My big Sis!

On the Saturday before the surgery, I spoke with my oldest sister, Laurie who lives in Fredonia, NY. She informed me that she had made plans to fly down to help us for the week following the surgery. If we wanted her to stay with us, she would or if we needed space, she could stay at our parent's house. I was so excited! After the phone call, I remember crying...just so happy that she was coming to be with me on her spring break. Laurie has a busy husband who is an associate-vice president at SUNY Fredonia, a daughter, Corinne, who is a senior in High School as well as Michaela, a 13 old. Laurie herself is a general music teacher at Fredonia Central School District and an adjunct vocal professor at SUNY Fredonia. For Laurie to p and leave her daily routines make a huge impact on her family.

Laurie came in on Tuesday and was an amazing help to all of us. She helped take care of the kids, took walks with me, cooked, cleaned, woke up early with the kids. It was a huge help.

The biggest help came on Thursday. It was a beautiful sunny day. I was really enjoying the bright, cheerful weather. It had ben exactly one week since surgery and I was in a good mood. Following lunch, I started to feel a "heaviness" in my chest. I couldn't quite describe it, but I was uncomfortable and of course I started to worry. When Sue returned from being out of the house, I let her know what was going on. She called our family doctor's office, who as usual was not available. They did suggest taking me to the ER just to be safe. Sue also called Sloan-Kettering and spoke with the wonderful, Patsy, Dr. Gutin's nurse, who also told her to take me to the ER, that this is not something to fool around with.

We told Laurie and she agreed to take care of the kids for us. We headed out to Mather Hospital at around 4pm. They took us in right away and before I knew it, I was being hooked up to monitors, getting blood taken, chest x-ray, etc. I was very angry and upset. This was the last place I wanted to be. Altough, tests happened quickly at first, things started to slow down. Te ER doctor was very kind, but wasn't going to take any chances with me. He ordered a sonogram of my legs to look for blood clots. None were found. They also checked my blood work for a certain clotting factor. It was there, so that required the doctor to order a CAT scan of my chest to look for a clot. By the time all of the answers came, it was well after midnight. I had 2 iv's in my arm that hurt so bad, I wanted to scream. The guy in the curtain next to me was so annoying I wanted to smack him. The bottom line was that they had found some air in my chest cavity. The doctor after consulting a cardio-thorasic specialist, seemed to feel that it was as a result of my surgery and that it would take care of itself, but I would have to follow up on Friday with another chest x-ray. came home and finally were able to eat and went to sleep. While we were gone, my parents had come over to help. Maggie held a littlee revolt. She locked herself into her room, refusing to eat or tak any direction from my sister. She was done with someone other than Mom and Dad taking care of her. I had a lot of guilt about this. I felt so bad that I was doing this to my family. Maggie eventually came around and they survived the evening.

The next day, I followed up with another chest -ray which turned out fine. Laurie also took me to my initial Physical therapy appointment.

I will never be able to thank Laurie and her family for their sacrifice this week. I miss her already, but I look forward to traveling there in June for Corinne's graduation. It'll be a great celebration. Laurie, you will never know how much this meant to me.....I Love You!