My Nonprofit Reviews

The Pillow
By
Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow
Published in My Gift of Now
It all happened so fast. My husband Richard Aleskow went for a check-up with a new internist. This very astute and caring doctor took the time to check my husband’s new EKG with the one my husband took the year before which had been in his records. He took the time. He told Richard that he saw a slight change and wanted to check it out. An echo stress test was scheduled. The doctor called that afternoon and told us Richard must have an angiogram. The results of that procedure indicated that bypass surgery was required. Just like that! The surgeon told us that Richard was the type of man he worried about because he had no symptoms. He said that one day he could have been exercising or walking down the street and it would have suddenly been all over. The bypass surgery was scheduled for November 15th, 2006. That was the most frightening day of my life. My husband was the picture of health as I kissed him good luck and they rolled him into surgery. The next time I saw him in the ICU was a very different scenario. Anyone who has seen a loved one after bypass will understand. I do not think there was one area of his body that did not have tubes in it. He was swollen from the surgery. But he had come through it. He needed a quadruple bypass. The next days in Intensive Care were agonizing. The patient has one reality of suffering and his loved one has another. Watching my husband go through the suffering of this entire ordeal ripped me apart as well. When he was transferred to the cardiac floor, I remained with him in the hospital for the remainder of his stay. I slept on a window seat, which doubled as a so-called bed for relatives who wanted to stay overnight. I was determined that I would not walk out the door of that hospital without my husband at my side. One day a volunteer walked in holding a large red pillow that was shaped as a heart. The wording on the pillow said “Mended Hearts” with a picture of a heart with a jagged line running through it. This organization was made up of men and women who had gone through bypass surgery. It was necessary for a patient to hold a pillow when coughing in order to control the pain. When we came home from the hospital days before my husband’s birthday, I told him that I wanted to have a few family and friends over for a short time to share his birthday cake. He got tired very easily and I wanted him to be comfortable. He sat there that night holding his mended hearts pillow close to his chest to help with the pain. Months later when Richard was in Rehab and doing quite well, I asked him if he would mind my putting the red pillow away because it did not go with the colors of our den. He looked at me for what seemed a long time and answered that although the color was not coordinated with our decor, that pillow reminded him of what he went through and survived. I never mentioned removing it again. A year later, Richard got an excellent health check-up report from his cardiologist. What a different day that was a year later. To say that I am grateful to that internist, is the understatement of my lifetime.
Years later Richard decided he wanted to give back to the organization that helped him. He volunteered for the Mended Hearts Program and took the training. He visited cardiac patients at the same hospital he had been in and distributed to them the special pillows while visiting them in their rooms.
The red pillow sits prominently on our couch as a reminder of our infinite good luck and Richard’s determination to live positively, stay well and give back to others.