Dad's brush with death

Early Thursday, July 6, 2006
Hello
This early Monday morning on July 2 my dad had his defibrillator go off 15x at our house at 1:45 or so in the morning. I was night fishing and returned home to see a red light flashing in my room's window. I knew there were no red lights on our house. I drove up and saw an ambulance. I slid beside it and saw my uncle there. He said Dad had his device go off 15 times and that he almost carried him to the ER. Mom fortunately dialed 911 and had an ambulance and fire engine en route. The medics called in to the Chest Pain Center and tried to transmit a 12-lead EKG but the transmission failed. One medic told me a cell phone was connected to a fax machine on the unit. I read about these units in a news story.

Dad was conscious the whole time and Mom said he told her he wasn't going to make it. I felt a combination of shock and sickness despite knowing about the pessimism Dad always feels. He had seen this and that relative die in the past few years and his sister died as a teenager. I felt guilty. I wondered if I was spending too much time on the computer, too much time playing with my airchecks, too much time hitting the singles web sites, or too much time sleeping. I come home tired from work partly from being upset at what is going on at home and what is going on at work.

I wheeled Mom in her borrowed wheelchair to the ER's front entrance as there was nobody to watch her at the front entrance. I went out the McDonald's door, to the ER's entrance, and then got a ride with a hospital cop. I drove up to the ER and took Mom home. Now I did break a rule; never let the gas go below 1/4 of a tank. We luckily made it to a station and gassed up. I had intended to go to work in the Honda but that was before I was greeted with the ambulance in the driveway.

Monday evening I visited Dad in the CVICU (Cardiovascular ICU). After work and eating at the McDonald's (cafeteria was closed) I went to the 2nd Floor CVICU (Cardiovascular ICU) where Dad was housed. Two of my sisters were in the waiting room. One was knitting. It was cold and they were covered in thin blankets. The hospital does visiting hours at the CVICU in 90 minute blocks. My middle sister came too.

Tuesday I cut grass and one sister helped with cutting what I missed. We watered the tomatoes and before long we felt we should rest before we both wound up in the ER ourselves. I rested and went up to the hospital.

Wednesday around 8 AM we took Mom up to the CVICU waiting room. Ms. D took us to the Heart Lab on the 2nd Floor. We waited for the ablation procedure on Dad's heart nodes to be finished. This would cause sections of the heart to not generate improper impulses to make the heart beat in V-tach. It was around 12:30 when this happened. I found out later when they withdrew Dad from the Lidocaine his machine zapped him 30 times until he was manually converted. Thus they were early with the procedure. The doctor did two of the nodes and had to let a third, slightly less serious node, be managed by medication. We saw Dad at the CVICU where he was returned.

We were tired and went to the Cracker Barrel to eat as one of us stayed behind with Dad. I had a large coffee and biscuit for breakfast so I was half-tired, half-tense. The service was horrible at the Eisenhower Parkway Cracker Barrel. It needed to be bulldozed and most of the staff machine-gunned as they ran from the falling ruins.

There was some loud two-year-old behind us screaming bloody murder. I almost told them to shut up. I got some rest then my uncle brought some stew and cornbread. I ate some chicken he brought two days ago and went to see Daddy. The nurse told us what went on with Daddy and the background behind the procedure. Dad seemed less groggy thank goodness.

I told him every night he was there I loved him as I left. I felt better about myself when doing this though we as a family don't get too sentimental with each other as a rule.

I dropped by Wal-Mart around 11:00 and got some supplies. I got small Diet Cokes so Dad would have it by Mom's bedside at all times and wouldn't have to deal with the big bottles.
I left and went to Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies along with Sean Hannity's book, "Deliver Us From Evil" as it was on sale.