Last Sunday started off normal.. getting up heading to church.. then home. Well after church I got a migraine and laid down for a bit. The next thing I know, the phone is ringing and no one is answering it! Then my cell, then Jason's cell.. I answered his. It was the phone call that will never be forgotten.. HI Kristy, this is officer(i forget his name) I am with your mother. Your father has had an apparent heart attack and is in route to the hospital!
WOW! I almost dropped my phone and started panicking! I couldn't get a hold of my brother or my sister to let them know.. Seriously.. my dad is superman to me and he can't die! He did.. he dropped dead of a heart attack in the middle of the Reebok outlet. He had angels watching over him the whole time.. He could have been driving.. he could been at home.. nope! He was at Reebok and someone there gave him CPR.. someone there saved him.. someone there was able to stay with my mom until we arrived at the E.R! Someone there cared about a stranger.
So once he was "stable" enough to move him, he went up for heart surgery.. .seemed like it took forever. They discovered 2 narrowed arteries. So the doc put 2 stents in. However the problem now wasn't his heart.. it was his brain! It wasn't a question of was there going to be damage. .it was how much! No one knew how long his brain wasn't receiving oxygen before the CPR started. The doctor couldn't give us an estimate when my brother asked, on his survival rate.. He lowered his head and said.. Let's just be "hopeful"!!
We saw him once surgery was over but only briefly.. there were test to be done.. mainly a ct scan which showed no bleeding on the brain.. our 1st positive!!
That night all I could do was pray, pray and pray some more. The next morning I prayed and prayed.. get the theme.. PRAYER and a whole lot of it! I kept hearing it's gonna be okay.. it's gonna be okay! I wasn't sure if this was me or GOD talking to me but I was rolling with it.
Monday dad started hypothermia therapy: his body got cooled down to 92*! The purpose of this is to slow everything down, conserve energy and to decrease swelling in the brain that was caused from lack of oxygen. this day wasn't so bad.. there wasn't a whole lot to do but pray.They slowly started warming his body up,late in the evening. It can't be done too quickly or the body goes into shock. I believe it was warmed a degree every hour or so.. This waiting is starting to get old!
Tuesday. I went in to see him for a lil while the boys were at school. I would stand beside his bed and hold his hand and pray. The nurse told me he is very calm while I am in with him. When it was time for me to leave, I felt numb.. things were starting to catch up to me.. the running around and the stress of everything that was happening. I started praying while I was leaving the hospital that I would get a sign that things were gonna be okay and not only would I see but so would my mom who was still up in his room. Just then my right eye started burning like I had gotten onion juice in it. About 10 min. later I received a phone call that dad had briefly opened his eyes but closed them again! Thank you God!
Wednesday oh Wednesday! still a day of the waiting game.. there were more movements but nothing that was responsive. I wasn't able to go in at all during the day and this really ate at me. I had meltdown after meltdown. I felt like my world was falling apart. There was so much to do and no desire to do it... The house was a mess from running all week.. company was coming(Aunt Debbie & Uncle Glenn) to help with support since they just went through this 5 yrs. ago with their daughter. aaahhhhh!!!
Thursday, I think( most of this past week is turning into a blur) another day of waiting and watching him try to come around but he was coming out to wild!
Friday they tried letting him come out but he became so agitated because he had a breathing tube down his throat and he tried taking it out.. they had to keep sedating him so he wouldn't hurt himself. He had to have his hands cuffed to the bed because of this... he was just so angry at those tubes, turning his head back n forth.. They were planning on taking his tubes out however his lungs weren't ready. He had an underlying condition that he needed to stay on the respirator. He had a lot of phlegm that was being a host to 2 nasty lil germ bugs and his lung doc just felt is was best not to take him off of his meds or his to take out his tubes..
Saturday.. I walked into the hospital to find him SITTING in a chair! He still wasn't fully himself but did if feel good to see him with his eyes open and up out of that bed. When the lung doc done his rounds he took out the breathing tubes and they let dad breathe some on his own. Then he graduated to a mask.. which he didn't like. And then he became irritable again, demanding he was going home! and He was talking hateful to people. His voice wasn't his.. it was all tore up from the tubes. but he was talking!
Sunday.. 6a.m.. the phone rings.. it's dad.. "the old lady there?' yes but she is sleeping, want me to wake her up, Jason asked. " tell her I want my glasses, I can't see a damn thing" and I want them before church!" Jason just says I'll tell her.
we finally got to go in around 3 this afternoon. he was up walking around the ICU area with the aide of a walker.. he even got to see all of his grandchildren. His nurse wheeled him out in his recliner to visit with everyone!! She said that was the 1st time they had ever done that!! He sure does brake the mold!! It was so unbelievable to see him smile, talk, remember almost everything! There seems to be only a short window that he don't remember and that is the 4 hours right before his cardiac arrest! Only time will tell if there is other things that he don't remember but so far so good!
Now if you don't believe in miracles performed by God, go back and read my story again!
God's fingerprints were all over this.. from his 1st nurse that told me & mom that there is some kind of positive energy in that room that I can't explain to my aunt Debbie feeling someones hand push on her back when there was no one behind her at the time!!
*note.. dates may be off a bit.. like I said.. this week was a roller coaster and everything is a blur
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