is it wednesday

I'm going to make this post super-short, because I am exhausted and have nothing to report on my goals anyway.

Monday night, my mom was admitted to the hospital with atrial fib. She had a similar episode four years ago and after a night in the hospital on IV meds, her heart went back into a normal rhythm. The vast majority of patients with atrial fib are put on anti-coagulation drugs, but at Mom's age among other factors, she is not a candidate for those meds.

Well, this time around, her heart did not go back into a normal rhythm. Her doctor (who is the one I work for and I have total one thousand per cent faith in him) sent her home today, having increased one of her drugs, one that slows down her heart rate.

If you don't know about atrial fibrillation, you can look it up on-line. It is actually fairly common.

This is how I see a normal heart. Make a fist and clench and un-clench it. That's about the size of your heart and how it acts when it beats. My mom's heart on the other hand, because it has been beating for over 89 years and has had a bunch of surgeries on it, is more like a half-pound of raw hamburger. You can shape it all you want with your hands, but it just isn't going to do a lot on its own. Sometimes I think the heart meds that Mom is on are the only things prodding her heart along. That and the fact that she is a bull-headed German.

Anyway, some how this is no longer super short. So, between still working eight plus hours a day, I have run over to see Mom before, after and in between during the day. Good thing she was just down the hall from me. But this is why I don't know what day it is.

I was going to post a picture of the building I work in - the clinic and hospital building - but I found this picture first. It's the doc I've worked for the last 16 years with one of our medical students, from four years ago. Oh, and I had bought him that tie too, many years ago.