Intro - Paramedics

Hi friends and family

This blog is to update you all on Melissa's progress here at Cedars Sinai hospital in West L.A.  I plan to back up a little and explain how we got here and then add to this a few times a day probably.

Thursday night Melissa was with friends at a coffee shop in San Luis Obispo when terrible pain ran through her back.  She couldn't sit, walk or stand.  Paramedics got her up from the floor onto a gurney and took her to French Hospital in SLO.  They called us as they were attending her at the coffee shop and we met them all at the hospital.

At french hospital the pain seemed to just get worse.  I'd never seen her hurt so.  She got an Xray and CT scan.  These revealed an "aortic dissection" - meaning a long tear inside her descending aorta from the heart.  The aorta has three layers, and the inner layer tore away from the second layer, creating kind of a flap inside the aorta.  On the CT scan it looks like the aorta has two chambers instead of one.