Home from the hospital, with an update and announcement of sorts. Sales/shares still needed, natch.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

That's from the other day; I have newer images, but since I'm just home the hospital, I'm also not really up to wrangling with downloads and so forth. The weatherizing is done; reportedly, Sherm has the hopper ready to go for next week.

First, the update on all of that: They will not call it a heart attack, and yet they won't actually come out and say in so many words, "No, it wasn't," either. The reasons for that are multilayered. First off, I had all the classic signs of a heart attack. I mean, literally every single one. The clenching and crushing weight on the left side of my chest, combined with intermittent stabbing pain; numbness down my left arm, the whole thing going very cold; dizziness, nausea (vomiting narrowly avoided only by sheer force of will), and an intense sensation of dislocation coupled with an inability to stand or keep my balance; cold sweats and shakes; skyrocketing blood pressure. My BP has always tended toward the low side, although in recent years it's come up to a more normal range, so for me? 160/106 is a serious red zone. When they sprang me from the hospital this morning, it was back down to 117/79. They sent me with scrips for enteric-coated baby aspirin and nitro tabs in case I get that sudden heavy feeling in my chest again, and orders to set up a nuclear stress test, which will likely take a couple of weeks to arrange and do. In the meantime, I am NOT on bedrest; I'm supposed to keep doing what I was doing when I was waiting the 30-40 minutes for the ambulance, which is breathe enough to keep the oxygen flowing as much as possible through my whole body and take the pressure off my heart, so that means not being completely sedentary, although it will be walking only form Point A to Point B, and no lifting or carrying.

They would've been willing to write it off to some bizarre manifestation of severe long-term stress, BUT FOR two factors: 1) the way it presented, above; and 2) my family's ghastly history of severe, even deadly cardiac events at too-young ages, on both sides of the family. Given all of that, despite no spike in troponin, they're unwilling to rule it out, although I was enough better this morning that they were willing to leave the decision about leaving to me (and I, of course, opted to heal better at home, now that we have one, even if it's not complete yet).

Which brings up a second issue. I told the doc I was so annoyed, because all I needed was ONE MORE WEEK, and then the medical system could do whatever it wanted with me, but I needed this week. That's because what is partly a housewarming kind of thing with some traditional aspects to it is also actually something far more significant, even if it doesn't have quite the same sense of immediacy for two people who began their second decade together some years back. A few of you know this, and a very few of you will even make it, and yes, you're damn right it's still on, and in light of yesterday's events, Wings now wants me to let everyone know: We have been together for many, many years, and lived as a married couple very much in love and devoted to each other, but we never got around to the paperwork. It was . . . not a thing. A couple of years ago, though, we decided it was time to make it legal, but we were just starting the process with the house, and there was always another reason to delay it. Since then, we've set half a dozen different dates, and each has fallen through thanks to house-related issues, and we are now at the end where it's the last possible date for the year because of some specific scheduling issues. So next Saturday, November 18th, Wings and I will finally be getting married in the presence of a very few close friends and family here at the house, and yes, you're all invited. No gifts; just good wishes and joy for us. 

And all that said, there's still that "winter weather" part. Sales are going to be crucial to finishing this, but we won't turn away donations, either. I need to raise about another $2,500 over the next few days: We need funds for materials, and for increasing the crew's hours (and yes, we had to add a man on the weatherization crew). I'm so relieved and happy to be alive  that I'm no longer sweating the details of the wedding very much (it's a sobering thing to have to sit, immobile, for a full 30-40 minutes knowing that you might not actually survive it). But there's that whole snow and ice and cold thing coming down the pike, and I suspect this will be the last really warm week we have. So sales matter right now, desperately. But the registries still matter, too. And as always, all of the registry items can be crowdfunded, so kicking in $10 or $20 on an item is extraordinarily useful; a few donations that size to a single item, and it's fulfilled and on its way. All of this, of course, means that we still need shares, daily. So here are all the links:

• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• Wings's site, for sales;
• Lowe's cards (the physical version) via our Amazon wishlist;
• Lowe's e-cards (delivered via e-mail) here; and
• Home Depot cards via the company site. The e-version using my e-mail address is great; I take the tablet to the store with me, and they scan it off the screen.
• Our Amazon wishlist generally.
• Wayfair gift cards, to replenish all the furnishings that the RV has destroyed in one way or another.
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. It's not complete; what's left on it now are doormats and a few other miscellaneous items, although there are more that need to be added.
• Partial registry #2, from Wayfair. Also not complete, but I've finally added a bunch of items to it, mostly now furniture items. But about Wayfair, and VERY IMPORTANT: They make it possible to crowdfund each item. So if you'd like to help, but the prices are too much for one person? You can kick in 20 bucks, or ten, or five, on any one item; many small donations can add up to one item. Even the backordered/out-of-stock items can be crowdfunded in advance. Right now, the most pressing items are the ones outlined above. I've just added the furnishings for the rest of the upstairs (i.e., the guest room and my writing/office space, which also includes the desk and chair further down the list, and the last three rugs on the list, two of which are back-ordered). The chaise and daybed are for the two upstairs rooms: the latter for the guest room, the former for my office, which is where I will be spending most of my time, and my AI issues require working on a laptop with my legs outstretched, so that's why it's a pricier piece; it'll probably be the primary means to my role in our living. There will also be more items that fall into the badly-needed category (lamps, particularly, right now), because the wiring and mold and lime and everything else in this toxic tin can has destroyed so much of what we used to have. I'm sickened by the amount of stuff we have to throw out (on top of the things that were simply ruined, such as the microwave fried by the wiring in that place).

Thank you all, once again, for everything you've done over the last 16 months to get us safe and keep me sane. We are both so thankful for each and every one of you who made it possible for us to sleep (and shower!) now, for the first time in seven years, in a safe and healthy (and warm!) place. I'm going to be mostly unavailable for very nearly anything for almost three weeks now, and it's all complicated by the cold weather and seven years of breathing toxic air. As I said the other night, I will miss everything under the sun, I will forget things, I will screw up things thought to be un-screw-up-able. That's just life with autoimmune disease anyway, and now it's severely exacerbated by all the rest of it. But we have a long way to go, and an absurd amount that needs to get done in three weeks, so please bear with me a while longer. Winter weather has been stalking the door for the better part of a week now, and even though we'll allegedly be going back to higher-than-usual highs, the lows are a reminder that we have to get this done, and fast. And now, when he introduces me as his wife? Even the government will agree, LOL.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.