142 Days Ago, 40 More To Go

Hello everyone,

A friend of my dad recently sent him an email asking how I have been doing since the last blog update in November. I thought I'd take a few minutes to give everyone the skinny on how I am doing and what I'm up to so here it goes...

In 1 hour and about 30 minutes it will be exactly 142 days ago that I went into cardiac arrest as I was leaving work. Everyone knows (or let me remind you) that I was discharged from the hospital on October 26, 2012. During the next few weeks my mom drove me to post-discharge doctor's appointment and she did my grocery shopping and prepared meals for me and so much more. I sustained burns on the back of my upper & lower right arm and wasn't allowed to get them wet which made washing my hair very difficult. We finally figured out it was so much easier for her to drive me to a hair salon & pay them to wash my hair for me. In addition, the burns were painful, more painful than I could ever have imagined. Any movement made them hurt so letting someone else wash my hair lessened my pain and discomfort ever so slightly. (just before Thanksgiving I chopped off my long locks and was finally able to wash my hair for myself!)

After a few weeks, and very reluctantly but at my urging, my parents returned to Texas. My mom & dad couldn't stay with me in my teeny tiny house forever so it was time for them to leave and let me figure out how I was going to care for myself. I was (am) fortunate to have an amazing boyfriend who was willing to change the dressings on my arm 2x daily. I also had other nearby friends willing to help with dressing changes.

Before I was discharged from the hospital my Electrophysiologist (heart specialist) told me I wouldn't be allowed to drive for 6 months. SIX MONTHS?!! Apparently, my cardiac event put me in the same category as would a seizure so no driving for 6 months! This was not a difficult rule to obey in November and December but come January and now February I'm about to go absolutely mad, crazy, insane! It was easy early on because I was exhausted pretty much all the time. The simple act of dressing in the morning would drain me of every ounce of energy so there was no desire to drive or go shopping, etc. I have a lot more energy now so I feel like driving and shopping, etc. I am counting down the days until April 1st! In fact, I've already requested the day off work because I fully intend to drive somewhere!!

Work. My cardiologist gave me a release to work up to 20 hours per week so beginning January 7th I've been back in the office.

A self-portrait on my first day back to work

Richard (boyfriend) usually drops me off in the morning as he's on his way to work and I hitch a ride home near noon with friends. So far Donna & Kelly Eick have provided my chariot. It works well because they go home every day for lunch and they live very near my house. If they aren't available, I have many many other friends who have offered to give me a ride. It's so wonderful to have so many great people surrounding me and offering support!! Ok, back to work. I usually work 3-4 hours each morning before catching a ride home. I still have issues with stamina and will find myself quite tired in afternoons. It has improved over the weeks but some days I just can't resist taking a mid-afternoon nap :-)

Burns. As I already mentioned, the burns have been quite a pain. Literally! To my knowledge, I never saw a wound doctor while I was in the hospital. Perhaps I'm wrong but no one has ever mentioned one coming to see me. I guess the doctors were so pleased
1. I was alive
2. I had such great brain function
that they didn't care much about the burns on my arms. I was discharged with wound care instructions & ointments and was told to follow up with the wound doctor within 1 week. I called the Wound Clinic to schedule an appointment and was told they couldn't get me in until JANUARY!! I told them that wasn't acceptable due to open wounds on my arm. They said all they could do was put me on a waiting list. A week later they called and said the doctor had a cancellation for after Thanksgiving. Still not acceptable, in my opinion, but I couldn't force them to see me. I found out that Loma Linda University Medical Center has 1 wound doctor and apparently he only sees wound patients 1 day a week. And, to add insult to injury, I found out the wound doctor is also an ICU doc but I was not on his unit so he wasn't one of my doctors during my 2-week ICU stay. When I asked him if he had seen me in ICU he said no and something about as much as possible they try not to see patients in other ICU units to avoid confusion or something. Seriously? I couldn't believe it but that's what I was told. When I finally got to see the wound doctor, I liked him very much. He said he wanted to order something called MIST Therapy (google it) but it's basically ultrasound waves administered via a saline mist. He said he's had good results with it & wound patients. November 29 the office started the request for the MIST Therapy...February 1st the insurance finally approved it (I guess the insurance thought it wasn't necessary...had something been done to treat my burns prior to discharge, the therapy would have been easier to get approved because it would have been considered continued treatment but alas nothing had been done prior so...). The MIST therapy is administered in the LLUMC Hyperbaric Department. It takes a total of 8 minutes and is absolutely painless! The burns seem to be responding and have healed noticeably in the last 4 weeks and hopefully some day soon they'll be completely healed and I won't have to keep them bandaged!!

One month, to the day, prior to my cardiac event, I closed on my first house! I didn't have time to buy furniture or decorate but in the last 6 weeks or so I've remedied that a little. My living room now has a nice sectional couch & a great piece of artwork on the wall. The rug I bought prior to my cardiac arrest but the funny thing is I don't remember buying it. Good thing is I liked it (still) when I saw it again for the second first time :-)

I think I'm about done with this update. Please feel free to ask me any questions. I know some people hesitate to ask me questions or bring it up but I am ok with talking about my cardiac arrest.

I'll leave you with a few things to which I'm looking forward:

1. Driving (April 1st, this is no joke!)

2. Haven't decided on an official name or date for the event but very soon Richard & I are going to host a CPR party. Dr. Ashish Sharma (one of my lifesavers) just so happens to also teaches CPR and has said he'd be happy to teach a class for us. I want to invite anyone who wants to celebrate my life to join us. We'll have food and music and also learn how to do CPR!! If it wasn't for Dr. Sharma & Dr. Shankel, I wouldn't be here today. They knew how to administer CPR and how to do it properly? The least I can do is learn from them and give others an opportunity to learn or hone their CPR skills.

Me & Ashish Sharma

Me & Dr. Shankel

Love,

Katie