A Little Drama in The Deen House

A frosted leaf at Doorus.

Our Little Drama

The best laid plans of mice and men..... Jim's not been feeling too well for about a week. He suffers from heart arrhythmia and high blood pressure, both of which he takes medication for. We went shopping to Limerick on Wednesday and in Tesco he said he'd had enough and needed to go home. Once there he fell asleep.

He woke at about 11pm and felt awful. His heart felt as though it was swollen and he could feel that his blood pressure was high. He looked ashen when he came to me and said he thought we ought to visit the hospital. His BP was 177/something too high! So off we went in the car to Limerick where we knew they had 24 hour Accident and Emergency facilities. It was white with frost and thick fog drifted across the roads. We arrived about midnight and Jim was taken almost immediately into 'cubicles'.

Sticky leads on the chest, hooked up to the heart and BP monitor, his BP reading 180 now. I could watch on the monitor every time his heart missed a beat. They took a trace and showed it to a doctor. They asked the usual questions. Any pain? Any tingling or pins and needles in the arm? Their fear was clearly heart attack, as was ours.

To cut a long story short, after an all nighter in A & E, Jim's BP was down and they took several blood tests. Apparently if the heart is damaged, it gives of an enzyme which is unique to the heart and so far the blood tests didn't show any of this particular enzyme. At about 6am, they said they were going to keep him in and do further blood tests. I drove home at this point, having left the dog and cats on their own and unable to do much else. Jim was looking happier too and I knew he was in the right place.

Both lots of blood the next day were clear of the heart enzyme so at least we knew his heart was undamaged. The end result was that a very few people with arrhythmia are very sensitive to anything else going wrong with the body and that can set off a particularly severe bout of it. It's possible Jim had an infection of some sort without really being aware of it. So - thankfully no heart attack and 'keep taking the tablets' for his BP with maybe the addition of some aspirin each day.

I had tried to catch a bit of sleep in the morning but phone calls and texts mostly prevented it. Visiting was 3pm onwards so I got ready to go back and hopefully collect Jim. There he was sitting in a little 4 man ward awaiting the final result of his latest blood test. All was well and home we went - no alcohol and take it easy was the order of the day. His heartbeat was still a bit erratic but certainly much better than it had been the night before and his BP was down to its usual level. It was all a bit frightening but at least we weren't having to spend Christmas in hospital and no lasting damage had been caused.

We had been hoping to travel by car to the UK on 27th December to visit our family from Yorkshire to the South Coast, but all logic told us that wouldn't be wise in the circumstances. The weather has also been dreadful both in Ireland and even more so in the UK, so we sadly had to cancel our trip. I have all the presents here all wrapped ready to go and it'll be sad not to be able to watch everyone open them - but it can't be helped. Hopefully we'll be able to go over some time later in January and have a 2nd 'Christmas' with our families.

Jim is now quite relaxed and feeling much happier. We will enjoy our Christmas at home and just chill out for a few days, which will also be lovely.


A happy Jim back home with his hospital 'bracelets' still on.

Weather

We have had a bit of snow but lots of frost. Limerick was just amazing. The whole world seemed to turn white there - it had clearly been much colder than at Doorus. It was stunningly beautiful to drive through. The trees were all white and the fields too, just like a Christmas Card. As I drove home from the hospital, the car lights shone on all the frost, lighting it up like diamonds - absolutely breathtaking.

Naturally I did manage to take a few photos here and there!


Frosty pole and Lough Graney in the distance.

Lough Graney is partly frozen and during last night (our sleep patterns are a bit topsy turvy) Jim and I could hear really strange 'booming' noises coming from the lake. Today we spoke to a local and he had heard it too. We think it's from the ice but it was very strange.


This is all frost, not snow. Jim took this photo this morning before he went to bed!


A world of white - Limerick, on the way to the hospital.

A weeping willow straight out of Narnia.


Isn't that beautiful?


Has such a mundane fence ever looked so pretty?


Bus Shelter Cobwebs


A tree in the hospital grounds.

I do hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy and healthy New Year. See you all after Christmas.