Well, today started off really good. Marshall woke up with more energy than usual and in a nice frame of mind, so we ran a bunch of errands and had a late brunch. We got home around 3:00 and noticed that one of the greenhouse doors had mostly broken off, no idea why, so we took it off the rest of the way.
Then we came in the house and started doing a few things around the house. I was in my office and I heard a loud THUMP. I thought the cat had knocked over his "tower," so I went out to take a look and Marshall was unconscious on the floor. I got down on the floor and shook him a little and checked to see if he was breathing and after about a minute and a half he started to come around. His head was bleeding from hitting the floor with his glasses on and his knee was bleeding from whatever it scraped as he fell.
So I tried to help him get up and he couldn't seem to move his legs or arms. He tried to talk and all that came out was gibberish. So I grabbed the phone and called 911. By that time, he was grabbing his chest and moaning in pain, but still couldn't talk clearly. He was sweating, pale, cold and clammy. He was able to let me know that his left arm was numb.
The 911 dispatcher stayed on the phone with me and she could hear Marshall moaning and crying out in pain and she was relaying everything to the paramedics. All I could understand Marshall say was "Please hurry, please hurry." The dispatcher did a superb job of keeping me calm.
It felt like an eternity, but the paramedics were here in about 17 or 18 minutes. I got all the animals tucked away into the bedroom so they would be out of the way (but Marlee was breaking my heart, he refused to leave Marshall's side and I had to drag him away).
The paramedics started working on him and one of them said she thought they needed the Flight For Life helicopter to get him to the hospital quicker. She asked for my permission to order the helicopter, so I guess that tells me that insurance won't cover this and from hearing stories of others who have used Flight For Life, I believe it's about a $15,000 trip. But how can you not do it? So the helicopter landed in a field a little ways from our house and whisked him off to the hospital.
By that time he was starting to come around and feel more normal because as they were taking him out, he was saying to the paramedics, "Ain't this a bitch! I've got cancer and I'm going to die of a heart attack."
By the time I got to the hospital, they had already run a few tests and they decided to admit him. He got into his room around 9:30 or so. And by then he was actually feeling fine. Two doctors came in around 10:30 and spent an hour or so asking questions and making him do funny things like touch his nose with his forefinger and grab the doctor's fingers and squeeze, etc.
The doctor said that they cannot right now definitely say it was a heart attack, so I can't wait to hear what else it could have been. The doctor talked about checking markers in the blood, something that's supposed to tell them if there has been damage to the heart. They also want to check his carotid arteries for clots. They want to do a stress test. And they want to see if it is at all possible that this was all cancer related. (Marshall does have cancer lesions in his ribcage...)
So stay tuned for more news tomorrow. I will try to be at the hospital by 10:00. Right now, me and the boys are off to bed!
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