If you’ve been a regular follower of this series, you already know how much cardiac problems can affect not only the individual going through them, but their family and friends.

Symptoms of heart disease or other heart issues are lived with on a daily basis by the individual experiencing it. Their symptoms can sometimes be controlled by medication, but not always. And their family lives with it as well, on an emotional basis.

It’s not easy for anyone involved.

Particularly the individual waiting for test results, for the correct medication to start making a difference, waiting for decisions on surgery or similar procedures. Figuring out how they can afford the medication their doctor has prescribed when their health insurance doesn’t pay very much for certain lifesaving drugs that are terribly expensive!

And waiting to have tests that will help determine the next step in treatment can seem like forever.
However, I must also confess that having to put the cath off because of risk of infection really did a number on my emotions. I’d been so anticipating getting answers that day, and having to wait really started to depress me!

And unfortunately that’s a normal reaction when the stress has piled up so much, and you had a certain date when it should end, and then it suddenly changed. And we had another almost three weeks to wait. When Ben called his dentist about his aching tooth on Monday morning, they couldn’t get him in until the next day. Meanwhile, his catheterization was rescheduled for two and a half weeks later. Plenty of time to get everything under control, right?

So we thought. When he saw our dentist, Dr. K informed him that yes, the tooth was abscessed, and he needed a root canal and a crown. Plus the one beside it was also starting to get infected from that one beside it….

Two and a half hours later he was on his way back home with antibiotics, a numb mouth from the root canal, and a headache. Because his mouth was so swollen from the infection he had to wait and go back again the end of the week to get the impression made for the permanent crown, but we should still be fine timewise, since we had almost three weeks. And the doctor couldn’t do the catheterization unless he had the permanent crown in place because of the risk of infection.

Of course the best laid plans often go haywire. The permanent crown was supposed to be back on the following Friday. And guess what…on Friday Ben got a personal call from our dentist, very upset, because the crown wasn’t there. The person who was supposed to be following up on it didn’t. And Dr. K was going out of town that weekend and not scheduled to be back until the following Wednesday night. Which meant the cath would have to be rescheduled again….

But we have a phenomenal dentist, who we’ve been going to for 22+ years, so he changed his travel plans to fly back home Tuesday morning before the cath on Thursday and put the permanent crown on.

Then…guess what…another phone call Tuesday around noon. His plane was delayed because of all the storms throughout the country. He wouldn’t be back in town until at least 7:00-8:00 that night.

So now we had to switch to Plan C, or maybe even Plan D. His dentist appointment was rescheduled to Wednesday at 6:15. Ok, we can do that. The cath wasn’t until Thursday morning.

Until another call on Wednesday around 4:00, this time personally from Dr. K apologizing profusely because his earlier patient had some serious issues and their appointment would take longer than planned….
So at 8:00 that night we finally met our favorite dentist at his office and 15 minutes later Ben had his permanent crown! In time for the next day’s procedure!

You just can’t make this stuff up!

But thankfully, Ben would now be able to have the cath, so the next morning we arrived at the hospital at 7:00 am and checked him in to the Heart Center at the hospital.

Finally we’d start getting some answers! It was about time!

And the saga continues in Matters of the Heart, Part 13, to be published April 11.

Don’t miss the previous stories in this series:
Matters of the Heart, Part 1
Matters of the Heart, Part 2
Matters of the Heart, Part 3
Matters of the Heart, Part 4
Matters of the Heart, Part 5
Matters of the Heart, Part 6
Matters of the Heart, Part 7
Matters of the Heart, Part 8
Matters of the Heart, Part 9
Matters of the Heart, Part 10
Matters of the Heart, Part 11