Monday, September 13, 2004

stress test was false negative.

I have been away mostly all week. I was in cleveland ohio. I was at the cleveland clinic coronory intensive care unit building G-20, bed 4. My father had a heart attack driving up rt. 11 on his way to the lakehouse last friday. He was rushed to Ashtabula General where the 350 lb. DOCTOR was pestered and pestered for ginger ale, and morphine while we all paced the floor waiting for the helicopter to arrive and swiftly, I said SWIFTLY transport him to the Cleveland Clinic as we watched the lady with all three of her non-sock wearing, just-ate-a-fudgecicle looking children scurring around the medical equipment.
The Cleveland Clinic is NUMBER ONE hospital for any coronary care anywhere. anyhow.
We were much more comfortable when he was stabilized and lying in the room five feet away from some of the world's most trusted doctors and nurses. It took them a half hour to get him to the point he was out of pain. the doctor came in and asked my dad what level his pain was, and his reply was "tragic." They had him on nitro and some blood thinners of course, plus they were giving him blood pressure meds. and xanax. He was comfotable now, so much better.
It pretty much continued like that thru tuesday nite when he was the only person in the intensive care that wanted to actually get up and take a shower, also, he was to get ready for the cathiterization to see what was blocking the blood flow to his heart. that was scheduled for the next day (Wed.)
That morning we drove to the hospital from the lakehouse where we were all staying, made our way to the second floor, and waited in the" family" waiting area for the doctor to take us in the "family consultation" room and tell us what he found and what was going to have to be done about it. The deal was, that: if they found any major heat damage they were going to have to do a bypass via open heart surgery, but if they found minimal damage that could be fixed with "stints" then they would go ahead and intervene....no open heart surgery.
my brother, my mom, aunt joycie-poo, and I sat in that room for a good three hours, so we were thinking positively of the outcome. the doctor finally appeared and let us know that they were infact able to place "stints" into my dad's heart , 3 of 'em. and the muscle damage to the heart was minimal. He didn't have a "massive" heart attack because the blockage wasnt in any of the three main veins going into the heart, it was in an offshoot. or two. they then wisked him upstairs into his new shower having room. they released him on thurs. (today) and he is at the lakehouse relaxing. With my mom and my brother running the business, he can take it easy for a while and recover. he stopped smoking. he kinda had no choice, and when the doctor told him, "well, your home free now, you dont have any more nicotine in your system after the last few days.."
his reply was "oh yeah, doc, I didn't even notice the withdrawl.."
my mom and I looked at each other and I'm sure we were both thinking "thank god for xanax" because they were FEEDING it to him. I am coy when I say, THEY HAD TO.
There are no words to describe how thankful I am to the doctors that took care of him and that he made it through this. I love my father with every emotion and drop of blood in my veins. I still need him to guide me. Thank you god. thank you.

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