rehab – Barbara Edwards Comments

There is no simple way to recover from a heart attack. Impatience makes the waiting, the slow rebuilding almost too much to handle. I hate watching my husband crab about the lack of anything to watch on TV. He doesn’t watch television under normal circumstances. Despite his interest in my writing he doesn’t read books either.

He likes to be busy. He’ll l spend hours shopping for the right tool to finish a job. He’s hop in the truck and visit the lumberyard. Only he can’t right now. I have to drive him and he doesn’t like being chauffeured around. And I don’t enjoy taking him: to the hospital for blood-work or for rehab therapy; To the doctor’s office for check-ups; or for that dragging cough.

So he has pneumonia and has to be admitted again. Only this time he’s awake enough to complain bitterly about the food, the floor, the beds, the other patients. Why can’t they give him medicine and let him stay at home?

I have to admit I gave a sigh of relief. I’m so pooped. If he needs to be on IV antibiotics, then the hospital is the best place. I slept twelve hours that first night and woke with a severe cough. No joke. I called my doctor and made and appointment. I am diagnosed with bronchitis- not quite pneumonia but close enough to scare me silly. I didn’t know that pneumonia is catching, but it is if your defenses are down.

So I take heavy-duty antibiotics. I take cough medicine with codeine to help me sleep and I visit the hospital daily. He gets better faster than I do, but he’s there for five days.

To my horror, a dear friend’s husband dies and I don’t hear the news for days. They are in my prayers.

So my husband is home again. He spends a lot of time on the phone complaining. I don’t even ask who he’s garnering sympathy from. They don’t live with him, pick up his mess, cook or wash. They don’t get his meds arranged so all he has to do is take them.

In another couple days, he’ll go to have his heart checked for permanent damage. Maybe when he has the facts, he’ll be more positive. He doesn’t see the big picture he. He’s alive.