I knew I recognized this feeling. It may sound bizarre, but coming home from the hospital with Chuck felt like bring a new baby home. Entering a new world, the promise of a bright future, with someone seemingly so fragile. The fear. Wanting to put a little mirror under his nose to see that he's breathing. Sleeping with one ear open.
The whole experience has had its bizarre elements:
- The ICU roommate, being visited by his daughter and wife. Daughter decided she didn't like her mom's new haircut, and proceeded to take out her scissors to finish the haircut right there in Intensive Care.
- The doctors' comments on the two angiograms, one from three years ago compared to last week's: "They don't even look like they're from the same person."
- Chuck's pain experience – everything hurts except his chest.
- The array of non heart smart food available in the hospital cafeteria.
- The way things work out – having had both flu shots two weeks in advance, being near a great cardiac hospital, having insurance.
- The price of prescription drugs in the US. Yikes.
- Chuck's description of Blogless Marsha and I attending to his medical needs on his first day home. He labelled us Lucy and Ethel as we tried, with peals of nervous laughter, to give him his first insulin injection at home. The harder we tried the more hilarious it got. For us anyway.
- Two pieces of meat, the same weight, one with fat attached one with fat trimmed. One is way lower in fat, but both have about the same amount of cholesterol. How did I miss that? Even more bizarre – one boneless skinless chicken breast, although low in fat, contains 37% of your daily cholesterol requirement. I have to rethink my knowledge of fats vs cholesterol.
- The respiratory therapist's recollection of a patient's description of the sound made by one of her pieces of equipment – "sounds like a duck fartin' in mud."
- Only in America – I spent $150 on groceries and came home with a free 19lb turkey and 20 free cell phone minutes.
- Knitting content – I met a woman who was wearing a brand new Dale of Norway cardigan. She paid $6.99 for it at Value Village.
- More knitting content - despite all the time I've had to knit I'm still not quite done with the Lacy Kerchief Scarf:
Thank you all for the positive thoughts and prayers. Things are going as well as can be expected.
Life's a Stitch 
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