February 18, 2020

January 30, 2020

 Progress on our new home is coming along and we still hope to close in mid-April.  Joyce and I have been looking at televisions, washer and dryers and refrigerators along with other things we will need.

 On Tuesday we had our appointments with our Veterans Administration doctors in Jacksonville.  We were both impressed with the efficiency of the process and the doctors.  Joyce is planning to have all of her healthcare needs taken care of with the VA and I plan to use civilian doctors.

February 4, 2020

 Yesterday we had our first walk through of our new house with Dan, our building superintendent.  Dan and his assistant showed us all of the electrical outlets, where the HAVAC systems we located, water connections, etc.  We were able to take a lot of pictures and some measurements that will help us later when we start adding other things to the house.  Joyce did notice an extra electrical outlet that we paid for during the design meeting was missing.  Dan will be taking care of that this week before the drywall goes up.  We are still estimating to be able to move in sometime after April 1st.

February 18, 2020

 It’s been awhile since I last wrote.  A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks so let me get right to telling your about it.

 Our new house is coming along nicely and Dan is still predicting the house wi be finished in the first week in April.  The hardest thing for Dan is getting all of the inspections that are necessary done in a timely manner.  The Clay County inspector’s seem to be swamped with the amount of building going on in this area.

 Now for the big thing that hit us.  On Thursday we got up early so that we could be to the Jacksonville VA Center for Joyce’s first appointment of the day.  I wasn’t feeling all that great but after her appoint we went to lunch.  We then drove back to the center for her nutrition class.

 I decided to just stay in the car and while sitting there I was still feeling a little “puny”.  I had some shortness of breath, a tad lite headiness and just overall didn’t feel too good.  But, I just marked it off as having to get up so early and not sleeping well the night before.  My first mistake of the day.

 When Joyce came back to the car after her appointment I drove (my second mistake) us to Green Cove Springs so we could check on the house.  We stopped at a gas station to get a drink and use the bathroom .  When I was in the restroom I noticed that my face a a little flushed.  When I asked Joyce about it she confirmed that I had a flush that was not normal.  I asked her to drive to a hospital so that I could get checked out.

 We decided to go up to Fleming Island and to the Baptist & Wolfson Clay Emergency Room which is actually next door to my primary doctors office.  When I checked-in I was taken in and the nurses and ER doctor started working on me immediately.  They found I was in 2rd degree heart blockage and worked to get me stabilized then, called an ambulance to transport me up to Orange Park Medical Center.

With Nurse Eve Crosby.  Eve is a Colonel in the Florida Air National Guard.

 After the ride up to Orange Park with lights and sirens going, they took me right into the ER.  Dr. Bosley did his initial assessment and told me I was actually in Stage 1 blockage and admitted me to the hospital.

 I had to spend the night in the ER since there were no rooms upstairs in their Step-down Unit which was not very comfortable.  Jason, my night nurse was able to get me a real hospital bed that was much more comfortable than the stretcher I was on.

 During the night my heart rate remained in the 30-40 beats per minute range which isn’t good to say the least.  In the morning I was seen by a Physician’s Assistant from the Cardiology Unit who said that I would need a pacemaker and that they would try to get me in for that procedure sometime in the late afternoon.

 Shortly after that my heart rate went down to the 28 to 30 BPM.  Around 1:30 a nurse came in to take me upstairs where I was then informed I was in 3rd Stage blockage.  The next thing I knew I woke up in the recovery room with a new pacemaker.

 I spent the night in the hospital and was released Saturday afternoon, feeling much better.  I’m at home right now and doing great.  I’m very thankful to all the ER folks and of course to the doctors.  If I had waited too much longer I might not be here to write this blog post.

Getting ready to go home.

 I said earlier that I made a couple of mistakes during all of this.  First, I should have listed to my body that was telling me something was very wrong.  Second, we should have gone directly to the hospital’s emergency room instead of going to the ER at Baptist Clay.  Of course, that is all twenty-twenty hind sight and all turned out okay.

Some great pictures of Smith Rock.  Thanks to Smith Rock.com and Steve Lay.

More later.

Barry & Joyce