Andreaaaaaa......

WAKE UP!!!!

You know how sometimes you are just happily going along, life is good, and things are relatively OK... then all of the sudden something happens that is not so good and makes you sit up and take notice. The proverbial "wake up call." This week I had one.

Very long story short... my heart has been doing funny things for a couple of months now. I have played it off as being stress related. A couple of times I have jokingly said to Aaron... "I am having chest pains so if I drop over, make sure and tell the paramedics." Tuesday night at the Festival of Bands I made the same statement to Christy and laughed it off.

Wednesday the pain was increasing, as were the palpitations. I said "ok God, if this is something serious, make it clear to me I need to have it checked out." Almost immediately my mind thought of my good friend Judy.(who passed away suddenly from a heart attack - she had chest pains the night before) I took that as my confirmation it was time to go.

Aaron and I headed to Jasper, and another long story short, my heart keeps going into what they call V-Tac (ventricular tachycardia) It is a potentially dangerous situation. I was kept over night and given just about every heart test known to man. I will wear a monitor for the next 3 weeks. Someone in some other state will be watching my rhythm 24/7 and if anything happens on the strip, they will call me to see if I am symptomatic. Isn't technology fabulous!

Testing also showed extreme anemia and suggested the possibility of an internal bleed. I will be having further testing to try and figure that out. I suspect a bleeding ulcer, but we shall see.

SO... I am considering this my wake up call. This is what happens when you neglect your health and are over-worked and over-stressed, under-nourished and fatigued. Your body stages a revolt. Mine seems to be preparing for war.

I will be slowing the pace a bit, hiring some help for the business, making sure to eat and drink throughout the day (sometimes I forget to), etc. I am getting older and as you get older things start to happen. It is inevitable. My mom very kindly put it this way..."you know honey, you ARE 41..." Thanks mom.

I greatly appreciate all the prayers, texts, and phone calls I have received over the past couple of days. My favorite Farhars even came to the hospital to bring me my phone charger... it could have been potentially disastrous if my phone had gone dead! :) Aaron, as always, has been my rock. I am very fortunate to have so many wonderful people in my life.

Please continue to pray for the next few weeks that everything can get straightened out and back to normal.