Expect the unexpected

My week took an unexpected turn on Tuesday afternoon when my stepmom called to tell me that my father was in the hospital in a neighboring state with "congestive heart failure." I talked to him briefly, and he sounded very weak and tired. SL suggested that I fly out there ASAP to be with him. . . but my dad has been hospitalized many, many times, and I had several irons in the fire at work that I didn't want to leave unattended if I didn't have to.

A little history: my dad had a heart attack in late 2000, several stent placements, and a triple coronary artery bypass graft in May 2001. After collapsing in a grocery store in January 2005, we learned that his three bypasses had become partially occluded. He has required monitoring by a cardiologist for the past 15 months. He also has a long history of high blood pressure (he's on 4 different meds for it), he has lupus, he is a diet-controlled diabetic since 1993, and has numerous other less serious health problems, including sleep apnea.

My dad himself called me early Wednesday afternoon to tell me that the doctors thought he had a leaking heart valve, that he was having a cardiac catheterization the next morning, and that he might need open heart surgery to repair the leaking valve. I talked to SL, and we agreed that I should fly out. Not only because I was concerned about my dad, but because my stepmom freaks out when he is in the hospital, and my mom told me that my sister (who is 10 weeks pregnant with her first child) was all freaked out about the situation, too.

So I spent the remainder of Wednesday afternoon arranging things at work so that I could be gone at least through Tuesday. . . not knowing if I would even be able to return to work then, but being optimistic. I booked a flight and called a friend I hadn't talked to in months who lives in the city where my dad was hospitalized. (Side note: she was super-supportive; not only did she agree to let me stay with her, she picked me up at the airport and drove me around during my time there.)

I arrived at the hospital on Thursday morning just about 10 minutes after my dad had been taken into the cath lab. I met up with my stepmom, and we waited together for word from the doctor.

To summarize: the doctor angioplastied a coronary artery that was "99% occluded" (one leading up to one of the bypassed arteries). Dad came through fine. After spending over 8 hours on flat bedrest, he was able to eat and sit up. They were able to wean him off of his IV medications by midnight, and by Friday midday, he was doing so much better that his doctors agreed that he could be discharged.

As it turned out, he does not need surgery on his leaking heart valve (at least not imminently), and all the other medical issues he has are treatable. He will continue to require close monitoring, but is feeling fairly well. After chatting him with him on the phone, I would say he is back to his usual state of health today. Not great, but livable.

So I was able to fly home this morning, 2 1/2 days sooner than I'd expected. I'm relieved everything worked out OK with dad, and I enjoyed seeing my friend L, even though it was such a short, unplanned visit.

Now to catch up on the things I missed here. SL actually did a great job of keeping things up at home; our place is cleaner now than the day I left and Sebastian is untraumatized by my absence. I am also taking M out this afternoon. . . don't know what we are going to do yet. It's a gorgeous day here (sunny & mid 70s).