Bio Accident and Runaway Heart
It started with the car accident on January 5th. We never made it to Keith’s cousin’s funeral. The driver that hit us and flew away, totaled our car. We ended up spending the next several hours in ER. No broken bones but very bruised and sore. My left leg looked like it had been dragged five miles on gravel road.
We went home to heal. Only my leg didn’t heal. It got infected. Thankfully, my neighbor Rachel is a nurse who chose to keep my situation under surveillance. She had me go in to see a doctor. It was infected all right. A shot and I returned home with meds. Only they didn’t do the job. My friend Rachel next took me to the CHI health clinic for two shots and a different medication. This one worked. I began to heal.
Only some situations developed and I pulled muscles. That hurt. Rachel kept monitoring, but I could see she was concerned. I had my yearly wellness check and labs coming up. She suggested I request an EKG. When our doctor came through the door, one glance at her face and I knew we weren’t going home. I spent the next three days in the hospital for a heart that was trying to gallop away.
My veins are not fun to tap, yet the heart doctor wanted not one, but two IVs. Took one, two, three different experts before that happened. We kept my other arm as a pin cushion for all the blood they drew. Lots of medical personnel in and out of my room. My friends and my sister-in-law visited. Our kids called and Keith kept them apprised of what was happening. I wasn’t dying so asked our kids not to come.
Was given new meds to try and make my heart behave and finally got to go home. Rachel continued to keep an eye out for me, especially since my legs have started to swell a bit. That first three-day hospital stay, turned into almost a week in the hospital the next time because of breathing problems. Finally, home with meds the doctors hoped would get my heart in rhythm again. They didn’t do the job so I went in for a procedure to shock my heart into rhythm. So far so good.
I told Keith, “It all started with the car accident.”
He corrected me, “This was revealed because of the accident.” He is right. I might never have known about my heart without all that went before and had Rachel not been keeping an eye out for me. That is a blessing.
Don’t know what my heart may do. But this I know. I am not alone. I am surrounded by family and friends. I also know God who created my heart will not desert me. Whatever happens, I know He’s got this, and I am safe within His loving arms.
© 2022 Carolyn R Scheidies
Column published 3/20/2023
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