When the call came from Portland yesterday that Nyel’s cardiologist would like him to check into the hospital “for a tune-up” on Monday, it came as a bit of a shock.  Since coming back to Oysterville after his ‘perfect storm’ (heart-wise, that is) his progress has been closely monitored at home, by our local caregiver in Ilwaco, and remotely from Portland.  But, apparently, there was one little number from his last blood test that sounded the long-distance alarm – a number which ‘normally’ is 100 and, for Nyel, last week, was 4,000!  Yikes!

Although he’s been feeling a little better each day, we did know that going back to the hospital was a possibility.  There is even the question of whether or not he will need a valve replacement.  But, as the days went by, we had lulled ourselves into thinking that everything was hunky-dory, conveniently forgetting some of the extenuating circumstances at the Portland end – like his doctor’s medical offices actually had to be closed for several days because of weather and the current flu epidemic has adversely affected bed availability at the hospitals.

So… perhaps Nyel’s situation has been ‘on hold’ for a bit, unbeknownst to us.  It reminds me of our car.  That annoying “Maintenance Required” sign has been lit up like Christmas for several weeks now, even though we have not yet reached the mileage number that is written on the windshield sticker.  And, when we called the car hospital to make an appointment, we were told they are all jammed up because of recent weather issues.  At their suggestion, we are going today anyway and will take our chances just waiting around.

Maybe someday humans can have “Maintenance Required” LED panels installed as an aftermarket optional equipment feature.  Then those phone calls from the cardiologist won’t come as such a surprise…