Nov 7, 2016
Deloris and Rick Peacy have been married for over 40 years. The Peacy’s are support group leaders from Arkansas who don’t let Deloris’ diagnosis stop them from living a life full of travel. Rick’s outlook on being a caregiver is a lesson in love for all.
Deloris:
I'm Delores Peacy from Arkansas.
Rick:
I'm Rick Peacy from Arkansas. We've been married for 43 years and
we will be together forever.
Deloris:
In 2000, I started feeling out of breath and stuff. I thought I was
out of shape because before that I was doing a lot of walking and
stuff, going around town and climbing stairs and stuff and doing
okay. Then, it just got where I was so out of breath I thought,
"Well, maybe I had a blockage or something." My doctor did just a
routine check-up on me, the lung x-ray, and said I had an enlarged
heart. From that I went to see a cardiologist and he would run
echocardiograms every six months. They gave me blood pressure
medicine and that's all they did. Well, he moved to a different
hospital and it was time for my appointment and I always kept them,
so I made it with another doctor and he did a stress test. The
stress test, I flunked it royally and the next, two days later I
was in the hospital and did a right heart cath and was diagnosed
with pulmonary hypertension.
Rick:
It was hard but her and I had been through so much and so I looked
at her and said, "Well, we've gotten through everything before.
We're going to get through this. It may be a little harder and
stuff." From that day on we just, "Hey, it's life, we've got each
and that's it. We're going to do it and we're going to make
it."
Deloris:
In 2010, they did a bubble test on me at Vanderbilt, that's where I
started going then in '08. They did a bubble test and found out
that I had what's called Eisenmenger syndrome, that's where you're
born with a hole in the heart. The hole, you can't close this hole
because it acts as the pop-off, it relieves pressure in my heart.
Well, my hole has gotten larger to where my blood flows through the
shunt and doesn't go down into my lungs to get the oxygen. I'm on
eight liters now and most of the time when I'm moving around it's
not nearly enough so it makes it really hard. In the last years
I've gone down a lot.
Rick:
Yep, and they said even going up on her oxygen would not help. I
mean, that was her pulmonary doctor told her that. We now have her
the scooter and we're working on getting her a motorized wheelchair
because the scooter is borrowed. As long as I'm there with her and
everything we've got her handled.
Deloris:
He's a good caregiver. He's so supportive, he takes over the duties
of the house, which I can no longer do.
Rick:
Yes, I am the housewife.
Deloris:
I can no longer do them and so he takes over. If I go to having a
time breathing which sometimes I just totally lose all my breath he
knows how to work me out of it and get me back into breathing good
again.
Rick:
Yeah. She'll get totally out of rhythm and I just grab a hold of
her and tell her how to breathe, just slow and easy, in and out. I
get her back in rhythm, takes me about 30 seconds to a minute, and
she comes out of it and away we go. It's just all in how you want
to do it and the fact that you want to do it. We know several that
have her problem and the spouse has just totally turned on them and
walked away. That's not good, that's not what a spouse does. A
spouse is until death do you part, through thick and thin, good and
bad, doesn't matter, you stay and you help. I'm here. I'm here for
the duration.
Deloris:
I couldn't do it without him. Obviously, I was born with it. It
didn't show up until later in life and I wonder why all of a
sudden. We have five children and most women with PH cannot have
children. The children don't survive or sometimes the patient
doesn't survive and we had five healthy children. I feel like this
was my mission, this is why God gave it to me ... To go out and to
share my story and to help others. We've had people in our group,
especially the first group. The first lady I met, she was in tears
constantly. She just couldn't handle it. She was always calling and
we would go see her at the hospital. She would always say, "Oh, you
make me feel so much better," and I've had several in the group to
tell me that. I think, "Well, that's what I'm supposed to do." I'm
supposed to help others get through it the best I can and to make
them feel better.
Rick:
Take you a drink, you're getting ...
Deloris:
Hoarse?
Rick:
You're getting shaky, okay?
Deloris:
Out of
air.
Rick:
Just relax, slow and deep. See, she goes talking a lot and she gets
low on air. She's just got to back off and …
Deloris:
Breathe.
Rick:
Flow with the go and go from there. That's where a good caregiver
comes in. You can sit and listen to somebody and you know when
they're having a problem and you say, "Stop, back up, slow down,
and go from there." I've been ... Well, I had a heart attack back
in 2011, in July of '11 and I was lucky. I told them to get me to
the hospital, they did, and if they hadn't I wouldn't be sitting
here with her now because it was in the widow maker, I had 99%
blockage. She came to the hospital to see me right after they had
me in recovery. It's crazy because as soon as they put the stent in
there I turned totally around. I was great. I was ready to get up
and walk out and go home.
Deloris:
He was laying there joking with the nurses just having a good time
and I was scared to death and figured he be about half out of it
and in so much pain. It was like, "Wait a minute. You just had the
heart attack, what's wrong with you? You're not sick."
Rick:
I figure that God knew she needed me to take care of her and that's
why he pulled me through this and got me back in shape. Things are
good and, to this day, cardiologists look at me and say, "You
shouldn't be in the shape you're in for what you went through,"
because my heart had damage through every layer and my heart is
totally healed up. They said that's very unusual for the heart to
do that but mine has. I credit that to God because this lady here
needs me, and I'm here. We've been together 43 years and hope to
have another 15, 20 at least and go from there. No matter how it is
we'll take it to the end and be together forever. A lot of people
that have PH, "Oh, I can't travel because I've got oxygen, I've got
this, I've got ..." She's been on oxygen since '04. We have put
more miles on in the last 12 years than what we did in the 30 some
years before that. Her and I travel all over the place. We don't
let it stop us. I have a tank in the back of the van that I can
fill that off of any time I need. We keep it full all the time.
Whenever we decide we're going to do we get everything lined out
well enough in advance and she has enough medicine to carry her
through and everything. We just, we go. We don't hold back. You
make a couple of calls to double check everything, make sure it's
all in the works.
Deloris:
We have to drive, I can't fly.
Rick:
Yeah, she can't...
Deloris:
The doctor says I'm not supposed to go over 3,000 miles
altitude.
Rick:
(laughs) 3,000 foot.
Deloris:
(laughs) I said 3,000 miles. 3,000 foot elevation and so we just
drive and just take our time at it.
Rick:
Don't know how much longer this one can hold up to it because she's
having a lot of problems.
Deloris:
A lot of breathing problems now.
Rick:
Yes, so we're just taking it one day at a time but doing it to
it.
Deloris:
I'm Deloris and I'm aware that I'm
rare.
Rick:
I'm Rick and I'm aware that Deloris is rare and will always be
rare.
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