Back to hospital, this time as a patient

My body found a way to halt that downward spiral I was in.

Overwhelmed by my impending surgery (for severe POPS) along with my daughter Chaya's new medical crisis, I sensed impending implosion - the emotional variety.

My conversations were peppered with "I can't go on", "I'm going to have a breakdown", "I need help" rolling off my lips all day long. But certainly nothing that would land me in hospital.

Yet Friday night I developed weird symptoms - extreme weakness, nausea, vomiting and low blood pressure - and reluctantly took an ambulance to the emergency room, accompanied by one of my daughters.

When blood test results arrived and the doctor declared "You've had a cardiac event", I was  blown away and frightened. A diagnosis more like virus/dehydration was what I'd expected. "When could I possibly have had one?" I asked him incredulously.

After an angiogram which, thank G-d, didn't find any blocked  arteries, the cardiologists settled on the likelihood of Takotsubo Syndrome.

If you ever feel the urge to for a cardiac event, this is definitely the one to choose. But, sorry guys, it's overwhelmingly a post-menopausal women's condition.

For those of you female caregivers desperate for relief, relief, here's some more info about this relatively newly-categorized syndrome, only recognized in Japan since 1990 and in the West since 1998).

And for you over-stressed men, we'll see what my husband comes up with. He's been single-handedly caring for both Chaya and home as well as visiting me.

In the meantime, Chaya, treated with CBD alone, is still keeping her seizure rate low - but don't forget to keep that strictly under wraps. (Can't be too wary of that seizure-jinx!)

My husband also succeeded in eliciting a great sodium and potassium reading from Chaya in her latest blood test results so her dehydration is behind us. And while she's definitely not out of the gaunt range yet, the thin bulging vein on her jaw is now invisible. That leaves us with her liver and hematological issues to contend with. Our next appointment with the liver specialist on Sunday

I'm looking forward to having  her stand/walk and put the spoon independently in her mouth  again -   activities that have been deleted from her routine during my absence.

Takotsuba is apparently can recur - so we must somehow alter our home situation to prevent that. Consequently we've been desperately trying to contact the government where the social worker handling our daughter's case purportedly works. The hospital social worker told us that woman is the only key to any sort of government care assistance for Chaya's home care.

Were we to drive down to our local Aleh branch and deposit our daughter at the door, there is little doubt we would be treated to what their website calls "a break from the 24/7 attention require to care for them appropriately".

But because we are determined to keep our Chaya at home with us, we are rewarded by our so called "welfare state" with persistent and studious disregard.