Aurora's Blog

It’s Wednesday night, so the heart story continues.

Last week was a tangent (as is the first part of this week). So, perhaps picking up from Part 20.

(Wow, that didn’t seem like such a ridiculous number of parts until I used it in a sentence.)

We’re gonna fast forward to December in a bit. (Skip down to the dotted line to get straight there.)

First, let’s touch on what I did in between the time of my last unplanned hospital visit in November and the epicardial ablation in mid-December.

Of course I spent time catching up on school as best as I could – and sort of trying to stay under the radar, ’cause all anybody was talking about was my heart.

I had an enormous amount of time on my hands. I wasn’t allowed to run. I went from working 60 (or more) hours in many weeks to working 0.

I didn’t have TV or internet in my apartment. (I also didn’t have a Facebook or any kind of time-sucking social media thing at the time.)

Homework surprisingly didn’t take as much time as you’d think it might. I got a ton of work done in the hospital in classes in which my teachers allowed me to work remotely. Some teachers had put their feet down about the too many absences thing. The school couldn’t overrule the teachers decisions. (Don’t think I’m hating on the school, though. They were able to help me somewhat – more on that in a later chapter.)

What to do with all this extra time? For one thing, I got a little weird. I kind of did this odd makeover thing. It wasn’t that I was really trying to reinvent myself, per se. It was just kind of like “What do people do when they have free time?”

I got a hair cut for the first time in years. This seems like a normal human errand. Fun. I tried some different colors.

I went through a red-haired phase for a bit. It was actually kind of cute, if I do say so myself.

(I used to have some pictures of me in the hospital once I got my red hair, and I can’t find them! Bummer.)

I started wearing high heels again (which I used to do everyday in high school – it was sort of my thing).

I still didn’t put on make-up, so don’t get the idea that I was super dolled up. But I changed things up. People started asking, “Oh, did you do something different to your hair?”  They said, “Wow, I’ve never seen you in heels before.”

When they were busy saying that, you know what it meant they weren’t saying? “How are you? How’s you’re heart?”

(Distraction accomplished.)

It’s sweet of them to ask how I was feeling, but we’ll talk later about those questions.

For now, let’s get to December and that epicardial ablation. (Finally! I know, right?)

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I checked into the hospital first thing in the morning. It was predetermined that I’d spend the night there. I am almost certain it was on December 14th, because I remember thinking, “What fun that this procedure/surgery thing fell on a Monday. I’ll get to watch those CBS shows!”

(CBS is the only broadcast network that doesn’t make their shows easily available online. So, this would be a fun time to check in on Monday night’s comedy block. (I’m not in love with CBS comedies (more of an NBC girl) but I like to check in on them now and again.)

The nurse said I probably wouldn’t be awake to watch them, but she underestimated how rare it was that I got to see CBS shows. I would fight through the drugs and tiredness.

I kind of did. I was in and out, but I’d say I caught at least 15 minutes of The Big Bang Theory. I can call that a win, right?

Let’s back up a bit, ’cause you didn’t come here to hear about CBS’s Monday night lineup.

So, I checked into the hospital in the morning. I don’t actually remember all that much about the pre-stuff. At some point in the morning, they put me under. Many hours later, I woke up in the ICU. Yep. The ICU. That was unexpected.

This is where I’ll pick up next week (seriously, with no tangent between this week’s end and next week’s beginning).