Dad's Heart

Friday my dad (Old Irish) went in for a heart catheter test, a fairly routine procedure for him in the last few years. The test determined that my dad's heart was fine, but when they went to shock his heart back into rhythm, (also standard procedure,) his heart stopped and they had to call a code blue and perform CPR to resuscitate him. Luckily for him, Dad was oblivious to this entire chain of events as they occurred.

Unluckily for Mom, she heard the code over the PA and ran to my Dad's room and witnessed a portion of the lifesaving efforts before she was forced out of the area. Apparently it's not a pretty sight. On top of that, she was all alone while her world was crashing all around her (literally,) and she was unable to even dial a phone number for some time. Eventually she got ahold of Kellie's husband, who was able to spread the word and get Kellie en route to the hospital ASAP.

Needless to say, as the phone calls went out, various degrees of hysteria began growing among the daughters of Old Irish (or Lazarus, as Grandma now calls him - Dad is back from the dead, after all.) I was handling the news pretty well until my sister Shannon, with her uncanny sixth sense, informed me that while she was praying for Dad to pull out of this, she pointedly heard God say, "NO!"

Fortunately, after Shannon ignored the "No," and continued her prayers, she was able to do some serious convincing and Dad came back around. It took a while for Dad to understand what had happened, all he knew was that his chest was hurting a lot. The nurses weren't being very clear with him, referring to his 'event' or his 'chest procedure,' but finally it was put into terms he could understand - "They performed CPR on you because your heart stopped." Oh.

Once Dad was stabilized, they undertook one last procedure, which went much smoother than the heart cath. Dad was fitted with a handy dandy pacemaker. It's a well functioning device with quite the instruction manual, which both Dad and Kellie have already examined thoroughly. The pacemaker has been 'interrogated' a few times and apparently it is already telling the doctors exactly what they want to hear.

After getting the all-clear for the pacemaker procedure, I drove all night from Michigan to Nebraska because I was feeling a little left out. (Okay, I wanted visual proof that Dad was okay, and Mom has been through Hell lately and I had to see her, too.) By the time I got to the hospital on Saturday morning, Dad was looking and feeling pretty good, and the mood was much lighter, hence the jokes we're all telling about the events. Just don't ask about Dad's underwear.

Knowing Dad's desire to get the heck out of the hospital, the staff did a great job having him out the door before the first quarter of the Nebraska - Texas Tech game was over. Sadly, us girls didn't appreciate the punctuality of the staff at the Nebraska Heart Institute; as Dad was standing out front, we were shooting the breeze at the car and making him wait. A testament to Dad's patience, (hey, he's alive, he's not allowed to complain,) he took the delay in stride, and made it home safely.

Later today, the parents will be heading out for yet another funeral, (my moms Uncle, then his son, and now the Uncle's wife have all died over the course of the last three months,) and I will be heading back to Michigan. Hopefully Mom and I can both stay awake through our drives, and Dad can just keep that old heart a-pumpin' and stay alive a while longer...