A scary couple of days....
(i just posted this on myspace but i thought i should put it up here for all you lj'ers!)
Wednesday morning my dad woke up with chest pains and his left arm was going numb...he thought he was having a heart attack so he went to the ER. Thankfully he didn't have one but the doctors said it was a miracle that he hadn't had a heart attack yet because they found 3 valves in his heart were 85% blocked! He finally confessed that for the last year he's been short of breath a lot and always tired but of course he never told anyone! Damn stubborn dad! lol Anyways he had to have open heart surgery the next morning...a triple bypass.
One of the worst parts was when I was trying to drive to the hospital in PA....I didn't know at that point what happened or what was going on so I was freaking out the whole and because I wasn't focusing on driving I got lost 3 times and it ended up taking me 2 1/2 hours to get there when I should have made it in an hour and a half.
Obviously I didn't sleep hardly at all that night and then i had to be back up at the hospital at 5:30 in the morning to see him before his surgery. My poor dad was so scared...he was trying so hard to hide it but I could see right through him. So then we waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing was worse then sitting there in that damn waiting room for 7 hours. Everytime the phone rang or a doctor walked in we all just held our breath. There was also a lot of tension between the family but I won't get into it because its not what is important right now. All I kept thinking about sitting there was how he was laying there with his ribcaged wide open and his heart literally in their hands....yeah it was definitely a loooong 7 hours!
So finally the doctor came in and told us that everything went very well and he was in recovery and we could see him in about an hour. So we waited some more and then I got to see him before I had to leave. He was starting to wake up and was jumpy and scared....but the nurse didn't want him to wake up yet because they were worried about his blood pressure. So she kept telling him to not try to open his eyes yet. When she saw that his blood pressure was ok when she was talking to him she told me I could hold his hand and talk to him. So as soon as he heard my voice he was trying so hard to open his eyes and she kept yelling at him to keep them closed...all he could do was nod "yes" and "no" so she said "i know you want to see your beautiful daughter's face" and he nodded yes "but you just open your eyes yet" and he just kept shaking his no and much as he could. lol
It was so weird cause as soon as I left it was like all of a sudden I finally allowed myself to cry after holding it in for 2 days. I just sat in the parking lot of that hospital and cried my eyes out for a good 20 minutes. And I was so mad I had to leave and come back to Kent for work. I should be getting paid personal days or something! gerr
But anyways he's doing good now...I got a call yesterday afternoon saying they took him out of the critical care unit and moved him to a regular room. They took all the tubes out of his throat and stuff and his recovery is going exactly how it should go. But even though I knew he was ok I still wasn't happy till I got to talk to him last night. Hearing his voice was the greatest feeling. And it made me really happy that he remembers me talking to him and him trying to open his eyes to see me right after his surgery. I didn't think he'd remember that since he was still all drugged up and out of it. I'm glad he remembers everything I said to him because I often have a very hard time expressing my emotions...esp. with my family for some reason. He knows I meant every word I said and I'm so thankful he remembers it. Oh geez...here I go starting to tear up again!
Right now I'm feeling very thankful and lucky. I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to him. I'm so close with my dad, and yes i am definitely a "daddy's girl" and i will always be!
I also want to say thank you for everyone's kind words and thinking of me and my family. And thank you so much to all of you who were there for me to talk to...you know who you are! ;) I love you guys!
Wednesday morning my dad woke up with chest pains and his left arm was going numb...he thought he was having a heart attack so he went to the ER. Thankfully he didn't have one but the doctors said it was a miracle that he hadn't had a heart attack yet because they found 3 valves in his heart were 85% blocked! He finally confessed that for the last year he's been short of breath a lot and always tired but of course he never told anyone! Damn stubborn dad! lol Anyways he had to have open heart surgery the next morning...a triple bypass.
One of the worst parts was when I was trying to drive to the hospital in PA....I didn't know at that point what happened or what was going on so I was freaking out the whole and because I wasn't focusing on driving I got lost 3 times and it ended up taking me 2 1/2 hours to get there when I should have made it in an hour and a half.
Obviously I didn't sleep hardly at all that night and then i had to be back up at the hospital at 5:30 in the morning to see him before his surgery. My poor dad was so scared...he was trying so hard to hide it but I could see right through him. So then we waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing was worse then sitting there in that damn waiting room for 7 hours. Everytime the phone rang or a doctor walked in we all just held our breath. There was also a lot of tension between the family but I won't get into it because its not what is important right now. All I kept thinking about sitting there was how he was laying there with his ribcaged wide open and his heart literally in their hands....yeah it was definitely a loooong 7 hours!
So finally the doctor came in and told us that everything went very well and he was in recovery and we could see him in about an hour. So we waited some more and then I got to see him before I had to leave. He was starting to wake up and was jumpy and scared....but the nurse didn't want him to wake up yet because they were worried about his blood pressure. So she kept telling him to not try to open his eyes yet. When she saw that his blood pressure was ok when she was talking to him she told me I could hold his hand and talk to him. So as soon as he heard my voice he was trying so hard to open his eyes and she kept yelling at him to keep them closed...all he could do was nod "yes" and "no" so she said "i know you want to see your beautiful daughter's face" and he nodded yes "but you just open your eyes yet" and he just kept shaking his no and much as he could. lol
It was so weird cause as soon as I left it was like all of a sudden I finally allowed myself to cry after holding it in for 2 days. I just sat in the parking lot of that hospital and cried my eyes out for a good 20 minutes. And I was so mad I had to leave and come back to Kent for work. I should be getting paid personal days or something! gerr
But anyways he's doing good now...I got a call yesterday afternoon saying they took him out of the critical care unit and moved him to a regular room. They took all the tubes out of his throat and stuff and his recovery is going exactly how it should go. But even though I knew he was ok I still wasn't happy till I got to talk to him last night. Hearing his voice was the greatest feeling. And it made me really happy that he remembers me talking to him and him trying to open his eyes to see me right after his surgery. I didn't think he'd remember that since he was still all drugged up and out of it. I'm glad he remembers everything I said to him because I often have a very hard time expressing my emotions...esp. with my family for some reason. He knows I meant every word I said and I'm so thankful he remembers it. Oh geez...here I go starting to tear up again!
Right now I'm feeling very thankful and lucky. I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to him. I'm so close with my dad, and yes i am definitely a "daddy's girl" and i will always be!
I also want to say thank you for everyone's kind words and thinking of me and my family. And thank you so much to all of you who were there for me to talk to...you know who you are! ;) I love you guys!