Sometimes Life Gets in the Way

So when I started this blog I had the best intentions.  I was going to use it to update my readers on my progress.  But sometimes life gets in the way.

On Wednesday my husband and I took off from home headed to Salzburg Austria.  It's an eight hour drive from our home here in Sarajevo.  It's no big deal for us, being from where we are in Minnesota, long drives like that are nothing.  We used to drive to the twin cities for a shopping trip and home in one day, that's over six hours, so you see it wasn't a drive that seemed like a big deal.  Well it turned into a big deal.

We were about an hour away from Salzburg when the hubby started complaining about a pain in his chest.  Well, he'd just scarfed down his lunch so I thought maybe he had indigestion.  I offered to drive but he said, no he was fine but really he wasn't.  We managed to get to the hotel, we checked in and he was still in a lot of pain.  When he told me that his teeth hurt that was it.  I told him we were going to the hospital.

Do you think he'd let me drive?  Of course not.  Thankfully we made it there in one piece.  Now I'm not sure if you've ever been in an emergency situation in a foreign country but if you haven't let me tell you, it's an experience.  We had no idea what the system was like, where did we go, who were we supposed to talk too?  We were lucky that Salzburg is a huge tourist town so everyone spoke English.  If not for that I'm sure that I would have been curled in a ball in the corner crying.

They took him in right away and after an hour of sitting there in the hallway waiting with no word, they finally came to get me.  He'd had a minor heart attack, they said.  They took us to another building to the cardio cath lab.  Another hour of sitting alone in a hallway and they took us to the cardio intensive care unit.  I had no idea what was going on.  Nobody explained anything to me, just showed me into his room and left.

He was feeling pretty good.  I was surprised after all that that he was sitting up and told me he was fine.  He was worried about how I was going to get back to the hotel.  He knows that I don't like to drive in places I'm not familiar with and get nervous about getting lost.  We discussed leaving the car in the parking garage at the hospital but the nurses told me it was very expensive.  I assured my hubby that I would be able to find the hotel just fine.  I had to leave because it was past visiting hours.  They told me I could come back at 14:30 the next day.  I had no idea how I was going to pass all that time alone.

I kissed my hubby and left.  I got lost.  My fifteen minute drive to the hotel took me over an hour.  I'm proud to say I didn't cry or even get upset at being lost.  Normally I'd have pulled over and freaked out, then looked for the nearest gas station so the attendant could call me a taxi.  Instead I drove aimlessly until I found the signs pointing to the airport, which my hotel was conveniently located near.  Having just realized that life was short and anything could happen and it would be over just like that put my little adventure into perspective for me.

I have to say that the hotel staff was great.  They bent over backwards to make sure that I had a room even though I didn't have a reservation past the one day we'd originally planned to stay there.  They offered to help me in any way they could.  I have to say that the staff at the Star Inn, Salzburg went above and beyond to accommodate me.  I had to give them a shout out for all their help.

So anyway, my husband is fine even though I learned that his heart attack wasn't as minor as they first told me.  He had a stent put in and needs further care for another artery that is a ticking time bomb.  I'll make sure that he's taken care of though, it's my job you see, to take care of the ones I love.  It doesn't pay much but the job satisfaction is tremendous.

So when all is said and done, my writing and my blog may have to take a back burner to my life for awhile but that's okay because somethings are just more important.