On a much more serious note, my dad is in the hospital. I heard him calling my name in a very panic-stricken tone, and he told me he couldn't breathe. I called the ambulance and they took us to the hospital emergency room. All of the staff was very friendly, professional, and competent. My favorite was a very jovial nurse who had a distinctly Australian accent (no wonder I liked her! SR has given me a very high estimation of Australians!
).
Anyway, the cardiologist on call came and checked him out, and it turns out that he wasn't having a heart attack or heart failure as was initially thought; rather, it was a combination of little factors. Oxygen wasn't getting to his heart, as proven by an elevations of a key enzyme in his blood; also, he had swelling side effects from a course of steroids he had taken earlier in the week for back pain. Plus, he has developed atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat (as many of you probably already know) in which the upper and lower chambers of the heart are not working in sync.
Add that to the fact that one of his valves is very narrow, and he has a slight blockage in one artery, and it caused extreme discomfort in his chest and difficulty breathing. So they are keeping him overnight to get him stabilized with some new meds.
God really gave me a lot of grace over the past two days. I was patient and loving to him yesterday when I was secretly getting irritated that he was constantly underfoot when I was busting my butt; then this morning, i was calm, pleasant and cool, reacting quickly to call the ambulance and provide a reassuring presence to him in the ER bay.
After three hours waitng for his oxygen level to come up, I took a cab home. I will go back to see him about 6. He should be eating dinner then--maybe I can bring something in and eat with him.
It turned out to be a very good thing that we were home when this happened rather than in the mountains--it's a much longer drive to the nearest hospital. Here in Ashburn, the ambulance was here within 5 minutes, and we were at the ER in 10.
Dinner went beyond great yesterday. The food was good, especially the gravy, and a good time was had by all. i know it really blessed my sad, singing friend to have a warm, welcoming, relaxing place to go--and it really pleased her to be invited somewhere on a holiday. Her only life dream from childhood was to get married and have kids. She's 58 now and single, so her expectations have altered--but it still is very depressing for her to be all alone on holidays, so I know I really blessed her.
Now I'm home--and I still haven't begun the dishes in the sink! Crusted-on potatoes that the soaking water didn't reach! Oh, well--I'll just put on some embarrassing pop music to psych me up like I did yesterday.
I am running on very little sleep, so I may not be here much tonight. I just feel a lot of love for you all and I want to wish you a good weekend, whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not. I am very deeply thankful for you!
