I believe it was John Lennon who observed : “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

We had big plans for July.  For one, it was my birthday month!  The idea was to have a good time, of course.  Dinner with the folks, going out with the kids, maybe even a quiet meal (minus kids?) with the missus, if possible!  We’d even booked a weekend getaway to a nearby hillstation resort.

Then, Pumpkin came down with a bad case of the flu.  It was right around the birthday.  It took nearly 10 days to get her rid of the bug.  Meanwhile, lots of discomfort, fever, cough and sleepless nights.  She also missed school for a few days.  Needless to add, the weekend getaway quickly got away from our hands.  But, she started getting better.  And, we thought the worst was over.

Then, Ma came down with a really bad asthma attack.  Or so we thought. 

After a day of increased asthma medications, when it refused to abate, we took her to the physician to find out that she also has a bad chest infection and a very rapid heartbeat.  She needed to be immediately hospitalised.

So off we went to the hospital.  A routine ECG and a 2D echo later, we were told that it was a massive heart attack, and a chest infection and an asthma episode!

Since then, she has spent an entire week in the ICU, on an aggressive course of drugs through an IV and a central line, to help control her respiratory function, her blood pressure, her cardiac failure and what not. 

At one point, the chances of survival were reportedly less than 50%.  Frantic calls were made to all the near and dear ones.  But, she came through it.

Today, she is finally out of danger, and is being moved out of the ICU. 

Of course, the road to full recovery will be a long one.  But, we’re moving in the right direction now…