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2022

 2022 started off great!

January: Blake's 8th Birthday

February: A trip to Disney and a 4 night Disney cruise...my birthday on a private island!

March: A trip to Florida to visit Nana and Rick

April: Spring Break with cousins Isaac and Sydney, Easter, and a trip to visit Great Gram Gram From Across the Bridge 

May: This was a rough month for Rachel - Illness and Covid; but Mike and Blake went on a camping trip and Easton enjoyed the school carnival. Sadly we had to miss Uncle Dan and Sydney's birthdays...stupid Covid!

June: This is birthday month: Easton's 6th birthday (11th), Kade (21st), and Ayla (27th), we also went on a big Foster/Miller Family camping trip to Racoon Lake

July: 4th of July (duh), Mike's birthday, and one amazing vacation to Alpena, Hessel, and Pictured Rocks where we kayaked alongside Pictured Rocks. 

August: This is where we hit some bumpy roads. The end of July and first week of August I noticed Mike was having a hard time breathing, getting winded by doing normal household tasks (putting away laundry, picking up, unloading the dishwasher) and sleeping with 2 pillows, he was also very irritable. But I was labeled as the 'worrying wife' and honestly, was brushed off because I worry too much. 

August 8th: Mike noticed that he was winded and having a hard time breathing with just sitting at his desk. He took a Covid test and it came back positive. Over the next 10 days Mike took a turn for the worse; not breathing well, sleeping with up to 8 pillows on the bed in different arrangements, not sleeping at all, not able to walk from one end of the house to the other without having to stop and catch his breath. Right away he called both is primary care doctor and his heart doctor; neither not knowing or seeing that he was in heart failure because of Covid...all they could see was Covid symptoms.

August 26th: Mike was getting a bit better...or maybe worse...but he only had 5 pillows on the bed...maybe because I made him move back upstairs to our bedroom because I was truly concerned of him being alone downstairs. My dad took us on a boating trip to Higgins Lake and Mike took it easy all day. By the end of the day his feet were so bloated you couldn't see his ankle bones at all. By this time Mike had lost some weight and muscle mass as well and his appetite was at a zero, I had to remind him to eat. The primary doctor said it was typical Covid symptoms, the heart doctor said it was Covid and they don't deal with Covid...the primary doctor does - but neither were looking in the right spots. 

I learned something that day...you have to push and advocate for what you think is right...it is not nagging or worrying...it is being a caring wife who has the right to worry and voice her concern. 

Mike called the doctor first thing Monday morning and was in to the clinic on Tuesday, August 30th. By this time Mike was not doing so hot and very swollen. He was given lasix; a pill to drain the water out of his body. It started working and we saw the swelling go down some. He was also able to slowly walk down the road with only stopping a few times. He still had no appetite and was very out of breath through. The doctors ordered a Right Heart Catherization for September 16th.

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