Almost one month after my wedding, my Pops began experiencing a weird pain in his chest which sometimes radiated down his arm. What made it "weird" was the fact it wasn't anywhere near his heart - it was just between his breast and his shoulder and went away with a heating pad and ibuprofen, but it also felt nothing like pain he experienced when he first needed a triple bypass some 5 years earlier. Another odd thing? It seemed to dissipate whenever I was around. I spent the whole evening with him Friday and the whole day/evening with him Saturday and he seemed fine - confused even as to why the pain would come and go. However, as soon as I left both times the pain came back. Now we're thinking they were panic attacks (which he's had before and presented in a similar fashion in regard to the chest pain), a possible result of my recent marriage. Although I had been moved out for over 3 years, now that the wedding had come and gone it was pretty much a done deal - no turning back . . . no coming back home. An "Empty Nest" type panic, if you will.
That Sunday, my mum called - the pain had gotten worse so she drove my Pop to the hospital (he, of course, screaming and bitching the whole way that she was "driving like a maniac" at all of 35 mph). He went, not because he thought he was having a heart attack but because he didn't want to believe he was and wanted to hear it was something else. Unfortunately, it was in fact a heart attack. Also, they found a small "calcification" or mass on his lung that would need to be looked at (my father's biggest fear - cancer). But first, they needed to get things with his heart in order.
The next day, my 1 month "wedding anniversary" (or as my husband calls it "Lame! Lame! Lame! Are we going to celebrate the first time I took the garbage out as a married man too???"), my Pops was transferred to Stony Brook University Hospital where they performed an angiogram. It would the same drill as before - if they found minimal blockage they would put him on medication and send him home. Moderate blockage and they would perform an angioplasty right on the spot. Anything beyond that would require yet another bypass.
They found that two of the three bypasses were blocked - one 90%, one 100% (!) but that they could be remedied with the angioplasty - three stents total. My Pops was scared and resolved he would start taking better care of himself - quitting smoking and finding alternate treatments for his Colitis. He was also absolutely miserable the whole time. The bed was uncomfortable. They guy down the hall played his t.v. all night . . . and loudly. The nurses would wake him up every 15 minutes to check his vitals or give him yet another pill. All he wanted was to go home. Others around him were having full on bypasses and getting sent home before him. He was frustrated. Finally, on Thursday, I got the o.k. to take him home. And take him home I did. They tried to keep him another day but he wasn't having it. I sometimes wonder how and if things would be different if he did stay that extra day. But I think it just would have meant one less day (actually NO days) spent at home with his family. I cannot tell you how happy he was to be home. How relaxed he finally was. At one point, Thursday night into Friday morning, he woke to go to the bathroom. Upon his return, he told my mum how happy he was and how wonderful it was to be home in his own comfy bed, his wife beside him and his dogs at his feet. I spent the entire next day (Friday) with him - making him healthy meals, watching T.V. with him, looking up alternative treatments for his Colitis on the web. I made a nice healthy dinner for him and mum when she got home from work and all was good. Almost out of the woods . . . almost. We still had that thing on his lung to contend with and on Monday I was to take him for a PET scan which would tell us if it was cancer or not. He was worried about it. I sometimes wonder if he worried himself to death over it.
By Saturday morning, 8:30 am, it was all over. The Widow-maker had come.
No comments:
Post a Comment