There was a good deal of excitement after the Hale/Taylor wedding. Madeline moved to her own apartment in South Salt Lake and Kris and I met her there to see it and help her get settled. We celebrated the event with a delicious Italian dinner at Antica Sicilia. We drove to Vernal again to celebrate his birthday with young Arthur. His favorite place to eat is Denny's because they give him a birthday treat. And I think their chicken fried steak is really pretty good. Back at the Colver house, Daniel gave us a quick tutorial on how to make egg-drop-miso soup.
That night back in Provo, Kris and I got super-sick. Apart from a horrible belly ache, I ended up feeling weak and light-headed, and shuffling like a 90-year-old. Kris called our doctor whose nurse insisted we go Emergency. The emergency doctor saw the ventricular tachycardia from my test back in July and ordered a CT scan of my lungs to see if there were any clots. He thought I should have more testing and a visit with the cardiologist, so I was admitted. It was the worst three days of my life! We waited all the next day for the doctor who, because nobody told her I had been admitted, didn't show up until late afternoon. She wanted an echocardiogram, which they did in my room. The tech wanted to add something to my IV to brighten the images and I had a terrible reaction: face was on fire and I had a hard time breathing. My bed was suddenly surrounded by medics of every sort and they sent for the priest and candles. They put me on oxygen and slipped an antihistamine into some pudding -- what a nasty trick! The cardiology PA wanted a stress test, but it was too late in day, so I was forced to stay another night.
During the night, I resolved to not let them put any more chemicals in my body and I was determined to leave by noon! When morning came the PA was Johnny on the spot and talked me off the cliff. The stress-test CT was open and they took me down to the lab for the test. It turned out to be nothing like I thought it would be and I was soon back up stairs to wait for results. FINALLY, late afternoon the PA and a cardiologist appeared to inform us the the testing was all good and that my heart was actually in very good shape, and that I could go home and follow up later next week. I didn't have VT, but rather, Non Sustained Ventricular Tachycardia. My calcium score is six, remarkable for an 80-year-old. I was instructed to drink up to 48 oz. of water a day to take care of the lightheadedness. It was a painful exercise in patience and peeing every hour while connected to an IV.
Moe had come for a birthday commemoration for her late brother, so was able to spend some time with her invalid grandfather. Kris was a stellar care giver for the few days it took to recover from the horrible hospital stay. We had a meeting with our native-plant supplier and made our final planting selections. She cleaned up the plan and created a plant list for Adam, our excellent contractor. Debby Gibbs came at the end of September to make sure I followed doctors orders, and her son Rob also came for work with Angel Studios that is making a TV series he and his writing partner created.
