In sickness and in health

We had quite a weekend!  I got a call at noon Friday from an EMT telling me he had Larry in the ambulance and that they were taking him to the Medical Center in Macon because he was having chest pains.  He told me that Larry was awake and that his vitals were good.  Trying not to freak the hell right on out, I asked him to let me speak to Larry.  He had been working in the woods building a fence and was stung by something, from behind on his shoulder so he didn't get a look at it.  Shortly after that, he started having pains in the center of his chest and he called 911.  Once I heard his voice and was positive that he was alert and awake, I tearfully told him I'd meet him at the hospital.  I told my supervisor and I took off.  I called Rhiana, Mama and Ami on the way.  I didn't know what I would find when I got there, how he would be, but I wanted them to know what was going on.  I asked for prayers on Facebook.  I believe in the power of prayer, I believe God works in our lives and I believe that He has lots more still for Larry to do in this old world.  I was worried but I wasn't worried.  Does that make sense?  I got there and he'd already had an EKG in the ambulance and he said nothing showed up.  That was good.  They also put a nitroglycerin patch on him and it didn't help with his pain.  That was also good.  I know from our experience with Mama that nitro helps when you have a heart problem and when it doesn't, it's usually something else.  So I was relieved to hear that.  But then the hospital does their own EKG and they detect some "abnormality" and decide that he has to be admitted and have a stress test done in the morning.  Ami and Brian came to see us and so did our pastor, Andy Cook.  I was glad for the company!  Once they decided to admit Larry, I came home to get us some clothes together, check on Tabbie Hoffman and Banjo and get a shower.  On the way back, I stopped and got us some supper because I remembered that neither one of us had eaten all day!  I got back to the hospital at 9:30 and they had already moved Larry up to the heart tower.  We spent the night there, a miserable night as y'all know if you've ever spent the night in a hospital.  The Luce Heart Institute is a swanky $85 million dollar heart specialty hospital (the "heart tower", they call it) and the rooms and bathrooms are really nice but the beds are teeny tiny.  I slept on the sofa bed with my own pillow I brought from home and a cotton blanket a sweet nurse brought me.  

This was us Saturday morning, snuggled up in Larry's tiny little hospital bed.

Here's Larry having his 4th EKG Saturday morning.

They never did pinpoint what this "abnormality" was they kept seeing but since everything turned out fine, I'm thinking it was most likely something the bug bite caused.  Larry passed the stress test with flying colors, exceeding the goal they set for him and never even breaking a sweat.  His pain stopped Friday night and he was his old self again before we even went to sleep.  We left Saturday afternoon and was told today that the stress test was normal, no heart problems were detected at all.  He may have just developed a slight allergic reaction to the bug venom and after it passed through his system, he was fine again.  Dangest thing I've ever seen!  But I wouldn't expect anything else from Larry.  He's the strongest, most pulled-together person I've ever known.  He just flat refused to let anything be wrong with his heart.  

There's not.  I've had that heart for 27 years and I've never seen a thing wrong with it.