Monday, November 1, 2010

September 24, 2010

Ry's 25th birthday was on September 24th, I woke up SUPER early to make him birthday breakfast before he had to go to work. We were all packed to head to St. George so as soon as we both got off we could hit the road.
I had been at work for about an hour when my Dad pulled into the parking lot and came into the clinic looking awful. I knew immediately that something was VERY wrong, I took him to a room and had Scott come, as I took his vital signs Scott listened to what my Dad said through labored breaths and words. Scott listened to his heart and said "Meg, you need to take your Dad to the ER right now!!" So through teary eyes and me trying to force myself to be calm I grabbed my stuff and helped my Dad to the car. I tried talking to him on the way to the hospital, but he didn't have the energy to talk to me. We walked straight into the emergency room through the ambulance bay, and they took him right into a room and hooked him up to an EKG machine. As soon as I saw the EKG I knew my dad was having a heart attack, shortly after that thought came to me the doctor told him, "sir, you are in full cardiac arrest" they gave him aspirin, nitroglycerin, and started running other tests. As all of this was going on I was making calls to find my Mom, who of course, doesn't have a cell phone. Ry came up immediately and my Mom made it up in time for them to transport my Dad up toe the Cath Lab at the Cardiovascular center. Ry and I followed the ambulance up to the CV unit... the next two hours were hell. We sat in the waiting room while he was in surgery waiting and praying that everything was going to be alright. Finally, two long hours later his very nice nurse, Cori, came and told us that he was okay and that we could go visit him for a short while. He had a major blockage in his descending artery, which is connected to the left ventricle, or major pump of your heart. Marcus and my Grandpas gave him a very nice blessing, and we visited him for a while and then let him get some rest. We are so greatful that he made it our of surgery and that he came in when he did, he has minimal heart damage, one stent and he is doing much better. It is truly amazing how short life is and how fast it can change, this event has made us all take nothing for granted and truly treasure every moment we have with each other.
After a very long and stressful day, Ry got off work and we were debating whether or not we should still go to St. George for his birthday trip. After we visited my Dad again, he said "I am fine, there's nothing you two can do now, just go have fun," so we did, and I am happy we did, because we did have a great time!!!

Golfing with my favorite boy!
Steph and I got talked into going with the boys this evening, it was a hot one!

Doing what he loves, great form Ry!
The Birthday Boys!!

Bowling date night, it was a blast!!!

Happy Birthday Babe, you're the best! I love you!!!

3 comments:

Shauna said...

Scary...i'm so glad your dad is ok!

Randi said...

This post is so weird, starting with your dad's story and ending with these happy pictures lol. I'm glad he's okay. Wow you've had me crying so much in the past month I'm going to stop picking up your phone calls. Stop having scary things happen.

The Thelins said...

I had zero idea about your dad... How did I miss that one? Give him a big hug and some green leafy veggies for me.