I know the date that my part of this journey began – but the truth is that it had started long before either of us realized…

On Monday August 20th, my husband Harold went outside to mow the small strip of grass on the side of the house.  He came in afterwards saying he was “done” – and not just because he had finished it.  He had gotten out of breath  shortly after starting – but stubbornly pushed through it to finish (if you know my husband, then that doesn’t surprise you).  We attributed it to the Florida heat – August being the hottest month of the year.

The following morning he went to take the trash and recycle to the curb.  As he was getting ready to leave for work, he asked for the phone number for our family doctor.  When I asked why, he told me that just taking the trash to the curb caused him to be out of breath.  I told him to be sure to tell them “shortness of breath” so they would get him in that day, and they did.  This set off a chain of events that I never expected.

He left that day with orders for lab work to rule out an infection, and waiting for referrals for both a chest x-ray and an appointment with a cardiologist.  The lab work – that was the easy part.  The waiting for the referrals – not so much.  Two days later – no calls setting up either appointment.  He called the Dr.’s office and was told to wait until Tuesday and call back if he didn’t hear anything.  The problem with that – he was leaving Wednesday morning for a work trip to Milwaukee.  Tuesday morning arrived and still no calls.  Finally that afternoon they set up the chest x-ray for the day after he returned home, yet still no appointment with a cardiologist.  It wasn’t until that Thursday, August 30th, that he finally had an appointment set…but not until Sept 18th – four weeks from the date of his initial visit to our family doctor.

Frustrating? Most definitely.  Surprising?  Not really when you factor in all the hoops that must be jumped through when it comes to the medical field, health insurance, etc.  However, that “frustration”  would eventually turn not only into “understanding” but also “gratitude”.  But I won’t jump that far ahead yet…

When he left for Milwaukee, I made sure one of the other employees had my cell phone number and that he told them he was having some “problems” so they could keep an eye on him.  During the trip he was starting to “notice” the shortness of breath a little more – having a hard time at the airport, keeping up with the others on their way to eat, etc.  During his flight home, the first flight was delayed long enough to make me worry that trying to rush to the connecting flight would be too hard on him.  Thankfully the connecting flight was also delayed (which we know was not a “mere coincidence”).  The wait for his flight to arrive was hard – I was checking his flight status every few minutes (thankfully that particular airline has an app that enabled me to track the flights) and it wasn’t until he walked through the gate and I could hug him (very tightly) that I was able to relax, at least for a little while.

About this same time we started monitoring his blood pressure which would fluctuate daily.  Up until this point, he had never had a high blood pressure issue.  All of this made the appointment with the cardiologist that much more important and it seemed like it might never get here.  For me – it was if I was holding my breath – praying that nothing would happen until that appointment…