Guess Where We Are?

 

If you guessed “the Keys”, then you’d be wrong.

Sometimes it seems things are not meant to be.  We have been trying to get down to the Keys for almost week and it seems that one thing after another keeps delaying our departure.

Our latest plan was to head out last Thursday morning. 

I had made another reservation at Jonathan Dickinson State Park for one night, as a half way point to the Keys.  We’re just not up for a 400 mile drive.  Well, we are, but we just need two days to do it.  :)

 

Anyway……I called Mom Wednesday night.  (you see where this is going, don’t you?)

She mentioned that she got a voicemail message directly from her wonderful doctor, and he said he needed to speak to her, and to call him back first thing Thursday morning.  She had just had some blood work done in follow up to a change in her thyroid medicine.  We thought it was probably that, but she thought he sounded worried and that worried her.  We were also a bit concerned that he himself called, and  not the nurse.

She tried not to worry, but of course a million things were going through her head, and she was worried.  Doctors just don’t realize how something like that can send your mind whirling.  

We had been up very early that day and were tired, so we had headed off to bed about 9pm, when the phone rang. It was Mom telling me she was having very strong heart palpitations and she thought she might be having a heart attack. 

She called an ambulance, we raced out the door and met her at the hospital.   The hospital was pretty busy, but thankfully they found a room for her.

A nice woman doctor came in shortly and asked a lot of questions. She took everything seriously, but mentioned that palpitations are usually caused by something.  She didn’t think Mom was having a heart attack, but was concerned about the rapid heart rate.  I told her about the voice mail from her doctor and the thyroid issue.

They kept her hooked up to a monitor, and  ran a few tests. They didn’t find anything wrong, so the doctor told her she could go home, but if she felt more comfortable, they could also keep her overnight.  Mom decided to go home, but as soon as she made that decision, she started having palpitations again and decided against leaving.  Apparently, she was still a bit nervous about it and thinking of leaving the hospital brought them on again.

So, the  plan was for her to stay overnight and we would go on home and get a little sleep.  It was about 3:00 am by this point.   We got on the interstate, got almost to our exit, when my cell phone rang.  It was Mom’s nurse telling us they were releasing her after all. They had contacted her  doctor and he didn’t want them to admit her overnight because he knew what the problem was and he could fix it. He said her thyroid levels were too high, and wanted to to see her first thing the next morning.   We turned around and drove on  back to the hospital.

By the time we picked her up, dropped her off at home and got back to our home, it was 5 am.  We slept for a few hours and then had to take her into see her doctor.   It turned out her thyroid levels went from being extremely low the last time, to very high this time.   Not a good thing, but at least we know the cause and can make adjustments.   Dr. Cichon is such a nice man and caring doctor, but I don’t think he realized how his phone message caused such stress for Mom.  I think he was pretty worried about her because he gave her a hug before she left the office.

So…….Mom has instructions to quit taking the thyroid pills for a week and then to change to a different dosage.   She had no more palpitations yesterday and the current plan, is if she is still okay today, then we will leave Saturday morning. 

I’m not holding my breath!