The Next Step

Tomorrow I get to go back to work. Light duty, but at least back to gainful employment. I'm still kinda concerned about it because I'm so tired.
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I went today for a stress test and an echocardiogram. The stress test was to clear me to start rehab on Friday. It was not very stressful. They told me that this would be the easiest one I'll ever have. My BP was 118/78 so that was good. They never got my heart rate above 150 so nothing exciting. The echocardiogram shows preliminarily that my heart is back to normal from a pumping capacity standpoint anyway. That is good news. When I left the hospital my heart was pumping 25% less blood than it should have been. The tech today told me it was back up to its regular capacity.
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Being so tired now is mostly the result of not sleeping. That restless leg thing that started in the hospital has continued. Just for some variety, it was embedded in my pelvis area the other night, and last night it was in the other leg. If you've never experienced it, I can't adequetly explain how frustrating it is. The closest thing I can compare it to is when you're dead tired and you drink too much caffeine before bed.

It makes me want to kick a hole in the wall. Last night I didn't fall asleep until 2:45 ish. This may prove to be somewhat problematic tomorrow morning when the alarm goes off at 4am. On the bright side of things, I now know all about Naploeon's failed attempt conquering Egypt. The military channel at 0200 is a beautiful thing. I also now have a working knowledge of British aircraft carries from WWI. So I got that going for me.
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In other news,
The food around here is spectacular. We have been following the Mediterranean diet and it has been really good, and pretty easy to do. Tonight we had marinated Mahi mahi steaks that were excellent. We're having fun learning about all kinds of unfamiliar grains and spices. We have also learned that there is no such thing as a heart healthy hot dog....bummer. I'll just hold off as long as I can stand it and then head screaming for Nouno's.
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I think that about covers it for now.

So in the morning I take the next tenative step. I'm nervous about it, but so far so good. Everyday that starts is a good day.

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6 more weeks of winter...not so fast mister

Bummer.
I had my first follow up appointment with my cardiologist yesterday. He says everything is fine and I'm slowly healing. Something about heart attacks are serious, you could have died, blah, blah blah.
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Then he mentioned that he wasn't going to release me for full duty for 6 weeks. 6 weeks. That's September for those without a calculator. Good grief.
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So as Manfred (the wonder doc) says, "the take home message here is that you're recovering from a very serious event and it could take up to a year to heal completely". This is not at all what I wanted to hear. I was kinda expecting to be released for light duty for the weekend and then back in the squad car by Wednesday. Never mind that I need a nap after walking around the block. I think they might call this denial.
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The ride home wasn't a whole lot of fun for Amy. She finally gave me the 'woe is me' speech. And I thought I had been whining and feeling sorry for myself in a very mature dignified way. Perspective I suppose.
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In 18 years at the DSO, I've never gone on light duty. I'm not very good at sitting still, so I imagine that I will be driving my office dwelling coworkers crazy for awhile. And if I'm doing radio room duty answering phones, well that will be just ....swell. At least on the street when we observe stupid behavior, we can take some knucklehead to the jail and go..."There. See what happens when you do stupid stuff?" On the phone.....man, God's testing me. At least I really like the people in there.
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So that's the brief update. Everything is going fine, just not as fast as I want it to. I still have this frustrating restless leg thing that is impossible to sleep through. It happens less now so I suppose it's getting better slowly. My ginormous bruise is now mostly yellow with islands of purple. Its not nearly as dramatic as it was and no longer scares the neighborhood children. My left arm still gets weak suddenly every now and then which is a side effect of one of the meds, but stills gets my attention when it happens. And I'm so tired. Doc says that's mostly from a tired heart muscle and will continue to improve.....slowly.
I go back in on Monday for an echocardiogram and a stress test. so I guess I will learn more fun stuff then. I should also be starting cardiac rehab soon. I need to call them today. That will be 3 times a week for 10 weeks. I have to go to the lab to give blood in a couple weeks for a cholesterol test, then back to the Doc on 9/2 I think. It's alot of work to have a heart attack. I would recommend starting off with something smaller to see if you like it before going straight to the grabber.
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So that's about it for right now. The new diet is going well. I thought I'd be living on rabbit food and starving, but it's been really good. We had a grilled chicken salad last night. So no complaints there.
The rest, as they say, is what it is. Ill keep doing what Im told and keep getting better...all together now....slowly.

Thanks for thinking of us,
Jim

Good thing I already had the heart attack...

The first hospital bill came today..it should come with a warning label or one of those Hazmat stickers on it. Egads!

First, the bad news;

Next, the good news:

Well, yes, but that's not what I was referring to.

I meant this good news;

Wow! 88 thousand and I havent received a doctor's bill yet. Good thing we're dirty filthy steenkin' rich. Thank goodness for benefits at work.

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In other, unrelated news today: I drove for the first time today. Yep, bout 3 miles round trip. To the dollar store for dish soap. It was alot harder than it sounds though, I took the big truck and had to avoid a few potholes.

But the real excitement came when the low fuel light came on and I had to make a split second decision on whether I should deviate from the flight plan and get gas, or play it safe and go home...if I could make it. I won't hold you in suspense, I came home.

Turns out walking around the dollar store with dishsoap and laundry soap can wear a guy out. By the way, all this was done unsupervised (kinda like working without a net).

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Meanwhile, my partners are at Large Vehicle Bomb Mitigation School where they are building explosive charges used to stop terrorist bombings.

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Im going to marinate salmon.

Sigh.....but it's Wild Alaskan Salmon, not the wimpy kind, so I got that going for me.

And he has decided he is better

I woke up this morning to clean dishes, a clean kitchen, folded laundry, and Jim walking out the door with his 180 lb best friend Bogart, Em, Jor and their friend Christopher to take his morning walk. WOW! Someone has decided they are feeling better starting right now! Or he is bored and going to prove to me he is well enough to go back to work and get away from all the care takers he has living with three women.

We go to the cardiologist tomorrow, we have a lot of questions, probably should write those down so we don't forget them. Tomorrow Jim and Dr Pyka(Manfred) will decide when Jim goes back to work and if he can go back full duty or if he needs to do light duty for a while. Personally I think full duty is less stressful than light duty. Can't you just see Jim sitting in the radio room answering phones for the citizens of DuPage county?

I'm enjoying listening to Jim and the girls debate lemonade prices for the planned lemonade stand later, priceless!

God's blessings on your day!

Jim is hunting

Hunting for a low sodium marinade for a steak. He is going to have his red meat for the week tonight for dinner. He is really trying to come up with a marinade for the steak he picked out and can't find one to make with low sodium. I think he is frustrated, he just went to take a nap.

We got up this morning and went to church, we all needed the worship time together as a family. Obviously we didn't get there last week. We opted not to go to our Sunday school class as it would have made for too long of a morning for Jim. As it was, he is tired and working on the above mentioned nap.

God is good all the time and keeping His hand on us.

The best week of my life, continued

OK. It's been a week now since my, gulp, heart attack. Good grief, I still have a hard time comprehending that I had a heart attack.

About this time last week I was pushing good old squad #14 down the mean streets of the county and not quite feeling right.

Since then I have learned how an angiogram and angioplasty work.
What a bare metal stent is.
That certain nurses should not shave patients nether regions...a Brazilian! Come on!
I've learned that yes, I am only human and it can happen to you.
My wife is the most amazing women alive (you think I had it tough? shoulda seen her week).
Children, all of em, are the most unbelievable gift and responsibility ( each day there has been some almost overwhelming reminder of this)
Even though I dearly love salt, this is not a reciprocal relationship. She's so mean.
Cholesterol, sodium, Poly saturated this and that.....Allyson Help!
What the hell is a quinoa?
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And this little exchange with my patient cardiac rehab nurse:
RN "and a porterhouse steak is big enough to feed four"
JIM " four what?"
RN "a family of four"
JIM "no"
She then lost all credibility with me when she told me that you should never eat a piece of meat larger than the palm of your hand. The bad news is that I promised to follow orders. So I need a bigger palm. Anyone have one of those big foam finger thingys?
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My family and my friends are spectacularly generous and thoughtful. I've had something like 60 deputies visit and call...the hospital, to their credit, realized they didn't have the resources to defend this offensive action and capitulated on the first day.

I had friends that refused to leave the hospital until they saw I was OK, they made sure Amy was ok, moved vehicles around, retrieved stuff from my squad, fed and exercised the dogs, brought food, sent fruit, cut the lawn, fed my wife, made phone calls, took over the bomb team, changed their schedules to cover me, went grocery shopping for us, sent flowers, brought me books, magazines and their concern, good cheer and jokes.

I have a doctor named Manfred. No, really.

My mother in law dropped anything she had to do and took my girls from the first hour I was in the hospital and cared for them through a scary time. My sister in law and niece cleaned our house while we were trapped a CDH...what a gift.

My brother drove through the night from South Dakota to get home to see me.

My brother in law kept calling to make sure I have the best hospital and the best doctors.

My sister in law brought her new born to see me for the first time....way to go Mirks...you guys put together a nice baby. So that's more inspiration to get healthy and stick around for a while. Uncle Joe and I may be all that stand between Alessandra and the baseball abyss. We will do our part to try to save her.
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I was put on a walking program to help start the healing process. I walked 9 minutes this morning, and it made me tired.

I learned that God takes away all the really scary parts. I was never, ever, not one single time got scared while I was in there. (ok the nurse that shaved me was a little unsettling...)

And the best part of this experience, well besides the not dying thing, is that a bunch of people from work are going to get their hearts checked. Who knows, maybe one of my guys finds out that he has a significant problem and avoids this. That would make me feel good.
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The day I got home, this verse was in my e-mail:
Proverbs 15:30 A cheerful look brings joy to the heart;
good news makes for good health.
Can I get an Amen! Cool huh?
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So now I try to keep from pushing too much while I try to make sure Im pushing enough. I go back to the doctor on Thursday and will learn more.

We have started planning the camping trip for September. Looks like we are headed back to Colorado and Mom has been looking over my shoulder and let it slip that she kinda misses Colorado and might consider going with. I think she's just worried, but I'll take it.

Dauphin Island is on for November with great friends and I'm starting to float the idea of a mountain climb for next July. Kind of an 'up yours' to heart attacks in general. We'll see, that's a year away and right now Im just enjoying my best week ever.

Jim

Here's a couple keys to fixing a heart problem

It helps if you have about 7 pounds of love to hold against it.....Uncle Jim gets to meet his beautiful niece Alessandra for the first time. Beats a bare metal stent any time.


Then find some cruddy job that was half finished (like cleaning out the gutters) and get your own daughter up there to pitch in. That's Em sweeping off the back roof.

It also helps to have family and friends that take time out to call or visit. I appreciate everyone making me better.

Jim

...funny as a heart attack

So last Thursday Amy and I are roaring all over southern Wisconsin on the bike with our friends Mike and Diane. Weather was good, scenery was nice, the company was excellent. Life is good.

Thursday evening we pick the girls up from Grammy's house and head for the border. Taco Bell that is. The kids want tacos, I have some mild heartburn so I pass and go with the Raisen Bran for dinner.

Friday morning I get up and go to work and the heartburn is still there. Bummer. I take a handful of Tums, grab a cup of coffee and out the door at 4:40 am. Just another day in the life. I go to a couple of calls with the guys down on the southend of the county and start heading back toward the office around 1030. Heartburn kind of comes and goes. I head for home for lunch break and decide to lay on the couch and let whatever this is pass.

While Im lying there, it occurs to me that I cant think of any reason why I should have any pain. I hadn't eaten anything weird, I hadn't injured myself and for heartburn, the pain was a slightly incorrect place. Hmm...I thought to myself. It would be rather irresponsible, and impolite of me to have a heart attack and leave my lifeless carcus on the couch for my family to find. Particularly since I had now had this weirdness for over 12 hours. So I picked myself up and headed off to Central DuPage Hospital to get myself checked out.

What I learned is that I was having a heart attack. Holy Crap! 42 years old. That's not right. So they did an angiogram and inserted 3 stents into an artery that was over 90% blocked. Check this out.

See that little skinny line that Im pointing to? That is one of the blockages. Now, after the surgery - look at the improvement.

So the awesome cardiac staff at Central DuPage fixed me. They did their job, now it's my turn to do mine. I need to go through rehab and learn about diet. Now Im like a regulation heart disease patient. Here's my new stash.

So that's how I spent my weekend. My spectacular wife was with me the whole time. She slept in her clothes on a chair in my room and made sure I was comfortable and well cared for. She managed the three phones that rang nearly non stop and greeted the nearly 60 guests that came to see me. Pretty amazing.

I know that God has a plan for me, and I had a talk with Him to let him know that any which way he wanted me to go was OK, but I would sure appreciate the chance to lead my girls for awhile longer.

So it's all good now. I have a week or so to recouperate and start rehab. It will be 12 days or so until I can go back to work. What an awesome experience to have and to learn from.

I can't even say how much I appreciate everything my friends and family did to make this easier, you guys are loved and appreciated more than I can express here.

Life is good.

Jim

Jori is 8!!!!!

Happy Birthday Joriann Elizabeth, today you are 8. It seems like it was just yesterday we were meeting you for the first time. It is a priviledge to be your Mama and Daddy, You are such a special child and we love you so much!!!!!! Jesus loves you!!!

Another day in front of the Office.

I'd been dreading this for the last couple weeks. Our media relations director, informed me that the Sheriff was going to hold a press conference to introduce the media to our new robot and take the opportunity to talk about fireworks safety at the same time. Or have me talk about the robot and fireworks. I don't mind talking about this stuff, but I'm no fan of t.v. cameras. I think we still pulled it off ok...at least the Sheriff didn't fire me on the spot, so I'll call that a win.

Here's the stories in the Herald

http://http//www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=304061


http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=304175








and then, just because we could, we blew up a watermelon....

A prayer for my girls...

So last night Im laying in bed listening to my Ipod, which I have finally figured out. The fact that I take bombs apart for a living but can't operate an Ipod makes me somewhat uneasy, but that's not the point. I heard this song from Mark Harris that I think is awesome....or I just really miss my girls.

http://