CaringBridge journal entry by Stephanie Fay — 7/3/2023
Nancy and I, after these almost seven years of cardiac adventuring, have begun to acknowledge the many ways we have learned to cooperate. “We’re a TEAM,” we say, you know, like with a mini, congratulatory fist bump.
So here we are in Portland, teaming up again for Nancy’s fourth major recovery from this idiopathic and deadly heart arrhythmia. Practice, while certainly not a prelude to perfection, does make her recovery process a little easier each time.
And so we’re off…
Nancy transition off the ventilator went very smoothly. Although she felt nervous about Noelle firing again, she hasn’t had any ICU delirium at all. Whew! And NO PVCs either! Yippee!
She remains in the ICU, likely until tomorrow. She’s on a new antiarrhythmic medication – quinidine. OT and PT departments are on holiday staffing today so they will get busy and get her up and moving tomorrow.
Her young new cardiologist, Dr Jack, was assigned to her case this afternoon. Displaying prowess with his stethoscope, Jack was in charge of productive belly laughs and blowing kisses. See photo above.
The other photo is freshly minted (17th of May) Annika Aarsvold, Andreas and Greta’s daughter. Dr Jack will be handing off the various tasks of boosting Besta’s morale to Annika once we return to Minnesota.
And goodness knows when that will be. Dr Rajabali, the electrophysiocardiologist, rounded on Nancy today, and we three had a long and really educational discussion. She told us NOT to plan on heading back to Minnesota this week. We told we have excellent support here and will only fly the coop with her blessing.
And speaking of support, it was wonderful and uplifting to see Jack and his mothers, Tina & Jess, down from Tacoma today. Nancy’s first cousin, Jan Marie Ellertson, came over yesterday afternoon for several hours to lend support during Nancy’s extubation. Nancy’s brother Jeffrey Keith has made two appearances – first on Saturday night just to sit with his baby sister and again late last night to regale her with all sorts of, well, let’s just say made up stories.
I continue to catch my winks here and there at Scott (another first cousin) and Mandy Ellertson’s house just 4 or so miles NW of this hospital. Oh, and savoring a bit of Mandy’s well renowned cooking and baking.
Nancy’s care has been exceptional – certainly on par with both Minneapolis and Seattle. Okay, so maybe her Minneapolis stay may still take the hospital stay cake. But perhaps that is partly because we were such rookies to this cardiac adventure we now call our lives together.
Thank YOU ALL for your support here on Caring Bridge and via texts and brief FaceTime sessions.
A world of love**, Stephanie & Nancy
**I stole this from Eleanor Roosevelt. Yeah, me and thousands of other folks… 🙂