something to talk about

As many of you already know, I missed QuiltCon. My heart said "no" to that idea, and told me to go to St. Vincent's Hospital, where I landed in the cath lab with an angiogram and a stent to open a blockage in my left anterior descending artery. Just six days before the big Five-Oh. Perfect!

There were needles, vials, plastic tubes, wires, IV bags, barf bags, plastic urinal jugs, pills, a bed that was way to small, and a machine that would start beeping every time I tried to roll into more comfortable position and crimped the tube. Not a happy camper.

When I look at this picture today, I think, "Oh, the poor night nurse!"

A no-show at QuiltCon, friends started sending messages asking where I was. I tried to let them know, but my phone battery was very low. I had appointments, coffee dates, dinner dates and lots of other plans to cancel. My friend Chris, who luckily was in town from Boulder visiting his family, came to the hospital with my laptop. He and I were together playing pinball when my symptoms started. As much as I hated to post what was going on, it would be the easiest way of getting the word out.

The last thing I meant to do was alarm everyone, but now I can appreciate how a selfie in a hospital bead and the words "heart attack" could seem alarming. When I first realized I needed to go to the hospital, I didn't collapse or lose consciousness at any point. I even drove to the hospital myself. I was more annoyed than anything, and sad to think I would miss QuiltCon. There were more than 200 replies to the Facebook post in the first hour. The morning nurse said she didn't even know that many people.

She was surprised when I told her what I did, and why all those people knew me. By the end of the day, more than five hundred replies streamed in from all around the world, just on that one post. What great medicine that was! I'm home now, recovering and following doctors' orders. Last year everyone was talking about the 1970s quilts. This year they were talking about why I wasn't there. Talk about giving them something to talk about!