie was trying to kill Bruce with his prime rib. When I talked to Charlie that evening he told me he was grateful it wasn't food poisoning too.

After having blood drawn, swallowing asprin, a shot in his abdomen of a blood thinner, tests, tests, and more tests however, the worst part of the day for Bruce happened as he was checking into the emergency room. The young man that took his information, made a call to the back desk and announced, "There is an older gentleman who is having some trouble." Ow! That was a blow to his "young" ego. We had to smile about that even in the midst of worry.

We still do not have the final results from the stress test - I know that it is a good sign that neither doctor has called yet - but we are confident that he will be great. I am grateful for good doctors, kind nurses, modern medical tests, the priesthood and worthy men who came to the hospital to give Bruce a blessing, and the prayers of so many of you. Thanks to all of you who called, came by the hospital, and even brought chocolate chip cookies later that evening to perk up the patient. A special thanks to Jen for being my rock, holding my hand, and making the calls I was having a hard time making. It was a stressful day, full of worry, but we are very thankful today for our blessings.