19th October 2012
This week is our school’s fall break. We seem to have made it a tradition to take a little road trip to Idaho to visit my sister, Jessica, at least once in the fall. We look froward to apple picking, pumpkin patches and hay mazes. The kids get so excited for non stop playing and sleepovers with their cousins. We watch the calendar, count the days and make paper chains. It IS that big of a deal. Isaac dreams of riding motorcycles all day long while I have dreams of having 24/7 technical support. Hah.
With my little sister, Sabra, and sweet Mother coming along, we packed every single seat in my car full of little bodies and headed up North to where the wind is always blowing icy air but the house is cozy and welcoming.
Even if the adventures are few and far in between when we’re hanging out in Idaho, I still love it. Jessica always has such interesting things going on and cool things to look at and learn about. Her little chickens are always so fun to watch and she has recently acquired some goats. I, of course, had to try my hand at milking a goat. Fun, fun. Or should I say Squirt, squirt.
On Thursday, when we were making plans to get out the house and do something festive, Jessica started getting weak and dizzy. Shortly there after, she blacked out several times in a row. She was soon a lump on the floor and couldn’t get up at all. She was so upset that our plans for the day were ruined. There would be no adventuring and the last thing she wanted to do was go to the hospital. We moved her to her bed and the fainting kept happening, sometimes only 2 or 3 minutes apart. After a priesthood blessing we knew she needed to go to the hospital. Duh, obviously you might say, but my sweet sister is self employed and very short on funds right now. She hoped the hospital bills could be avoided.
Getting her out the door and into the car was scary by itself. Jessica tried walking but was soon flat on the floor. Luckily we had two men around to carry her out. When they left I had to fall straight to my knees to send up a prayer to heaven.
After a night at the hospital with the help of an ultrasound, they found a hole in her heart. It runs in our family, apparently. So it’s a bit of a relief to know what it is. We were worried that it would be a mystery for a while. Now it can be taken care of.
So while they are there at the hospital, we are holding down the fort, taking care of kids and feeding their bottomless bellies.
More adventures to come, I’m sure.
jessica
October 21, 2012 at 5:43 pm (216 days ago)Oh this post made me cry! Thank you so much for praying for me and for taking care of everyone and making sure all the kids had fun even though most of our plans were dashed. I’m so sad I missed almost the whole visit, and can’t believe how it all happened.
I have some cute pictures of you milking the goat, I’ll send them as soon as I can sit up for a good period of time. I tried to view the cousin pics and passed out three times in the chair. UGH, so not fun!
Love you so!
Carrie
October 21, 2012 at 10:37 pm (215 days ago)Wow. Scary. What a blessing that you all were there to help her right when she needed it most. I love family! Hope she is doing better. How does one go about dealing with a hole in the heart anyway?
jessica
October 22, 2012 at 2:06 pm (215 days ago)Carrie, they thread a tube through a large vein in your groin that goes all the way up to the heart. Through the tube they can thread more tools, like a balloon catheter to inflate so they can measure how large the hole is via ultrasound. Once the size is determined, the next thing they thread up there is one of the PFO closure devices; there are several. They thread it through the hole, and one side opens up to close one side, and the other opens up to close the other side. They tighten everything in place, and remove the tubing. After that, they’ll do another bubble echocardiogram to verify whether or not the hole is really closed. If it is, you get to go home and recover after a night in the hospital.