Greetings, all.  Valerie Bock kindly provided this as a communications spot, and I like the idea of having a single location for updates.

Background: Ceredwyn suffered a heart attack yesterday morning.  It came on without warning or precedent.  Suddenly she felt enormous chest pains and couldn’t stand.  Her left arm carried both pain and numbness.  I called 911.  A small army of EMTs came at once in two fire trucks and a big ambulance.  They assessed her then transported her to the nearby hospital.

We spent most of yesterday in the emergency room (“ED” is the proper term, for “emergency department,” as it’s more than a single room).  Ceredwyn rested under observation. Tests showed that troponin was elevated, then declined, suggesting that there was indeed a heart attack, albeit a smaller one (called Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction, or NSTEMI), and that it was over.

Today Ceredwyn rested, getting ready for a heart catheterization. That involved inserting a catheter into one wrist, pushing it up an artery all the way to the heart, then examining what’s there.