| Thursday, July 20, 2006 |
| untitled |
I made a mistake in Tuesday's post. The title of the comedy show I saw wasn't "Women on Top". It was "Women Fully Clothed". This is only a wee bit embarrassing, because all day my MSN profile had the header "...tonight women are on top!..." When I was asked about it I explained it was because of the title of the show. Now I just look kinky.*
The show was excellent. Amazing. If you are a woman, know a woman or were a woman, I really suggest checking it out if there are still show dates left. 5 women whose names I forget at the moment, but one of them is the star of The Jane Show, and the 4 others you'll recognize from somewhere. I'm too lazy to get the program, but you can find out about the show at hahaha.com so go look there. 2 hours of skits and songs that every woman can relate to. It doesn't matter if you are in your 20s or 80s, if you've had kids or not. Great, brilliant comedy.
Our time at the show was marred, however. Let me preface this by saying "he's fine". No, really, really loudly "HE'S FINE". I need to stress that.
The show started at 8pm. My mom received a call on her cell phone from my brother Mike at 7:55pm. He and Aaron (my other brother) were playing ball hockey at an arena in St-Laurent, Aaron was having chest pains and was now being rushed to the hospital by ambulance. My dad, who was still at the store, would be meeting them there. That's it. We couldn't leave, because the 7 of us (me, mom, Bubbie, Robyn, Amy, Carol, Fran) had arrived in one car. We also didn't know where to go if we did leave. So while hysterical, the entire first act was overshadowed by worry and fear. At intermission we got a bit more info on what led up to them bringing him in, but nothing about how he was, because everyone's cell phones were turned off. We had to call Yannick who had been at the store with my dad when they got the call. He was an angel and drove around with Kevin helping to get Mike's car and my mom's car (that Aaron had borrowed) back to the house, as Mike went in the ambulance with Aaron, and my dad would be meeting them with his car. After the show we found out that Aaron was brought to Sacré-Coeur Hospital, and that they thought they knew what was wrong but that they were waiting for the cardiologist and arrythmiologist (sp?) to come see him in the morning. So of course my mom and I went straight home, got her car and went to the hospital.
I'm not going to recap the worry and fear we endured all night, nor how nervous Aaron was, or anything personal. You all know what we would have been feeling. If you have a loved one, even a loved pet, who is big, strong and healthy...almost indestructable...and then is suddenly rushed into the hospital for the first time in his life, attached to plugs and snaps like he's the Bionic Man...you worry. It's family, it's a part of you, it's a puzzle piece that makes you whole and you never think about it until you start to worry that piece might disappear and you'll be left with a hole you never thought you'd have.
Wednesday was a blur of waiting, tests, waiting, tests. I was supposed to go to work but didn't want my mom to miss anything if the doctors only spoke French, so thanks to a suggestion from my Bubbie, my dad told me I could go to the hospital. Later in the day our cousin Mona arrived (my bridesmaid Stacey's mom) and my aunt Fran (my mom's sister). Around 3pm Mike arrived, delaying going to work until 6pm. He was so sweet, and brought Aaron a magazine, candy and the sports pages.
There was a lot of waiting and worrying, and doctors giving too much information and then not enough information. But the results are great. Yes, Aaron has something wrong. It's called Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. The website I've linked to tells you in plain English what that is. What's great is that all the tests Aaron did showed that while yes, he has WPW, he is not in any danger right now. He had the one attack, and that was the first of his life, and could be the last of his life. By 6pm he was discharged from the hospital and told that he can resume a normal life. No restrictions whatsoever on any activities, sports or anything. Well, he was told to not drink excessive amounts of caffeine or alcohol...but isn't that just good advice for everyone? If he were to ever have another attack, just like the website says, they would then discuss the possible need to go in through his groin area, pass a filament up to the heart and burn off the abnormal pathway. They say it's a very routine non-surgery. Once you have it, you're fixed for life. If you don't have it, you can treat the WPW with medication if necessary. But for Aaron, right now none of that is necessary. No meds, nothing. Just follow-ups every once in a while. :]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
It was such a relief to hear those words, and you could see it on his face when he found out. He started smiling again. We immediately called my dad, Yannick, and poor Laura, who was up at camp and only found out what was going on when she called my dad at work to ask him why Mom wasn't answering her cell...only to be told that "Mom's at the hospital with Aaron". "Why?" "Because he was rushed in by ambulance last night". I don't know what he told her, but when I went outside with my mom's cell at one point, Laura called hysterical about why no one called her and she thought Aaron was being rushed into open-heart surgery or something. It's hard when she's so far away and I hope she understands why we wanted to wait to call her once we got all the test results.
Speaking of which, I need to tell you how impressed I am with the Sacré-Coeur Hospital! Aaron was brought in at around 9pm Tuesday night. Among other tests, they did an EKG that night, plus whatever else I don't know about before I arrived. They did blood tests throughout the night, and in the morning he saw both a cardiologist and an arrythmiologist. A few hours later he did a stress test on a treadmill, and an hour after that got the results from the c-ist and the a-ist again (I don't feel like typing those words over and over). An hour after THAT he was scheduled for an "echographie" (English name?) of his heart and had that within the half hour. The test took an hour, and by an hour after that the doctors had reviewed all the results and told him he could go home! That is unheard of! Less than 24 hrs in the hospital, and ALL the tests were done, and the results were reviewed, and the doctors saw the patient. He was home by 6pm!! Had he been at any other hospital, Wed AM they would have said "well, we need to schedule you for a stress test." Maybe it would have been that afternoon...maybe a day or so later. The results would take a day, then the Echo would have been scheduled...maybe for the following week...and so on. The speed was amazing, the doctors and nurses were so friendly, and everyone made the effort to speak English to my mom (she speaks French, she just didn't want to misunderstand anything). They were all so curtious and polite and helpful! And the hospital itself- wow! The hallways were wider than anything I'd ever seen...you could have probably 3 beds side-by-side in each corridor. There were people getting around (blood tests and inter-office memos and stuff) on bicycles with carts attached! Carts! Like bike-mounted ice-cream vendors. It was so cool. And the cafeteria was gorgeous, they called it the Oasis and it really was a small getaway for a moment. Pretty decorations, a rooftop terrasse, they had people making fresh sandwiches, they had a salad bar...they even had a yogurt bar! You could make your own parfaits with yogurt, different blends of nuts and granola and different berry toppings. What hospital is like that???? It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. And they made us feel so much better.
So, again, Aaron is fine. He's got something odd, but so does everyone else in our family. And we are very, very relieved. We also have to get the other 3 of us kids tested, because it might be genetic.  I worked on Yannick's striped sock during some wait periods in the hospital. As you can see, I have finished the leg of the sock and am about halfway through the heel flap. I'm doing the reinforced heel. This is still the first sock of the pair.
When I got home from the hospital Wed evening I still had that poodle skirt to make. I finished it by 11pm and Yannick brought it over to my mom's for me. More on the skirt tomorrow.
 Yannick wasn't home tonight, so I got in some work on the surprise bowling socks. This is where they are so far. I chose to do just over an inch of ribbing instead of the 3.5" the pattern called for, because he really doesn't wear socks that are that long. The chart is 104 rows to the instep, and that's already over 8" long. The cream bits you can see are the beginnings of the first bowling pin. It's split, half on each side of the sock. What's odd is that the sock will be seamed at the back, but that last pin doesn't come together to make 1 whole pin. It will always be split with a brown bar down the middle. I guess they wanted to make it easier to seam and to keep the rest of the pattern evenly spaced up the front of the sock...but had I designed it I would have made the 2 halves of the pin line up, and people who seamed it would just have had to be careful.
*Not the "on top" part. The "womEn" part. |
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:29 pm   |
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| 3 Comments: |
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Glad to hear that Aaron is okay, and for filling us in on the details. I can't wait to see the socks done, and pics of the poodle skirt!
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Hi Jenn,
It's great to hear that your brother is OK.
Just to confirm what you've been told and what you've read. Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome is not such a big thing especially when the person who has it is over 25. My boyfriend had it, and his attacks were increasing and last summer on our 1st anniversary he was having surgery to have the problem corrected. He was out of the hospital the next morning and aside from being bruised from the incision everything was fine and it was a very simple procedure.
I know that because its a "Heart Problem" that it may seem so scary, and let me tell you I was scared to death, but the truth is that its no big thing.
If you wanna know more or if you have any questions, I would gladly talk more with you.
I also cannot wait to see the poodle skirt, I've always wanted one, maybe you'll inspire me to make my own.
Angela
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Glad to that Aaron is OK and that the hospital did such a wonderful job! Oh, and the socks are looking great.
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Glad to hear that Aaron is okay, and for filling us in on the details. I can't wait to see the socks done, and pics of the poodle skirt!