It's been a very stressful couple of days here. Last Thursday evening I was at soccer practice with Isaac when I got a call from Mom, I assumed there was some wedding detail she wanted to ask my opinion on. But as soon as I said Hi, I could hear the tears in her voice. I asked her to take a deep breath and tell me what was going on. She managed to get out that Dad was in an ambulance on his way to the hospital with trouble breathing and horrible chest pain. She was trying to follow the ambulance and wanted to let me know what was going on. I found out what hospital he was heading to and told mom to hang up so that she could drive safely.
PANIC
I called David to let him know, then headed home with Isaac. I was almost home before it occured to me that Mom probably had chosen me as the one to call since I was out of state. I know how she hates to disrupt schedules so calling Carrie or Troy out of work isn't something she'd do, she'd wait for them to be done with work before talking to them. So I started trying to call Troy and Vanessa. It took a little while to track them down, but I finally reached Vanessa. Have I mentioned how amazing my sister-in-law is? She took complete control of the situation immediately. Dropped off her 3 kids with someone, drove over to get Troy from work as he can't be reached when he's with clients, and headed down to be with Mom. When I talked to Mom again she was worried to think that Troy's schedule was being disturbed, but I think she was more relieved that she wouldn't be sitting in the waiting room alone.
Mom gave me updates from the hospital-they had Dad stabilized and he was headed to the cath lab to see what the problem was and what to do about it, the heart attack was still considered smaller at this stage and they needed to get it stopped before it got worse. She hadn't been able to see him, but hoped to get a report from the drs once they were done with the cath lab stuff in a little over an hour. When the Drs. finally came out they said that they had been able to stop the heart attack by putting in a stint into the artery that was pretty much completely blocked. Dad was resting at this point, and everyone was allowed to go in and see him a little while later.
None of us slept well that night, I knew the worst should be over, they had done something about the problem, but sleep was still illusive.
So another 24 hours has now passed. Dad seems to be recovering well, they took him off of oxygen, moved him out of the ICU, and even let him get up and walk across his room. He's feeling good enough to be begging for his i-phone so that he can send e-mails, etc. They say he should be able to go home Sunday or Monday depending on test results as they look closer at his heart and try to pinpoint any damage that was done by the heart attack.
Ok, it's now a week later, It's taking me awhile to get this post done. I'm finding it hard to express myself.
Dad was doing so well that they ended up letting him go home on Saturday afternoon. We were all very relieved to see he was recovering so well. So now he's recouping at home and hopefully not overworking himself.
David comforted me the other evening while I lay in bed shaking and with tears, telling me that Cheney has his first stint put in back in the 80's and is still doing well, and continued to list off other people that have had heart issues and gone on doing very well for many years.
When Dad had his double by-pass in 2000 I was able to be there with Mom through the ordeal. As hard as that was, and as incapable as I was to actually do anything to help him, I felt involved in it. When he had his leg reaction in Cyprus I felt isolated from it, and again when he had his pancreatitis in Vietnam, I just wanted to be there but knew it wasn't possible. Yet again this time, I was too far away to be involved in the crisis, and too far away to reassure myself that he's doing ok now afterwards.
There are so many reasons it's hard to be living away so far away from family, and this is definately one of the tops on my list. But I shouldn't complain. I'm just so relieved that this time Troy, Carrie and their families were able to be there to support Dad and Mom, and so relieved that Dad is back home where he is needed.
We love you Dad!
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