I actually got to GO OUT today. Now, don't get me wrong, I have left the house before today. I went to the grocery store (no milk please). I did a little Christmas shopping & I have been to church. But today, I actually went out, just to go out.

Ashley & I took the kids to see Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.
It was cute, but that is not my point.

It was very liberating to be able to leave the house for no reason. There was no "be careful," no "are you sure we should?" We JUST did it. For 2 hours, I almost forgot all of this stuff happened. Thanks Alvin, Simon and Theodore for the escape. You guys rock!

While the movie was cute, it will go down as one of my favorites by virtue of the situation. Funny how that works.

Wanna review?
For those of you with kids, go see the chipmunks; for those without, go see Star Wars.

Other than that, I am doing pretty good today. Went to church, got bagels for lunch & then hit the theater. Going to take my walk as soon as I post this.


And now the saga continues...

Two Days Home & It's Back to the Hospital Already:
Yep. I was home for 2 days when Ashley & I noticed I was bleeding from the location where the bubble pump went into my femoral artery.

At first it didn't seem like anything really. I noticed a little blood spot on my pants. I figured a Band-Aid & be done.

Well, upon further inspection, we noticed what seemed like a hard lump with bruising, classic signs of internal bleeding. Internal bleeding here is usually not good.

Neither of us liked what we saw, so at 8 pm, it was off to the local ER for further inspection. Luckily, we made the hard decision to have the kids in Raleigh through the weekend, so they were taken care of.

To make a long story short-ish, we get to the ER at the hospital's satellite campus and find out that the best way to determine if there is internal bleeding is to do an ultrasound. Only problem is, they don't have one available. Oh, they HAVE one, but there isn't anyone there who knows how to sue it.

SO, guess what I get to do?

...did you try to guess? I can wait...

Yep, you guessed it. I took ANOTHER ride in an ambulance. The Dr. didn't want me riding in the car because of the situation, so he called for a transport ambulance.

Fortunately, this was a much nicer ride than the last one. I was actually feeling pretty good that day, we just really didn't like how the insertion site. I was talking to the EMT; learning how to read an EKG (he showed me where he could still see remnants of the heart attack). I even got to joke with them a little.

To keep this story short-ish...we get to the main campus and find out that a specialist who could read a vascular ultrasound is not on site at night. If we wanted that to happen, we'd have to admit me until the next day. WHAT? REALLY? The machine is there. There are people to operate the machine there, but none are certified to read a VASCULAR ultrasound?!?!?!? Figures. It IS me after all...

Finally, a talented Dr. was willing to give us an "unofficial" reading to help us decide if we should admit me or not. This Dr. and one of the Cardiology residents looked at the images and determined that what they saw on the outside, and what they "unofficially" saw on the inside, indicated to them that I was not bleeding internally.

Yes, they agreed it was ugly, they agreed that we made the right decision to come in, but they felt that we could go home. If anything WAS going on, it would be a slow leak, and not immediately life threatening. By the next day, we could come back safely if we noticed that it looked any worse.

I am glad to say that the next day, the area in question did not look any worse, no better, but no worse. I am also glad to say, that the area healed up nicely and is no longer a concern.

I am NOT happy to say that, less than a week later, there was another scare and another trip to the ER.

That is for tomorrow though.

So, I will bid you good night & remind you to catch the conclusion to this cliff hanger in my next post...

Same Bat Time (give or take)...Same Bat Channel.