I’ve been pretty doggone busy the past few months so please pardon my lack of blog posts. Besides my usual duties of keeping things in order around the house, I’ve been helping Pop up at Rocky Creek. He’s usually on the tractor moving dirt, rocks and such while I supervise and show him where to scoop and dump.
This has been a very interesting week. On Tuesday Pop was doing his usual evening routine, plopped in his easy chair and watching the news, all the while tossing my ball and keeping me happy fetching which ever one I decided to drop in his lap. We got up in the middle of the night on Saturday (or maybe early Sunday morning) ’cause Pop felt some tightness in his chest and neck. He took an aspirin, drank some water, felt better and went back to bed. No big deal. When he had that same feeling on Tuesday, he figured something was up. This time, although the tightness subsided after a few minutes, the symptoms came back and didn’t go away. Pop had the missus check his blood pressure ’cause the sensation he felt made him pretty sure it was higher than it ought to be. It was and it kept getting higher as they checked it over the next couple of hours. The next best thing to do was call the smartest guy he knows (his father-in-law) who gave him a physician’s perspective. By 10:30 that night he had left me in charge so the missus could haul him to the emergency room to get his plumbing checked for sure. After waiting for a couple of hours with all the other poor souls who had bad coughs and various aches & pains, they checked him in as his heart rate went to 28. That got their attention and before he knew it he was talking with a cardiologist and getting prepped for the big procedure. By 3am he was recovering in CIC after a balloon angioplasty that cleared a 100% occlusion in one of the blood vessels in his heart. He had a, sure enough, heart attack.
The good news was that there was only one blockage and it didn’t need a stent. 24 hours later, Pop was ready to come home and I was ready for him to be here.
I noticed he’s got some bruises where they poked him with a bunch of needles and he’s missing some fur in weird places that I’ve never seen him shave before. I heard Pop say how thankful he was that the cardiologist was sharp and did a great job and that he was also happy that several folks had heard about his predicament and stopped by the hospital to cheer him up and offer a prayer. I couldn’t help noticing that the missus looked worse than Pop when they got home. She was there the whole time and didn’t get much sleep. Some sweet folks brought dinner over, too, so they could both recover from their ordeal.
Pop’s timing was good because the tractor needed a new clutch and had been in for repairs this week. They called today to say it was ready so I reckon we’ll be back at it on Monday at Rocky Creek. I’m thinkin’ the missus will be glad to get back to work where there’s a lot less stress than worryin’ about Pop’s ticker. As for me, I figure Pop is invincible. He’s the tough Marine who moves boulders at Rocky Creek and tries to be a rock for others when they need it. I’m glad he’s home, patched up and that the Lord isn’t through with him yet.