09/20/2026
Hey all, it's Kurt again, but thankfully NOT for bad news... just wanted to acknowledge what tonight means to us now. Tonight marks one year since we almost lost our beloved Barb. In the past few days, I re-read my posts from a year ago and can see that I was definitely posting, but not quite sure how it was all going to turn out. How could I know?
A year ago, tonight, the doctors told Greg, Barb's husband of 39 years, that Barb may not make it through the night...
For two months STRAIGHT, her heart rate never went below 140 BPM, but her doctor at the time said she was fine. For two months she couldn't eat, drink, sleep, breathe, walk... but her doctor said she was fine. She was not. So she finally decided to listen to her body instead of that doctor and went to the ER. They admitted her right away.
I took this first picture with all her med bracelets while she was still down in the ER. We even spoke about me posting so all her friends and family that hadn't seen her for a while could know why. I wrote the PG version of the post with the knowledge that we had at the time... then everything went SUPER SOUTH. She had two seizures in the ER and thankfully the ICU doctors witnessed the second one and sent her straight up to them. Unfortunately, the damage from TWO MONTHS of her heart running a marathon was making her organs shut down. They got her as stable as they could, then all we could do was wait... and wait. That night they removed 40lbs of water from her which was one of the reasons she couldn't eat or breathe for so long.
They said she may not make it through the night, and that they had to see if her heart was damaged beyond repair or just so tired. I stayed in her room that night. Longest night of my life. Listening to the machines, worrying what each beep meant, watching her chest to make sure she was still breathing. Luckily, she fought through that night. Then the next, and so on.
The rest you know from my past posts or from speaking to Barb. She wasn't done yet, too much to still do. Too many hugs to still give her son, husband, granddaughter, everyone else ;)
It has been quite a year. My best friend may be small, but she is STRONG, and loved. 🩷
