Drama and Trauma in the Extreme

It is early I should be getting ready to go the Y but I need, for my sanity's sake, to write down the events of the last few days. My saga begins on Friday night....

Friday: Came home from work to find my husband on the couch. He says he does not feel well. When I ask what is wrong he just says, "I don't feel good" and then he rolls over. So I am thinking he has the flu or a cold. So I think nothing of it.

Saturday: He arises I look at him and he looks TERRIBLE. I ask him what is wrong. He AGAIN says "I don't feel good". As I am looking at him I see that it is not just a simple case of the flu so I begin to grill the man...is it your stomach, do you have a fever, do you have a headache etc....FINALLY he says no it is my chest. He says his CHEST hurts and it is RADIATING outward and up into his jaw bone and he cannot breathe. Okay those are the signs of a heart attack. So I tell him we need to go to the doctor. I call the doctor and they says GO to the ER. My husband who HATES doctors with a passion passively agreed to go. That in itself scared the crap out of me. We go to the hospital and they to all the heart stuff and determine no heart attack but he does have a ripping case of Carditis. That is an inflamation of the sac that surrounds the heart. It is VERY painful because when the heart beats it now rubs against the sac. In addition because of the inflamation that lungs lose some room so they cannot expand so that you can breathe. If the swelling gets bad enough you cannot breathe at all and I am about 100 percent sure if you can't breathe that you suffacate and die. So they stuck him in the hospital and put him on iv meds (heart meds, morphine....). The one med he was on and still is on is wicked wicked stuff so he has to take another medicine to counteract the symptoms from the heart medicine. On top of that they told him he NEEDS to quit smoking. He is a 1 1/2 pack a day smoker. So they slapped a smokers patch on him and NO more smokes for him. They did send him home with another med to help with the nicotene addiction. So they released him Sunday afternoon around 3:00 ish....NOW for Sunday....

Sunday: After finally getting discharged from the hospital we head home. He is very weak and does not feel very well. He felt better at the hospital because he was just laying around in bed and now moving around did not make him feel well...SO we are home for like 2 hours from the hospital and....SOMEONE ARSONED OUR GARAGE AND IT WENT UP IN FLAMES. Yes that is right 2 hours after we get home my husband is out clutching his chest and trying to put out a very large hot fire. We called 911 but until they got here my husband was valiantly trying to put out the fire, He runs into the house long enough to cut the power to the shed.....all the while holding his chest. I am screaming at him to put the hose down and sit down (while I am calling 911)...he pays me no heed. I am scared because I think he is going to have a heart attack now.....so many flames...so much smoke. Our neighbor Jeremy runs to help us...he is a great neighbor. FINALLY after what seemed 15 minutes (probabaly closer to 5) the fire trucks are here. The fire chief first told us absolutely electrically...my husband says no way...I know my garage and based on that there was still power there is NO WAY it was electrically. The fire inspector came and guess what ARSON and my husband found a bent place in our fence where the arsonist went over. All of my husband's tools lost...along with most of his "guy stuff" fishing poles, reels...etc to much stuff to ever list here. He is sick sick sick with all this and so very upset .....on top of all that it is during his nicotene withdrawl.

So that people was our weekend.....

I did not go to work on Monday and I am not going to make it in till 1:00 today. Yesterday was spent with the insurance adjustor and the verizon guy (cause our phone line ran over the garage and got burnt up). We then starteding pulling charred stuff from the garage and photographing and documenting property damage. They have totaled out my structure and given me policy limits for it...which upon my poor choice is a pittance. I am sure we will take a beating on the property damage as the depreciate everything....I hate to tell them that tools don't depreciate...they are of full value until they break....a table saw is a table saw until it no longer is functioning and for a man in the building trade is just as valuable at 1 year old as it is at 5 or 10. The will give us replacement value but they first start by giving us depreciated value and then when we buy the new one we give them the receipt and supposedly they will give us the difference....it is a hard job documenting damages for my man was man of many tools and he a lifetime supply of nuts and bolts and screws. How do we possible calculate value on a lifetime supply of nuts, nails, screws bolts and washers???and he lost many many sentimental things...how do we value those? I will be calling my agent today to discuss that with him. In addition our GIGANTIC dumpster will be delivered today as we have to do a total teardown of the garage. I also have to get Jerry a followup with the cardiologist and the GP. Also have to do more documentation of damages, call contractors for a new garage etc...so I am going into the Y late ( I know I should not go but I have been eating like a pig from the stress) and then will come home and get those things done...then go to work for a couple of hours then head back home to start loading stuff up in the dumpster.

Please keep my husband in our thoughts as he goes thru this horrible horrible time!

Thank you to my James and Kendra for coming over to sift thru crap with us. My daughter is 9 months pregnant and would NOT stop helping...she says she is fine she is strong as an ox...she was pushing brooms and pickup up crap...I told her NO HEAVY stuff. She insist she knows her limitations and she is not an old lady she is just pregnant.

So more work today!