A Surprise Heart Surgery

My dad has been complaining about chest pain since earlier this year.  I told him he should go get checked out soon and he ignored it.  He always thought it was something else probably because no one actually believes they might have a heart attack or heart disease.  The weird part was at his last doctor's appointment they didn't see anything wrong.  His blood pressure was fine and so was his cholesterol.  We did notice a change in his energy level and how he would come home from work and fall asleep in the chair.  There are times I went into the living room to see if he was still alive and breathing.  It just didn't seem normal.

When he and mom were in Reno visiting my sister, who was home from Germany on a three-week long leave, and attended Erika's in-laws wedding, this was the first time both sets of parents met each other after Erika and Malachi being married for 3 years.  Erika and mom noticed that he was out of breath more than usual and kind of sluggish at times.  He kept saying it's probably the elevation (Nevada is at a higher elevation than home is) or residual from the bronchitis he had this last spring.  Erika even told him to go get checked up.

The travel home sounded hurried just because they didn't want to end up in the middle of nowhere if something bad happened, especially in central Oregon where you would have to he helicoptered out to the nearest hospital.  When they did get home, I was at Shauna's house with Ben making sure their dogs were okay and taking advantage of the air conditioning.  I called to see if they made it home okay and how everyone was.  Mom was already in bed and dad sounded really tired, like unusually tired.  He said his chest hurt and I told him he should get mom up and go to the hospital.  He said that they would do it in the morning.  He had spent the majority of the night in pain, puking and pacing the house.  Mom didn't hear him because he was in the living room.  He ended up falling asleep out on the futon and he was surprise he woke up the next day.  He got clean, dressed and they immediately drove out to the E.R.

I got a text message around 9:45 telling me that mom had just taken dad to the hospital for chest pains and that she will keep in touch.  About an hour later she texted me again saying that they were going to be there for a while because they will be doing a bunch of tests.  I told her I would be done with Shauna's animals as soon as I got everything done and then over to our house to do the chickens and ducks.  About a half hour later I get another text from her saying that he had a mild heart attack and that they will be there for a few days while they put a stint in.  Then she called a bunch of people.

At one, I was already at home doing my chores and putting different clothes on and ate some food when I got a horrible text message from mom, dad has to have by-pass surgery and it wasn't good, it's what Grammie had a few years back.  My heart sank.

I updated Ben on what was going on since he was at work.  Grammie and Grandpa came, Doug and his girlfriend Jen came down from Seattle, Tracy came from work in Vancouver, Kevin and Karla were there, grandma, Angela came down from Kent, 3 of 4 cousins came by and hung out, Robin came by to say hi, it was just insane!

I got to the hospital around 3 and saw everyone in the critical care waiting room.  At one point we had close to 20 people waiting there to hear the news on how he was doing. When I got there mom told me it was going to be a triple by-pass surgery.  Then we got a phone call.  It turned into a quadruple by-pass surgery.  Later, we were visited by the assistant, she brought out a illustration of which veins they took out of his legs, how long and where they went on the heart diagram.  We took a picture for Erika and sent it to her to see.  She couldn't make a decision on whether or not she wanted to fly up here, it was mostly the price of a plane ticket there and back...which that shouldn't of mattered, your dad was in the hospital there should be no hesitation nor question about it.  I told her she needed to but she wanted to make me out to be the bad guy.  Mom, Angela, Malachi and I said the exact same thing to her but I was the bad guy.  Eventually she gave in after Angela told her this is something she needed to do.

The next day Jen and Doug picked her up from the airport.  She stayed until Saturday morning.

The doctor came out and told us everything went well and they will keep him in there for a little while longer while they can make sure everything is going well, no leaky spots, etc.  We had a spiritual adviser come and talk to us about what happens now.  We will get to go see him after the doctor says it was okay.  He will be blue in color because of the antiseptic they used to clean his body for surgery, he will be plugged into a lot of machines and had a lot of tubes going to and from his body and most likely he will be asleep so he won't be able to talk to us but he may hear what we were saying to him.  When that time came, it was almost 9 that evening.  Me, Doug, mom, Grammie and Grandma went first.  It was hard not to cry.  Mostly because he could have died if he would have waited any longer.  This whole situation fell into place perfectly, not that we really wanted this to happen in the first place, but because it happened I am glad he was home, near a hospital and we got him in there as soon as we could before something bad happened.

He was moved from critical care into a room on the eleventh floor a few days later, there, he ate food, used the restroom, walked and had quite a few visitors.  He couldn't believe that many people came to see him but he really couldn't grasp that he had just survived a heart attack and is now recovering from a quadruple by-pass surgery.  The road to recovery isn't going to be easy but we know he will feel a whole lot better now than before the surgery.

Dad got to come home the following Monday.  We bought a chair, new pajamas, a blood pressure machine, O2 reader, some different medicines to help him use the restroom, we made a schedule and most importantly we went through the cupboards and refrigerator and got rid of all the bad high sodium, sugary foods and replaced them with less sodium, less sugar, more fresh foods.  He will have to give up his beer vice and try not to be stressed out over the little things that don't matter.  Life will be lived differently from here on out and I hope he can continue with the changes so he doesn't end up in the hospital again.

We are now on week three and he is eating well, using the bathroom efficiently, walking longer distances and wanting to go on rides.  He finished one of his medications and starting to go longer without the pain meds.  We have a doctor's appointment in August.

Next Adventure:  SeaTac Airport, REI and Lake Fenwick