From Indianapolis

We've been in Indy for 2 weeks with John in IU Methodist Hospital. He passed out at work on the 15th - fell right on a huge cardboard box half-full of plastic cups so he didn't hurt himself - scared some employees, got taken to Goshen Hospital by ambulance, and on the 16th was sent by ground transport to IU Methodist, where IU's cardiac service is. He got a heart cath on the 20th, went into complete heart block (which we've been waiting for for 3 years, due to radiation damage to his conduction system), got a permanent pacemaker on the 23rd, started having V Tach (rapid & ineffective beating of the lower half of the heart - not a good thing) on the 25th, got an EP study (they took him to the cath lab & crawled through his conduction system) with ablation of some suspicious areas (cauterized the places that might be the source of said V Tach) on the 26th, and got a stent put in his right coronary artery on the 27th. They were planning to discharge him tomorrow (the 30th), but last night he started having some more V Tach, so they're tweaking his medicines to fix it, and he may go back for another EP study. This tweaking can take a long time, depending on how long it takes them to hit on the right combination for a particular patient. So we may be there for a while.

We were hoping to get out of town well before the Super Bowl crowd arrives, but no such luck. All the hospital families are scrambling to get a roof over their heads, since every hotel room in a 50-mile radius is booked for the game. I have to be out of the hotel by noon Thursday, since it is totally booked by media and they are arriving early. I thought I'd be sleeping in a chair in John's room (I went to college - I've slept in worse places than that), but a sympathetic resident offered me her spare bedroom and bath, and I'm taking her up on it. So I'm okay.

Jethro the dog is boarded at the vet and having a wonderful time. He and Willie play and romp, and he comes home and spends a week sleeping it off. This is doggy vacation for him. Good thing somebody's getting a vacation!