Summer is Here

This is Nick at his first crawfish boil, about a month ago.

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And boy, is it hot!  We're eagerly anticipating the arrival of the summer host kids from NHFC.  Just one more week until they get here.  Thankfully, there are six kids from Ukraine coming to this area, and they are able this time to fly into New Orleans, instead of having to be picked up in Atlanta or Houston.  I will be the "airport coordinator," and will be gathering the things that NHFC needs to have done.  I hope everyone has a great hosting experience.  It's NHFC's biggest hosting, yet:  202 kids from Latvia and Ukraine this summer - wow!!!!

Nick and Tyler both made it onto competitive soccer teams for this fall, and they are both pretty excited about that.  I'm not personally looking forward to it -- can you spell S-T-R-E-S-S??  They'll be playing out of two different clubs, too, so it makes it just that much more run-around.  And as much as I love baseball, I am so glad the season's over -- it was more stressful than fun this year.  Maybe it wasn't much fun because David stresses over it so much.  (I think he thinks our kids should always get top billing, whether or not they are the best player for a position.) 

I remembered another reason for my failure to blog a lot this spring:  did I mention that David had a heart attack March 6?  Mardi Gras weekend, on Sunday morning, he did 30 minutes on the elliptical, took his shower, got dressed, then started to fix breakfast as usual.  Suddenly, while standing at the stove, he started having all the classic heart attack signs:  dizzy, pain in his chest and left arm, radiating into his hand.  He took an aspirin, sat in the recliner, then decided to come find me (in the bathroom getting ready for church), so he sat in the recliner in the bedroom and said he didn't feel "right."  He told me all the symptoms he was having, and I asked him what he wanted me to do.  He said, "I guess you should call the hospital."  Well, I called 911 and had an ambulance come get him.  The paramedics said that he was having a heart attack, so I sent the boys to the neighbors' house, and followed David to the hospital.
     It didn't take long before the angiogram showed 5 blockages, including one that was 90-95% (in his "widowmaker").  They put in three stents, and ignored the two 40% blockages because they weren't involved in the attack.  He came home from the hospital that following night (Monday).  He's been fine ever since, but sure does take a lot of medication, now.
     David is not overweight, has perfect cholesterol, low-normal blood pressure, and does a cardio workout every day.  He has no family history except one uncle who had a heart attack in his 40's.  Six months earlier he had gone to the doctor saying he had occasional pain in his chest, jaw pain, and felt lightheaded fairly often.  The doc told him it sounded like he was having a heart attack, but that only an angio could tell for sure whether he had a blockage.  Because he is otherwise so healthy, he passed on doing the angiogram.  It probably would have detected his problem and prevented the attack. 
     What we did right:  called 911 instead of trying to drive to the hospital (what if I were driving and his heart had stopped?  I couldn't give compressions or help him quickly in that case); he took an aspirin (although he should have let it melt sublingually instead of swallowing it whole); he didn't delay in letting me know he was having a problem (he suffered NO heart damage because the attack was addressed quickly); he didn't deny that he could be having a heart attack; he exercises and eats right (we were told that his lifestyle probably kept this from happening to him in his 40's - he's 62).
     What we did wrong:  skipped on the angiogram 6 months ago.

I put Nick into summer school at Tyler's school for this week and next.  He is just sooooo far behind where he needs to be.  He needs a LOT of remediation to be able to do on-level school work.  Nick was terribly nervous about taking classes at this school, and I tried to reassure him, but he was convinced other kids would make fun of him.  We walked into the classroom, and there was only 1 other boy in there! woohoo!  He was truly relieved.  We've done some work at home this summer, too, but the offer to put him in real school was just what I needed.  We'll continue to do some stuff at home, but I want him to also have just a little fun this summer.