This week my family and I were reminded of just how lucky we are, and how much we are grateful for. This week we have all of our family members still with us, and it could have gotten a whole lot of scary if everything didn't go JUST THE WAY IT DID!
Sunday afternoon I was speaking with my dad. As we were about to hang up, he said, "Hey, LD. I guess I better tell ya, or Kel might beat me up!" Okay...he proceeds to inform me he is going into the U of U hospital for the next five days, due to pancreatitis. He stated it was nothing serious, he just needed to have a liquid diet and some antibiotics. After several promises that this is all it was, I told him I would be up Monday after work for a visit and hung up.
Monday I went to work, and was going to go see dad pretty quickly after. As I am driving home, I get a text from Kel, "Ok, here is the update, the pancreas is look good, but they are going to do an angiogram tomorrow. He is being admitted to the cardiac unit on the 4th floor.
At that point, things changed and I got a whole lot of stressed! How in the hell did we go from pancreas to cardiac?
After a few phone calls and a short errand, I headed up to the U to figure out what was really going on and spend some time with the padre.
Once I got up there, I found out they had to go through the ER because the admitting papers hadn't been done correctly. While he was in the ER my dad started telling the doctors all of his symptoms...they immediately began to look for signs of a heart attack.
As I was in the hospital with dad, I could tell he was pretty nervous,. as we all were. We didn't know what they were going to find, and we were scared. My dad asked me if I would mind calling in the next day and spending the night at the hospital with my dad...DONE!
That night Dad and I just talked and hung out. We finally headed for bed about 12:30 that night. We were awakened 5 times between 12:30-3:30. At that point dad was so nervous there was no going back to sleep...we talked. I treasured the time I had with my dad, we hadn't spent that much time talking in a long time.
Tuesday morning I ran into Nathan and he bought me a much needed coffee. He then clocked in and came up to the room to be with dad for some time. By about 10:30 Kel was there with another coffee...THANK GOD!
Dustin had called in sick so he could go babysit Stacy's kids and Carter so S could come up also. Shane stopped by about 11, and Stac was there by 11:30.
Thankfully they had given dad some meds to help him relax and he became pretty funny. The jokes began and the room lightened. At 1:40 they finally took dad back.They told us if there were arterial blocks they would do the interventions right then.He and I made our promise...that I would see him in 3 hours, if not sooner, he promised back...and off he went.
I hadn't eaten since lunch time the day before and was starving. So Kel took Stac and I down to the cafeteria and fed us lunch. Once we got back upstairs, my phone rang, and they told us dad had two blocked arteries and the interventions were beginning now.
An hour and ten minutes later, my dad came out laughing. He was in a great space and doing fine. They had to put two stents into his arteries, and things went well! One of his arteries was 90% blocked, the other 95%. We are VERY lucky my dad had not had a heart attack!
We got him back to his room, moved rooms, and then I was ready to call it. The "storm of the decade" was about to hit and I wanted to be home before it got bad. I gave my dad loves and Stac and I headed home.
Today I am SO grateful to still have my dad. To have the family that pulls together and supports one another when things get rough. I have a WHOLE LOT to be grateful for this holiday season!
Oh man Linds, I am so glad your dad is doing well! What a blessing that they were able to solve the problem before he had a heart attack. I will continue to keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
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