Big Heart

The last six weeks have been hectic and stressful for Ken and I. You see, foolish as we were, Ken had been having chest pains for several months. He blew them off as indigestion and when they didn't go away, starting ingesting antacids. Many nights he spent sleeping in his recliner because the pain seemed to subside in this position.

We tried watching foods to see if certain things caused the "indigestion". We paid attention to activities of the day to see if that was causing the pain. He stayed away from alcohol in hopes that something in it was causing the pain. Nothing seemed to work. So we spent many nights sleeping in the living room because I didn't want to leave him out there alone in case he needed me.

We also considered that the stress of having two homes to maintain while we were waiting to sell our previous home could be a big part of the problem. Ken really worried about the other house when we moved into our new home.

Throughout the months since we moved, Ken got a lot of things done around the house, some things that I was content to let wait until our other house sold. He bought and installed a dishwasher and a garbage disposal, things that I could have done without for a while. He tried to get things fixed up and make it more like home as soon as he could. All the while he was doing these things, he was doing it for me.

Things seemed to fall in place for us. We hadn't planned to move last year but we did, to a smaller one floor house. This would be so much easier for us as we aged.

At the end of December our agreement with our realtor was up and the house still hadn't sold. Not that she didn't try, but it just didn't. So we changed to a realtor who we noticed had been selling homes in the area of ours. We signed the paperwork with the realtor on a Saturday in late January. He showed the house on Thursday and then again on Saturday, one week after we went with him. The Saturday people loved the house and wanted it. We signed a contract with them on Sunday. Since they were cash buyers (how often does that happen?) we signed the title work papers on Friday. Not even two weeks had gone by before the house was sold and the papers signed.

Two weeks later Ken's pain was so bad that finally he relented and we went to emergency. He was admitted and put through tests, a stress test and then a heart catheterization in a matter of 3 days. The following day he had open heart surgery and came through just fine.

So buying a one floor house, selling the other house, and then the surgery seemed to fall in line. I think God was working things out for us. I can't imagine what his recuperation would have been like if we still had that big 3 story home.

When the surgeon came out of the operating room to talk to us, he said, "This surgery was more difficult than I had thought it would be. Ken has a very big heart which necessitated extra work."

Whoaa....if he only would have asked me, I could have told him that!

Ken is such a good man with such generosity and kindness, everyone who knows him, knows he has a big heart! Thanks Ken for taking care of all the things you have. Now it is time for him to recuperate so we can live life to the fullest again.