Hello everyone and Becky Max-
Becky- I can't believe your husband had a pulmonary embolism while you are trying to deal with your AN. Thank God he is recovering. As you may or may not know, my own husband, Tom, was diagnosed as needing a sudden quadruple bypass and a new aortic valve while undergoing a catheterization (heart) to get cardiac clearance for spine surgery. So he had open heart surgery May 3 at St. Francis in Roslyn, L.I. instead of spine surgery (scheduled for May 3rd) at Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.
Yes, these life-threatening experiences only make us appreciate every day even more. Tom could have had a heart attack at any time; his only sympton was tiredness and loss of appetite and lethargy-which he attributed to the spinal stenosis back pain. He had no chest pain or shortness of breath but two arteries were completely clogged , a third was seventy per cent and I don't know what the fourth was.and his aortic valve was shot. So they shipped him to St. Francis after the catheterization at St. Catherine's. St. FRancis is a noted heart hospital here on Long Island. I stayed at various hotels near the hospital until he got out of cardiac intensive care-about nine days.
He came home May 14th and so I have not been on line. However he has been doing better every day. The physical therapist has come three times and we go to various doctor tomorrow and next week. Like you, I am considering us blessed now that the big crisis is over. These events make us do so much soul searching.
As for our own ears and their issues, I guess we are also blessed if all we have to deal with is hearing loss, ringing, and strange feelings in the head. That feeling of pressure. I did find, and maybe you did too, that at the end of a long day at the hospital- for example, surgery day, my ear was buzzing out of control and the pressure-feeling was relentless and I could not wait to get back to my hotel room to lie down at 8 oclock. I think stress makes our symptoms worse.
Tom is home now, thank God and progressing slowly but surely. I usually put my feet up for an hour from about 3:30 to $:30 and it seems to help. I notice that when I arise in the a.m., and all is quiet, my ear is feeling almost normal too. However sometimes, I am walking along and the balance thing happens. Not that I fall but I know that I did not have these head issues last year-only a little hearing loss. Then I was diagnosed this past February. Then LIFE HAPPENED some more!
Oh-and I heard from the ENTon the way to the hospital one morning. I called him because I had not heard the results of my ABR hearing test. He did get back to me-He told me that according to my ABR, I would lose my hearing from surgery or treatment. The issue of blance and feeling out of my head MIGHT be helped, but no guarantees. He told me to have another CAT? MRI of my head in July and see him in August. So I think I will deal with this just fine, in light of the heart issues that our poor husbands have had.
So stay strong, Becky. And thank you to everyone for their compassion-we are in each other's prayers, I know. God hears us.
Love, Millie
