I think the chaos of the previous weeks, and the excitement of Christmas Day got to Tommy. He would not settle down, and he had me up most of the night. I finally got him settled down in my bed, and went to sleep on the couch. Wow, to finally get some rest….
Jeff woke me up about 8 a.m. to say he wasn't feeling well and was going over to Urgent Care. I remember kissing him goodbye and thinking he'd be gone for a couple hours and offering up a quick prayer that he would be safe and okay. Tyler got up, wondering where Daddy had gone. I kept napping, as Tommy was still asleep.
At 9:14 I got a phone call from the nurse at Urgent Care telling me that my husband was being transported to Harrison in Bremerton via ambulance because of his symptoms. Oh! Damn. Okay. Everybody is pretty much snowed in; I have three kids to take care of, 2 friends that are expecting me to pick them up, and a husband on his way to the ER. I called mom and made arrangements to meet her and pick her up to watch the kids at Grandpa's house. I called Melissa and told her that I wasn't coming to get her because Jeff was on his way to the hospital.
Travis helped get Tommy ready, I threw some stuff in the baby bags, Tyler helped carry stuff out the car. A quick prayer and we were on our way out to the main road. We made it too, or almost….if we hadn't had to stop for traffic we would have been fine, but we did have to stop, and we got stuck at the end of our road. Our prayer was answered, and we were only stuck about 15 minutes before a gentleman came up to help dig us out. A second man stopped and together they pushed until we were clear. Thank you, thank you, and thank you!
We picked up my mom, stopped at Jeff's truck for his cell phone, and then went to the hospital. When I got there Melissa and Geoff were waiting for me. The nurse took us to a waiting room and told us the doctor would talk to us when he was finished with Jeff. Melissa drove my mom and the kids up to Grandpa's house to wait for news. We figured that would be the most comfortable place for them.
While Melissa was gone, Geoff and I tried to talk about pleasant things, Christmas dinner, and the like. A nurse came out and told the couple across the waiting room that their wait would be a little longer, as a man had just come in through ER having a heart attack they were working on him now. That wasn't the nicest way to have my suspicions confirmed. Melissa came back, and we waited. Finally the nurse came back and led us to a small, private room to wait for the doctor. I don't remember exactly what the doctor said, Melissa or Geoff would probably remember better. He seemed like a nice man. The gist of it was Jeff had had a heart attack, the artery was completely blocked as opposed to partially blocked, they had inserted a stent, there was build-up in the other arteries as well, this had been coming on for years and years, his body had grown new blood vessels to try to compensate and those new blood vessels stopped it from being a lot worse, he would have to be on medication for the stent for a year, he would have to quit smoking.
Okay. Deep breath. Lots of prayers. We were led to the elevator and directed to a waiting room in the cardiac unit. I had no problem getting there, and it didn't take me long to break down once I was there. This was the last place I saw Grandma last year. I'm welling up with tears even now. We waited, and finally they wheeled Jeff up. We said hello, and they took him to get settled. We waited a bit longer, and then went to see him. He looked a whole lot better than I expected. I am so grateful he didn't die. We talked for a bit, I scooped up his stuff to take with me, told him I'd make some phone calls and take care of some business, and we'd be back. He needed to rest now anyway.
We drove up to Grandpa's house. I stopped on the way in to ask God for the right words to explain this to our children, and I wasn't disappointed. I calmly explained to the boys that Daddy has had a heart attack and would need to make some changes and take some time to recover. When I told them he had to quit smoking they cheered! They just needed to know that Daddy wasn't going to die. I filled my mom in quickly on what had happened, and then called Jeff's brother. Scott agreed to tell their mom for me, and I left that in his capable hands. Mom called and got Jeff added to the prayer chain. I was grateful that was done.
Melissa and Geoff were there for me every step of the way. They ran out to do my banking for me while I rocked my baby boy to sleep and got myself something to eat. Scott, Amanda, and Jeff's mom were at the hospital with him. After a bit I took the boys to see their Daddy on our way home. We ran into Scott, their sister, niece, and niece's boyfriend at the elevator. I knew we only needed to stay a minute, long enough for the boys to see he was okay. Jeff had plenty of family around to keep him company.
The boys visibly relaxed after seeing Jeff. They almost fell asleep in the car on the way home. We got stuck on our road, so everybody got out and pushed. We made it home safely and took a moment to breathe. Then Melissa and I went back to the hospital, taking his robe and some personal items for Jeff. Geoff and Mom stayed with the kids. Scott & Amanda stopped by to see if we were okay or needed anything.
After visiting with Jeff for a few minutes, Melissa and I went shopping. We got him some Word Search puzzle books, a silly top to play with, and a picture frame that I filled with pictures for his bedside table. We dropped those back off to a sleeping Jeff (except the pictures), and went home. It was the last night Melissa and Geoff stayed at our house.
No comments:
Post a Comment