I have now been home for a full week and am feeling better and a bit more confident. I am still here in this world and beginning to look forward to a future that I am not sure where it is headed. This was an unusual feeling for me. For some reason I had a feeling that changes were coming, I just didn’t know what they were and how my recovery would be affected. Also, I am still questioning what my recovery will be like, and I am now compelled to take new medicines daily to keep me functioning and to allow for my heart to adapt to the stint that was placed in my LAD where the 100% blockage was found.
While I thought this week would be somewhat benign and relaxing, as you have read this was interrupted when my daughter had her seizure and we went to the hospital. I think that this was a test of my heart’s response to a very stressful incident and I do believe that I passed the test.
The rest of the week I spent reading about recovering from a major medical event involving my heart, completing forms, and generally, watching some TV shows and movies I had not really watched before. There was a TV show that my younger daughter introduced me to that caught my attention, Netflix “Heartstopper”. I found this show to be inspirational to this new generation of youth, my two daughters’ generation. A show like this would never have been produced, let alone aired, when my generation was growing up. Times have changed. And I do hope for the better. I also noticed that the cast fit into their respected roles so perfectly. I have become a fan of this show and my daughter and I often talk about the characters in conversation we have. Yes, she is somewhat mature for her age. I would love to meet the cast and crew personally just to understand more about them and where their acting and professional careers could take them in the future. When I was in my teen’s I was exposed to the entertainment industry firsthand and have a bit of an understanding of all the work put into the making of a TV show. It is not just the acting and character development. It is so much more.
I also re-watched Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Dune. I forget how many times I have watched these movies. Ever since I was young I have been a fan of sci-fi movies involving traveling through space and time. I remember when I was young my mom would not allow me to watch Star Trek on TV. Coming from a small town in western North Carolina was probably why. Her view of the characters depicted in the TV show was not good. The show was to diverse and the character Spock was total unacceptable to her. It wasn’t until the 70’s that I actually was able to watch Star Trek in reruns. When the first Star Trek movie came out I lived in South Florida. George Takei was at the movie theater welcoming the movie goers. He and I engaged in a lengthy conversation before the movie discussing, believe it or not, Architecture. It was a really nice conversation. I would like to meet him again.
I was allowed to watch Lost in Space, the original TV show. When I was young I lived in Las Vegs. At this time, I had a friend who lived in Beverly Hills. One time when I was visiting him he got us on the back lot at the studio where the props for Lost in Space were stored. That was really cool for me. We climbed all over the transport vehicle from the show. WOW! This is a good memory.
During the week I also engaged in doing some actual work by communicating with the various contractors and vendors I work with at the College who are working on my projects. I have a major project underway on the campus that still needed me to respond to the construction activities underway and to answer ongoing questions. I also needed to continue to provide related design oversight for the project as we are still completing the design of the project while we are building it. This duality of effort is the product of the pandemic. As one of my colleagues has said “we are building the train as it is moving down the track”. I guess you could say that my goal is to complete the train before we get to the station.
Towards the end of my first week home, our neighbors had a BBQ in their front yard that everyone in our court was invited to. I couldn’t wait to go so I can get out of the house and say “Hi” and thank them for all of the help and support they have offered. I even had a glass of wine which my doctors said I could have. This was my fist glass of wine post event. Also, the food was really, really good. I enjoyed the evening with our neighbors, the food and spirits, and sitting around the fire in the fire pit. The week ended with good vibes.
“If you have experienced a major medical event and have started your recovery phase, please share with me in the comments box or by email. I am looking to learn more about how you have moved forward in your recovery efforts.”