First is Stephanie. As you might know, and I'm sure you do, Steph was expecting to deliver her baby around Thanksgiving and Kim was going to Norfolk in September to help her since Aaron will be out to sea on and off until Christmas. Step was coming back here for her 21st birthday tomorrow and a big baby shower was planned to be held at Phil and Ilene house this Sunday. At approx. 26 1/2 weeks Steph suddenly experience an abnormally high blood pressure that the Dr.s were concerned enough to admit her to the hospital putting both her and the baby at risk. Kim flew out the next day to be with her. After 5 days in the hospital the Dr's were not able to get the blood pressure down and it was determined that if the baby was not delivered then and there that Stephanie could be in extreme danger. So at approx. 3:50 AM on Sunday August 25th "Kairi Ann Compton" made a sudden appearance on the planet. The very tiny "premie" weighed all of 1lb 13 ounces and was all of 13 inches long. WOW. So far on the whole so good. After 10 days the biggest bump in the road is a small hole in the heart ( not uncommon in premies ) which is being treated with strong doses of meds. They are pretty sure that this can resolved in the next few days and everybody is confident of that. ( My belief in the "The Secret" is working overtime). Worse case scenario is heart surgery which can fix the problem but of course at that age the risks are certainly higher. I know it goes without saying to all that I send this to that you keep Steph, Aaron and Kairi in your prayers.
Prior to all this excitement, I have been having some very slight chest pains from time to time, and I hate to admit this now, for the past year or so. I can just see my families reaction to this hearing this for the first time today. I just know how pleased they're going to be. Well, in my defense, I thought it was probably indigestion from the fine nutritional diet I have been accustomed to ever since I was informed of my diabetes a little over 2 years ago. I guess that's what hot fudge, stromboli's and various chinese dishes can do for you. I figured hey, my blood sugar is under control and I flush the system with the lemonade flush every 3 months so I'm just fine. Well about the beginning of August I also noticed that any bit of exertion also gave my left arm a numbness that I knew immediately could only be the result of some heart problems. (See, I'm not that stupid ) No snide comments here please, I'm not done. So I immediately went to see the Cardiologist and he told me what the next three steps would be. The first would be stress test which can tell you immediately if it's abnormal that you have heart valve problems. It can't tell if you have artery damage. That comes next when you have an Angiogram which I had two weeks after the stress test. In my mind, that was a good sign because it appeared that since there wasn't a big hurry to do this, I would have perhaps just a little problem. With that news, I went back to work for the next 2 weeks, thanks to Joe, my boss, he allowed me to come in late and go home early. Not a bad gig. The Angiogram was supposed to last 30 to 45 minutes at the most. If there was a clog or two if it was less than 70% they send you home and treat it with medication, blood thinners etc. If it was more than 70% they perform right there an Angioplasty which litterally "blows" the clogs away away. If it's worse that then it's by-pass surgery, which seriously, was the last thought I had in mind. So there I was in the OR feeling great because they give you this happy juice that I was hoping they would give me a prescription for, when the Doc and believe me, he was no "DR PHIL", gave me news in all of 10 minutes into the procedure. He said and I quote, " Mr. Marsh, I have good news and bad news for you". Feeling no pain, I said right at him, "Give it to me straight Doc, I can handle anything you got". He said, "The good news is you're going home today, the bad news is you'll be baaaaaaaaaaaack"." Oh shit, are you talkin to me? Are you serious? You have got to be kidding?". "No", he said, "Your arteries have multiple clogs and they are over 90%". "Holy shit". Well, by the time Jaime got me home I was still I still in a state of shock and quite frankly complete denial. However given some time to think about this and doing some serious research my initial bravado about Kim staying in Norfolk was starting to ebb rapidly. With all due respect to Jaime, Phil JJ, and Matthew who would be there as much as they could, obviously I need Kim to be here and she will be this Tuesday a day before the surgery. I am not going to bore everyone with details of this procedure and it's recovery period but as long as the METS don't combust and self destruct ( sorry Gary, they will win the division and your Fighting Phillies will once again come up short for the wild card as well) I expect to watching the pennant races come down the stretch. I do love my baseball.
So, that's about it for the end of an interesting summer in the Marsh household. I do want to take a moment and thank the academy for a fine turnout of family and friends who have already sent their best wishes and prayers for both Kairi and myself. My plan is to see her graduate High School at the least and hope to be around for many a fine posting on this tremendous means of communications for the 21st century, THE BLOG.
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