Have a Heart

This blog is late; I apologize, but it couldn't be helped.

For about a year, my husband has been waiting for valve replacement surgery, and when the call came, we had a week to get ourselves organized and down to Victoria. We arrived on Sunday, July 5th, attended orientation at the hospital on the Monday, and the surgery took place on the Tuesday. We were expecting him to be released on the following Sunday, but a couple of glitches kept him in the hospital until yesterday, Wednesday, July 15th.

That's the day I mentally set aside to send out the link to my blog, but as I'm sure you have already surmised, that deadline got away from me. The truth is I haven't given a lot of thought to the blog this month. I have been somewhat preoccupied with my husband and our latest adventure.

But we're home now, he is healing well, we're getting a better handle on the situation than we'd thought we would, and life goes on.

So this blog hasn't much to do with writing -- except that I've learned a lot about a lot, and your never know when that will find its way into a story.

What the last couple of weeks has done though is restore my good opinion of my fellow human beings. World news is so in our faces with daily horrors, I confess I've become somewhat jaded about people, but I'm happy to report that there are still a ton of wonderful humans out there.

Every single person we had dealings with at the hospital from the cleaners, paper pushers, reception, and those who deliver meals to the health care aides, surgeon, anesthesiologists, nurses, physio therapists, medical practitioners, and orderlies were wonderful. Everyone was friendly, good at their jobs, helpful, patient, and compassionate. Even with the nurses' strike, there were no holes in care. We are so grateful.

July is not a good time to try to find accommodation on Vancouver Island. Victoria is a tourist town, and July is the height of the tourist season. Compound that with the exorbitant cost of hotel rooms, and I had visions of needing a bank loan if I was lucky enough to find a hotel room somewhere.

Enter The Victoria Heart House. If you've never heard of it, let me tell you it is a godsend. It is a B & B type house especially for heart patients and their families. It is made up of 6 large, well outfitted private bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a common living room with huge television, common dining area, kitchen, and lovely patio. Not only is it a beautiful place to stay, it is immaculate, it has everything you need/want, and the people who run it are kind, caring, and knowledgeable about heart procedures and the way the Royal Jubilee Hospital functions. Breakfast is offered every morning, and guests are welcome to use the toaster oven and microwave for their other meals if they don't wish to eat out. Bread, butter, milk, cream, ginger ale, tea, coffee, cookies, and bottled water are available for guests at all times.

My husband and I stayed there together for two nights, and then I was there on my own for another 8 nights. The price was unbelievably reasonable, and I was fortunate to be able to extend my stay beyond my original checkout. I can't emphasize enough what a load that took off my mind.

An even bigger bonus for my husband was that at the Heart House he met other people who had undergone or were about to undergo the same or similar operation as he was going to have. That camaraderie eased his anxiety a lot and allowed him to sleep for the first time in weeks.

The cherry on the cake for me was a magnificent lavender plant outside the entrance I used at the house. All day it was covered in bees -- not wasps or yellow jackets -- but wonderful, furry black and yellow bees. There were as many as 15 to 20 on the bush at a time, and it said something to me that they had chosen the Heart House to populate. Knowing bees are almost an endangered species, it gave me hope that maybe it's not yet too late for humans to turn things around.