Helluva Monday

On Monday morning, my Dad had a heart attack. He's okay, they released him from the hospital Wednesday morning, but it was apparently a very near thing.

At around 6:20 am, Dad wrapped up his workout at the YMCA and began cool down stretches. When he sat back up, he felt dizzy and after that the rest of the morning is a bit fuzzy for him. The staff at the YMCA told my mother that he appeared to have a seizure. They began CPR, noticed his heartbeat was incredibly erratic and got the defibrillator. They saved my father's life. Doctor's told my mother later that if my father had needed to wait any more than three minutes for the defibrillator he would almost certainly not have survived. He was rushed to the emergency room where he received two stints in a major artery that was 99.9% blocked. There's another that's 80% blocked, but they didn't want to stress the heart too much in one go. It is a wonder, the doctors say, that this attack did not occur sooner.

In all ways, except the event itself, we have been very lucky. My father just recently changed gyms. The staff at this one knew just what to do, and did it quickly. The attack occurred in an open visible space, and he was already lying down. My mother, who is a teacher, had already made her lesson plans for the week and did not need to worry about the details of turnover. The weather was pleasant for Connecticut in winter and thanks in part to the gym change (which led to a fifteen minute trip instead of an hour trip to the hospital nearest the old gym) my Mom had no trouble getting to and from the hospital. One of her friends also happened to be home and was able to help her get Dad's stuff from the locker room and to bring his car back from the gym. Both my Mom's school and my Dad's office have been very supportive.

Everyone has been surprised. Dad had no symptoms of any problems. He's had no previous heart tremors. There was no tightening in the chest, no pain, just the sudden dizziness. Dad has always been fairly active, running, biking, and swimming regularly. His coworkers thought he was the healthiest among them and are in a bit of shock (Dad's boss reportedly took a look around the conference room at the number of men over fifty and declared that the company would buy defibrillators and train people in their use). He does not drink often, and when he does it's usually red wine. There are probably some food decisions he could have made differently, but both my parents are healthy eaters. (Mom more so than Dad; he joked on Monday that the biggest drawback was that he won't be able to win any food arguments with my mother any more.) He has, however, been under a lot of stress at work recently. The biggest contributor, though, was family history. Both of his parents have had heart attacks (both have survived them), as have a variety of other relatives. With his genes, "usually eating right" isn't quite enough (a lesson my brother and I need to absorb right now). His exercise and fitness level helped him survive this one, and will mean he should recover quickly.

My brother will see him this week. I'm a bit further away, so I won't see him until their trip here in February (already planned, and now approved by medical professionals). I did however, send him a box of goodies that should keep him entertained for a while. He won't be moving much in the near future and the doctor told him not to lift anything more than 10 pounds for the time being. He told Mom that means he won't be carrying the laundry to the basement for her. Mom said she'll make sure the laundry is in small piles.

In other words, everyone is in good spirits and Dad has a pretty legitimate excuse to miss that work trip he had been dreading.