My Mom's Big Heart

Some of you may know this by now, and I am sure many of you do not.

Last Saturday, February 25, Patti and I were hosting a party at my house to celebrate my Mom's 80th birthday. She had been down in The Big Apple, the week before with my brother, and his partner David, and my sister Laura. They were doing up New York City, big time, took in a Broadway show, had some great meals and arrived at the airport Saturday afternoon to head to the party.


I was standing with my sister (who came in on a different flight) waiting for the rest to come in. My Mom came through the sliding doors and down the ramp, gave me a hug....looked at my sister (who by the way is a nurse) - and said "I am having chest pain".
Instantly I thought....is she tired? Is it from pressure from the landing? Now as this was happening, my brother Don and his wife Rosie pulled up in front of the terminal....Laura and Mom got into the car and were gone, as I waited for Jim and David to get off the plane.

I quickly got a call from my sister in law....just a few short minutes saying that they were on the way to Credit Valley Hospital. Now it was getting scary. In the meantime, I had 25 family members on the way to my place to celebrate my Mom's birthday. We decided to go there first, and wait to get a call from the first carload going to the hospital.

By the time they arrived at the hospital, my Mom was officially scared, my sister ran inside and said I have an 80 year old woman with chest pain rated at "10 out of 10". The professionals quickly reacted to assess what was going on, and in short order determined that indeed my Mom was having a heart attack, and in fact one artery was 100% blocked. One thing we did not know of course is, Credit Valley is a great hospital, but Trillium in Mississauga is the "Heart" hospital....and quickly the decision was made to send her there. She got there quickly by ambulance and she was rushed in for an emergency angioplasty surgery.

Meanwhile back at the house, the family was showing up, my daughters, my brother Steve and his entourage and my nieces etc. etc. Slowly we told people as they arrived what was going on. It was surreal. I didn't know what to do. You like to think you will make the right decisions, but you keep wanting this not to be happening.

Back at the hospital, the angioplasty has been done. Patti, pulled me aside and said, you and your brothers (Jim and Steve) need to go...."don't worry about us" - so we did, we headed to the hospital....not really knowing what to expect.

We arrived and found our way to the CCU (Critical Care Unit) - found my brother Don and wife Rosie and my sister Laura sitting in the CCU waiting room, along with about 15 other people....sadly, a really busy place. My sister filled us in on everything. Mom had a substantial heart attack. She had the one 100% blocked artery fixed with a "bare metal stent". We also found out that she had another artery 95% blocked.

What is really interesting about this picture is that the arrow pointing to the Left Anterior Descending Artery is pointing exactly to where her 100% blockage was. The arrow pointing at the Right Coronary Artery is pointing exactly to where her 95% blockage.

Here is a great picture of a Normal Artery and a Narrowed Artery....caused by the buildup of plaque. This is what was going on with my Mom, and of course nobody, including her, knew this.

Angioplasty is a technique for reopening narrowed or blocked arteries in the heart (coronary arteries) without major surgery. Click here for more on the procedure.

An amazing procedure.

My Mom was feeling a bit better, but still had a lot of pressure on her chest. She had to have another Angioplasty done on the 95% blocked artery, but they wanted to wait until Wednesday or Thursday for that. However, on Sunday night, she was having a lot of pain again...and the decision was made to do the other surgery on Monday. It was a long 24 hours.....waiting. The surgery was done Monday afternoon. My amazing sister was there all day with her, keeping us on in the loop. I arrived at the hospital after the surgery. I walked in remembering how pale my Mom had looked on Sunday night....I was really worried. When I came in she was eating fruit cocktail and looking great (Amazing, I thought to myself).

It is now Wednesday night, and Mom already looks like her energetic self. She will be discharged in a couple of days, and of course has been told to take it easy...but they have also told her to resume her normal activities. Wow! What a difference a week can make.

That is the end of my "educational blog" for the day. I am working on a follow up....stay tuned.

Thanks to the staff at Credit Valley and Trillium....amazing. Thanks to Don and Rosie for their "ambulance like" drive to the hospital....thanks to Jim and David....for being here, and brother Steven too for all their help.....thanks to all my family and friends who have been in touch to see how she is doing.

Special thanks to Patti, who was (and is) simply amazing.

A very special thanks to my sister Laura. I cannot even describe to you how important it is to have someone looking after things that can combine knowledge with compassion, and have the calm ability to keep us informed. Thanks Laura. I love you.

As for you Mom.....we all love you....and your Big Heart.