Good riddins 2010 - hello 2011!

Ok, sorry...i know it's been since Tuesday - it's been a busy week!!!  Chris came home on Thursday a little battered and bruised, but otherwise in pretty good shape.  He gave me permission to post this picture.

If you look closely, you'll see bruises in his right arm, that's where he tore some IV's out while in the ER.  He was basically unconscious and it was his drive to survive that made him a bit combative.  You can also see the burn marks on his chest where the Automatic Defibrillator shocked him several times. And the bruises in his belly are from shots of heparin.

Once they got him up into the ICU they had to shock him again.  This time they had him hooked to the machine that recorded the event.  I snapped a picture of it...just in case he wasn't going to believe me later on about what happened to him :)

And this is a picture of the ICU room in the cardiac care unit where he was for the first two days.  He doesn't remember this room at all, but I will never forget it and all the amazing nurses and doctors and other staff that work there.  Those people are incredible!

His memory is MUCH better now. I think he's probably almost all better in that respect too, for which I'm incredibly grateful.  It was very unnerving to go through a whole day with him only to have him not remember ANY of it the next day - and that happened 3 days! 

I've always tried to look for the bright side and lessons learned in any event. So, for me the bright side in this event was that for 4 days I didn't even think about cancer.  It was a nice break!  My lesson learned, one that I think this whole medical odyssey is teaching me, is to live more in the present.  Appreciate and enjoy all the blessings in my life that are with me today and not worry so much about what the future brings.
 
So, as we begin a new year I look forward with optimism, but am resolved to live for today and appreciate all the wonderful people in our lives.  Yes, that's YOU!  Thank you for all your love and support.

Julia (and Chris)