Confirmation (Thu May 27, 3:45pm)

Dr. Kubac (the cardiologist) called while mom was napping after lunch. I was upstairs, so all I knew was that she had two calls during her nap time. When I came downstairs at 3pm she was sitting on the edge of her recliner, with the woodstove out, kind of staring into space. This is what she told me:

She said that Kubac confirmed the syncope. He told her that her pulse is so low at times that it actually stops for ten beats, then resumes. He wanted to put her into the hospital, but she said let's wait until he sees her tomorrow morning at 10:15am. He wants her to have another blood draw tomorrow morning before her appointment because one possibility is that her potassium may be high again, which causes low heartbeat. He told her to stop the Topril(?) which apparently is a drug to slow the heartbeat. (Yesterday Dr. Kim had her cut back to one per day instead of two, and today Kubac told her to stop completely.)

Kubac said that he wants to discuss the option of putting in a pacemaker. I had thought that when she was in the ER he said that pacemakers were only for racing heartbeats and not slow ones, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow. I asked mom what she thought about getting a pacemaker and she said very matter-of-factly, "I would go ahead and do it. Maybe it'll give me another year, who knows." Then she said that the reason she has always been opposed to pacemakers is because her sister had a lot of trouble with hers, "But the country bumpkin who put it in probably didn't know what he was doing, plus that was a long time ago." I was kind of surprised that she would even consider a pacemaker.

He told her frankly that her heart is worn out, and she said that she knows that's true. She said maybe Ray is waiting to take her by the hand and if so, she will be in a good place. Then she said that "It will be harder on you kids than it will be on me!" Then she got up and made her way into the kitchen and started working on her chicken soup in the crock pot just like nothing had happened.