Stroke/Heart Transplant/August 2023

I'm off Facebook for awhile, but the last thing I did was look up some of the old posts from August 2023. That's when I had my stroke, and Joe had a heart transplant. This post from August 6th 2023 posted by my brother-in-law is quite chilling.

"This situation just became much more complex. As some of you know, our sister-in-law Michelle suffered a stroke last week. She is currently in the ICU and working on the long road to recovery. The update is that her husband (Jennifer's brother), my brother-in-law, Joe suffered a heart attack 2 days after Michelle was admitted. He is also in the ICU right now (same hospital as his wife) waiting for surgery to repair the damage. Jennifer and I were with him yesterday when his friend Thalia took him to the ER for himself due to extreme fatigue, and after testing, hearing the reveal that he had a heart attack 4 days earlier, which was why he was so exhausted.

 

We're not sure how much Michelle knows at the moment, as she was intubated and sedated when this was going on (she has been extubated as of this morning) and has had communicating difficulties because of the stroke. We will be talking to everyone at the hospital this afternoon and will do what we can to update all parties as we know more.

 

Jennifer and I will be heading back to the hospital today to visit with them both and do what we can. Jennifer is juggling a lot with communication between doctors (thank goodness she speaks "health care"), family, friends, etc. She is a rock but it's a lot. Please feel free to reach out to me directly with questions to save her a cut and paste. She is happy to respond but be wary that she's getting a lot of duplicate questions in an active situation."

Wow. Well, munk says they don't know how much I knew. Actually, I was totally out of it. I don't recall when I learned that Joe was in the hospital, but I remember my ICU nurses braiding my hair, then wheeling me in to see him. I remember him talking to me, but not what he said. Or what I said. Jen later sent me a picture she took of us talking. Then some transport guys came to get him, taking him off to Tufts. I knew he was being transferred to Tufts, but I didn't know why, and was too out of it to ask.

In the following weeks, I remember Jen and my mother-in-law visiting me, and I remember that I asked, "Can I talk to Joe?" And Jen answered, "Not yet." I had a hard time completing sentences. I fell asleep while they were there.

Then I was at rehab, and doing a little better. And one day the phone rang, and it was Joe! I was SO HAPPY to hear from him. After talking for a bit, he said, "What's going on here, is a heart transplant." I remember that I was shocked. But I was talking with my sweet love, so I was okay.

The past two years have been quite the journey of recovery for both of us. Hundreds of doctor appointments. Many hours of physical therapy. And mental health therapy. And feeling intense gratitude for Jen and munk, our landlady Thalia and her wife Heather, and our vast network of friends and family for rallying around us. We're okay. I think we're gonna be okay.💓