August Days

The past week has been a busy one. Ken and I were going to go camping last Tuesday. As usual, I started the day with a phone call to Dad. I always ask him how he is doing and he said, "Alot better than last night."

After a little further discussion, he told me that he had taken two Nitro tablets the night before because of chest pains. He said they really made him feel better. Dad had a heart attack two years ago and had two stints put in. Since then he has not had any chest pains until the last two weeks. He has taken Nitro on two different occasions. When I hung up the phone and discussed the situation with my husband, we decided to take Dad right to the E.R. I called him back and told him the plan.

He didn't seem to think it was necessary but I said we were going so get ready. We checked in to the E.R. at 10 A.M. By 3:00 P.M. Dad was in a recovery room. They had said that his blood test showed that he had had a heart attack in the last 24 hours and needed another stint put in. It was amazing how quick the whole procedure happened. By the way, he told the E.R. staff that he had been having mild chest pains for about six weeks!!!

He was able to come home on Wednesday and then I stayed with him a couple nights and my sister stayed one night. By Saturday, he was anxious to go see mom. I said I would would drive him. It is close to 50 miles away. He walked into the nursing home ahead of me and he said mom saw him coming down the hall and was waving to him immediately. She was so glad to see him. When I came she was excited and said, "Well, Donna!!" It was joy to my ears to hear my name. She hasn't said it for about a month so I was wondering if I had heard it for the last time. It's kind of silly to be so happy about hearing my name because I don't really think she understands who I am but she is glad to see me. We had lunch together and looked at pictures and read a couple board books and sat outside in the pavillion. It was a good day.