Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!!

Mom's fine! Yay! She did suffer a small/slight heart attack according to the cardiologist, but all the tests they've run since Monday have come back fine and she's back at home now as I write this. They tested her carotid artery, did an ultrasound on her heart, gave her blood thinners and performed an angiogram. The angiogram did detect a tiny obstruction, but they were able to quickly remove it with a blood thinner, so she didn't even require a stent or anything more invasive than having to take some medicine.

I've been lecturing her (yeah, like I'm in a position to do that, right?) on her stress level. However, I humbly recognize that while I lecture her, I internally lecture myself too. Nothing, nothing at all, is worth worrying over to the point of your health - unless of course one of your children was on their deathbed or something extraordinarily unusual like that. But today - after all she's been through this week - she was fretting over the condition of her clothes because they've been balled up in a bag since she got to the hospital. I'm like, "Mom! You're doing it again! Who cares what you look like? Everyone who knows and loves you knows you've been in the hospital and just HAD A HEART ATTACK!!" Old habits are hard to break.

My goal: when she finally gets her ass out here to Maryland, we're both going to work on simplifying our lives, slowing down, being more positive, eating right, exercising, taking better care of ourselves, loving ourselves, adopting some of the philosophies I spoke of in an earlier post from the book, "The Secret," etc. If she gives me any grief over it, I'll simply force her; I'm much taller than her, louder and more obnoxious, not to mention stronger and younger.

If she insists on worrying and stressing, I'm going to give her something to stress over - it sure as hell won't be the condition of her cuticles or whether or not to make fruit salad or vegetable salad for the local church potluck. By God, if she's gonna insist on stressing, it's gonna be because her first born is going to beat the hell out of her on a daily basis until she learns to knock it the hell off. Nothing like a little compassion, eh? I consider this as falling under "honoring my mother" - I'm looking out for her health. :)

Thanks to all our friends and family who prayed and gave us all encouraging words. Thanks for letting the tears flow and the laughter flow as well. Thanks to our dear friend, Tony, who offered up his plane ticket to California in case I needed it. I don't deserve all the love and friends and family I have - but I'm glad God put you all out there for me.

Thankful Fatima