Steve Update
Thursday, December 1st, 2016 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniSteve and I thank everyone for your concern, your prayers, and your well-wishes. Rather than answer all the various messages individually, I'm doing One Big Update for everyone.
What Has Gone Before: On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Steve had a "heart event" at the local grocery store. An ambulance was called, he was transported to the local hospital emergency room, and from there, at the advice of the on-call cardio doctor in Bangor, to Eastern Maine Medical Central, where he was hospitalized briefly so that his ICD* could be interrogated, and other tests as seemed good to the heart experts could be performed. The interrogation discovered that the device had fired twice, once at 40 jules, again at 50, when the first didn't get his heart beating again. Tests also confirmed the presence of old scarring on his heart, which everyone guesses means that he had a heart attack at some point in the past that somehow escaped notice. Steve was released from the hospital on Thanksgiving, told to see his doctors within the week, and is, on the EMMC cardio doc's orders, banned from driving for six months.
Where We Are Now: Steve is still somewhat tired, and is trying to do some of that "rest" thing that we're both so proficient at, not. Next week is the Week of Appointed Doctors, after which he and we will know more about Where-and-How We Should Proceed. In the meanwhile, we have deadlines, and cats, and life goes on.
Going Forward: The biggest challenge facing us is the ban on Steve being able to drive. We do still live hellengone out in the country** -- 9-ish miles/20-ish minutes to the nearest grocery store, in good weather, which means a 40 minute round-trip before you even get shopping -- and we're suddenly aware of minor risk situations that have always been present in our lives, such as, "If Sharon breaks her glasses. . ." and which have now acquired ". . .we're screwed," in the place of ". . .Steve drives her to town." Also, I'm night blind, which means that all and any errands must be accomplished between 7am and 3 pm in the winter.
And, really, these are first world problems, considering how things might have gone.
And that's the up-to-the-minute news. Once again, thanks to everyone for your concern and support.
_________
*Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator
**Frequent readers will recall that we had made, for exactly this reason, an effort to move into town, even into a town where there was grocery delivery service and other artifacts of civilization, only to be defeated by Circumstances.
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no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 04:16 pm (UTC)I am rather paranoid about losing/breaking my glasses. Over the years, I've parked older pairs in places where they might be deployed at a moment's notice if the current pair fails. I carry/wear my current pair. I have an older-but-still-useful pair at work and a ok-I-can-deal pair at home and then the backup to the backups is somewhere in my office...
no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 05:53 pm (UTC)Delivery
Date: 2016-12-01 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 06:13 pm (UTC)Best wishes to Steve, and all at the Confusion Factory.
Abigail
RE: Delivery
Date: 2016-12-01 06:14 pm (UTC)Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 06:20 pm (UTC)Also +1 on Sharon's problem of being night-blind so having very limited driving hours in winter. (Unlike Sharon I live in a city center that's walkable, which helps.)
Q: are you able to get Amazon Prime deliveries where you live? Because if so, that's the way forward.
no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 06:23 pm (UTC)I have Only Just Learned that Amazon does groceries. Exploring that now.
no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 06:52 pm (UTC)Might be worth springing for a pair to keep as a spare.
no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 11:07 pm (UTC)I really need to get a backup pair of glasses. When I got my last pair, I had the old frames filled with new lenses, and that means I have (old) lenses but no backup frames. Maybe if it comes to that, duct tape ... ;/
Zenni doesn't sell Varilux progressives (which give much better wide vision), but maybe I should just get a cheap pair with my distance correction for emergency driving glasses. Hmmm...
RE: Delivery
Date: 2016-12-01 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-01 11:43 pm (UTC)I empathise with the sight issues. I have similar problems which make night driving unwise.
I once went off on a long holiday with only the pair I was wearing which was worrying.
Wishing you both good health and encouraging answers from the medical people.
no subject
Date: 2016-12-02 09:29 am (UTC)Status update
Date: 2016-12-02 01:40 pm (UTC)I keep a spare pair of glasses in the auto glove box, in the vacation "stuff" sack that lives in my overnight bag, and in the den. Of course I cannot see the floor without them, nor read. OK pretty much blind here.
I suggest taking an older pair of glasses & getting the new lenses put in. The frames being a major part of the cost. Of course 'down east' this will require a whole trip into town.
As for at-night. I have noticed that the lights of on-coming cars now have blur patterns, and cause me to not see the road clearly. I'm hoping that I have a few more years.
no subject
Date: 2016-12-03 04:32 pm (UTC)RE: Status update - driving
Date: 2016-12-14 01:38 pm (UTC)Do I need to drive up to get you?
RE: Status update - driving
Date: 2016-12-14 01:50 pm (UTC)