Oh crap, I was back in the hospital and my heart was NOT behaving itself. No more shocks, but lots and lots of PVC’s and NSVT. Maria was in and out all night making sure I was doing ok. Finally morning came, and around 0600 the on call doc came into my room. I had never met him until this moment. He introduced himself and asked how I was doing. I told him, not so good. He asked me why. And I told him because he hadn’t responded to my nurses many pages and I was upset at his lack of concern and care. He was taken aback. “What do you mean?” I asked him if he had put in orders for medication and if he had put in orders for blood work. He was in the process of asking why I would need any blood work, when Agie came in. Agie said he had heard I had been readmitted and he wanted to come check on me. Agie was still working the 5th floor and I was on the 6th. So, I asked Agie if he could continue being my provider while I was in here. He said, “sure, it would do me good walking up a flight of stairs every day.” I smiled and told the other doc, he was no longer needed. I told Agie, that I did not want the other guy to ever come back into my room. He said he would let the nursing desk know. I then asked Agie to explain the plan. Blood work and ekg’s. He told me that the new medication had a tendency to cause a condition called long qt, so they would need to monitor that closely with multiple ekg’s throughout the day. But, they needed to try and get my heart rhythm back under control and this was the best thing to try. They were also going to put me back on a drug called Coumadin (or warfarin)…..a blood thinner, because this was my second episode of afib. I was beginning to feel better…..not happy, but at least I had some answers and a plan going forward.

The next morning, the first doctor came back into my room. I looked at him, and asked what he was doing in here. He said, checking up on you. I told him to leave the room and not come back, that Agie was now my care provider. He honestly looked surprised and started stumbling over his words. I told him he hadn’t cared enough the day and night before to even answer my nurses’ pages, so he didn’t need to be involved in my care. I again asked him to leave. He looked at Lou and asked him why I would do that and what was wrong. Lou calmly and quietly told him he had better listen to me and leave. Nope, still not leaving. He just kept ignoring me and talking to Lou, until Lou started to get up out of his chair. Lou once again asked him to leave. He finally turned around and left. A couple of minutes later, Maria comes in to introduce me to the day shift nurse. And I asked them both to please put a note in my chart, on my door or anything else about not allowing him to come into my room again. Maria explained to the oncoming nurse what all had transpired the night before. I asked Maria if she was going to be on again tonight and if so, could I have her as my nurse again. She smiled and said she would love to.

The next 4 days passed slowly. I continued to walk the halls to work on building my stamina and I continued to do my breathing exercises. Agie came in one morning and told us about an air show that would be taking place that day and the next. He also told us of a meeting room down the hall that we could use if we wanted to watch it. He said since it was the weekend, nobody would be using it, and it had a great view with the all glass wall. So, Lou and I took a walk down there, and sure enough, we were able to watch some of the show. Of course, we weren’t able to see it all, but we could watch quite a bit of it, even though it was in the distance. All in all, it was a fairly quiet 4 days.

Then came the day of discharge. We were going to be heading straight to the airport this go round. And I was so very nervous. My last exit didn’t go as planned! Agie came in told me the discharge orders were in. He wrote me a letter for the airport security. I got my prescriptions filled and the limo was there to pick us up. I admit, I was scared. All kinds of thoughts kept racing through my mind. What if I went in to rapid afib again and I was 30,000 feet in the air? What happens if my icd starts shocking me again? Ughhhh, so not a good feeling.

We finally got to the airport, and into the line for security. Of course, since I was in a wheelchair and just had surgery, I was pulled out of the line to be patted down. REALLY?!?! Two women took me into a room, I showed them my letter from Agie, and they said they had to continue with the pat down. I asked them to please be careful with my chest as I had just had open heart surgery a few dies prior. Fortunately, they were gentle and soon I was back with Lou. We found our terminal and waited. We did have one layover and plane switch, but Lou went up to the counter and made sure we had help for the transfer.

The plane rides went smoothly. My mom was to meet us at home, and a friend of ours was going to be meeting us at the airport to pick us up. I was not allowed in the front seat for 6 weeks to allow my sternum and ribs to heal. So, we decided on using my car, which would be more comfortable and easier for me to get in and out of. I was finally home. It was late, but mom was there and she had tried to get everything ready for me. I was beat. Now, it was time for the healing to begin and hopefully the start of finally feeling better!