Monday, March 29, 2010

My Dad had a heart attack

Sunday morning about 5:45 am I heard a crash downstairs. So I ran down and found my dad on the floor. Alan took him to the emergency room to Harris SW Hospital. We wondered if his blood sugar was out of wack and that was what caused his passing out. He told me all week he just hadn't felt right. I kept asking him if we needed to get him in and of course he would say no. He had just had a physical with his PCP and was told that he was in good health, so that was the basis he was going on.

At the hospital they also had a cardiologist come and looked at him as his right shoulder to his elbow hurt. I know it is usually your left arm, but I guess with Dad it was his right. And they were worried about his heart rate, as it was not normal. They did an ekg. They determined that he had a mild heart attack. (Later the Dr. said that his pain in his right shoulder had nothing to do with the heart attack, but once they put the stents in the pain was gone. So my Dad believes it was a sign and I tend to agree, no matter what the doctor said.)

They found out he had a blood clot blocking his artery so that the blood can't get to his heart and decided that he needed a stent put in. They couldn't do that surgery at the hospital we were at so they life flighted him to Harris Methodist Hosp. downtown and originally they hoped to wait until Monday to do the surgery, but when they got him to Harris downtown, they did an angiogram and decided that they couldn't wait until Monday to put in the stents so they did it right then. They ended up putting 2 in instead of the 1 they originally thought. He is doing well.

They brought pictures in to show us of his heart and it shows that all of his arteries are 70% - 90% blocked and that he needs to consider bypass surgery. To which he said I'm not doing that right now because I'm getting married in June!

Only my dad!

2 comments:

Mona said...

Lois! Oh no! I'm so sorry! What is it with these tough old dad's?! That must have been so frightening for you. Thank goodness you were all there and able to help so immediately.

Kim said...

I think that he can be recovered from his bypass surgery by June...PLUS I would think he would want to enjoy his new marriage with a good heart instead of having it done after he is married. I really hope he decides to have it now. My MIL had a triple bypass done about 13 years ago and is doing / did great.