The Ups and Downs of Comfort Foods

The past 10 days have been an emotional roller coaster, and a culinary and logistical nightmare.

Daddy had a mild heart attack a week ago Thursday.  Mom can't stay alone at night, so I packed a bag and went to stay with her (and of course, to see Daddy).  He had a cardiac catheterization on Friday, which revealed a 70% blockage of the largest artery in the heart.  They were concerned that the dye from the cath would damage his kidneys (which are already in sad shape) enough to force him onto dialysis.  Thankfully, that did not happen.  However, the blockage means he will need to be on Aspirin and Plavix.  This poses a problem becuase he is allergic to aspirin, and as long as he is on Plavix, he can't have a kidney transplant. I spent the next 3 days eating unhealthy breakfast sandwiches, hospital cafeteria lunches and deli sandwich dinners, with the occasional chocolate for comfort.

After spending the weekend at Mercer, just being monitored, they shipped him out on Monday to the University of PA in Philadelphia.  This is where his kidney specialists are, so they could consult with the cardiologists.  Also, they are able to do a procedure where they give tiny amounts of aspirin, slowly increasing it, to desensitize the body to the aspirin allergy.  He got settled into a room on the cardiac stepdown unit, and Mom and I spent the night at the hotel across the street.  More hospital cafeteria food and sandwich shop fare, and the chocolate got more frequent.

Tuesday was pretty much a "hurry up and wait" day, as the allergist didn't make an appearance until after 5pm.  I had told Mom I had to go home that night and restock my clothing, meds, etc., so we headed out, opting to skip dinner in favor of some ice cream on the way home.  It felt soooo good to sleep in my own bed!

Wednesday we headed back down to U of PA.  They moved Daddy to CCU and did the aspirin procedure, and it went fine.  He will now have to take aspirin every day until the kidney transplant, and Plavix for one month.  After the transplant, he can go back on the Plavix to stay.  Around dinnertime, Deb arrived.  I have never been so happy to see anyone in my life!  I could feel my stress level drop as soon as she got out of the limo.  We went right up to Dad's room and stayed until visiting hours ended at 8.  We then went down to the cafe for dinner, knowing that they are open until midnight.  Well, we found out that "real" food is only served until 7, so our options were hotdogs or premade tuna sandwiches.  OK, so we will go to the sandwich shop across the street, which is open til 9.  We were walking across the bridge from the hospital and noticed that the sandwich shop was dark.  Hmmmm.  Why?  On entering the hotel lobby and hitting the button for the elevator, we got the answer.  The hotel service guy came up and informed us that the elevators were not working, and that they were experiencing a power failure, having only emergency lighting.  Ugh!

Now, Deb was jet lagged and exhausted, and no way could we get ourselves, let alone Mom, up 13 flights of stairs to the 17th floor!  The service guy was very helpful, and directed us to a conference rooom with chairs and tables, and he gave us the number of a local pizza place.  I called and ordered the pizza, asking them to deliver it to the lobby, and I could walk down one flight to get it.  Meanwhile, the power came back on and we were able to get up to our room.  I went down and collected the pizza, and we had a pizza party in the room.  Not the best pizza I ever ate, but it did the trick.

Thursday was stent day.  Poor Daddy had nothing to eat all day, but told us to go ahead and get lunch and come eat in the room with him.  He was supposed to go down at 1, but they had an emergency and some other delays, so it was 6 pm by the time they came for him.  We went down to the sandwich shop for dinner, and then came back and sat in his room until he returned, about 9:00.  They had had a hard time getting the cath in, and then his blood pressure dropped really low, and they used more dye than they had hoped, so they were concerned about his kidneys again.  The study showed that the blockage was more like 90%, but they did get the stent put in.  Plus he had to lie flat on his back for hours, so he was very uncomfortable.  I was reluctant to leave, but we had no choice, so headed back to the hotel.  None of us slept very well..

Friday morning Deb and I ran over to visit briefly before I had to leave to go get Danny at camp.  We were delighted to see him standing up at the bedside!  He was feeling much better, and his labs showed his kidneys had come through just fine, thank God!  By the time Mom and Deb got back down to see him at lunchtime, he had been told he would be able to come home on Saturday.  We had alot to celebrate!  Danny and I stopped for subs for lunch, and he had requested pizza for dinner on his first night home.  He changed his mind to a meatball parm sub, which we split.

Saturday was the great homecoming celebration, and I baked a rhubarb pie.  Of course we had to have vanilla ice cream on top.  The main meal of hamburgers and corn on the cob was probably the healthiest thing I've eaten all week!

So now the crisis has passed, and all my old bad eating habits have returned.  I am going out for lunch tomorrow, we are having dinner with friends, and we leave for Cape May in 2 days, which is always a food fest.  Then Friday we go for a long weekend with Mom and Dad for their 50th Anniversary.  So proper eating is not looking to likely for at least the next week or so.  At the rate I'm going, I will burst out of all my clothing by then.

Weight control would be SO much easier if real life didn't get in the way...