September 6, 2006

Out of the Blue!

Hello all - Some of you know...some of you don't, but here's what's been going on in the last 24 hours or so. My dad, Trout, had a massive heart attack yesterday morning. He woke up around 7:30 a.m. and told my mom, who just so happened to have just walked in the room, that he wasn't feeling great. He went to the bathroom, came back into the bedroom, and sat there saying, "Wow, I really don't feel good." My mom then asked him to explain what he was feeling and he said, "Well, my chest hurts a ton, I feel a lot of pressure and I'm loosing feeling in my arms and my legs. In fact, my neck is feeling really weird too!" Well, my mom having worked with the school district for the last 17 years, knew that these were all the "classic" heart attack symptoms and signs so she right away called 911 and gave him an aspirin. At this point, Emilie was in the shower getting ready for work and my mom came into the bathroom and told her what was going on. She cut her shower short and wrapped a towel around her and raced into their bedroom. She helped and sat with my dad while my mom waited outside for the paramedics and ambulance to arrive. They got there fairly quickly and came in to help my dad. When all these guys came in, they told my sister, "We've got it from here, you can go get dressed now." :) My mom called me before the paramedics arrived and told me, very calmly might I add, what was going on and I absolutely freaked out!! I immediately started praying that the Lord would have His hand in the situation and that he would protect my dad. So he was taken to Henry Mayo Emergency room with my mom. When my mom called to tell me where he was going, all she could tell me was that the paramedics said that Dad was very, very sick and he needs help fast. (Not what you want to hear, by the way!) Mike raced home from school and picked up Cole and I and we went over to the ER. They did some very quick preliminary tests and determined that indeed, it had been a massive heart attack and he needed better care than what they could provide. Meanwhile, the ER would not let Emilie or I see him at all. In fact, they only let my mom see him very briefly. The ER doctors told us that transferring him to Providence Holy Cross, although very risky, would give him the best chance for survival. Right after we arrived at the Henry Mayo, Ben Trehan, the pastor on call at Grace was right behind us and there with us the whole day. And my mom's best bud, Judy, was only behind him a few minutes! While we were waiting for the critical care ambulance to arrive for the transport, Todd Roughton met us at the ER and whisked Cole away and he and his wife, Summer, watched him all day. He was able to play with their two kids, Ashlyn and Jeremy and we were able to relax knowing that he was in excellent hands! Thank you again Summer and Todd. What a blessing you guys are! :) As my dad was being rolled out to get in the ambulance at Henry Mayo, Em and I stood outside and were able to get a glimpse of him and yell to him that we love him. He was coherent enough to wave to us and to take his oxygen mask off and blow his daughters a kiss. :) We all piled into our CRV and followed the ambulance down to Holy Cross. Katy, Mike's sister, and Brice were able to meet us down there too. He was immediately taken into the Heart Center there and had an emergency angiogram done to figure out what needed to be done and how much damage there was. The procedure (angioplasty) only took probably 45 minutes to 1 hour and the cardiologist, who just so happened to be Pastor Tom's and two other guys at church's cardiologist and an extremely strong Christian, Dr. Samuel Kojoglanian, came out and explained what had happened. My dad had a massive heart attack because his main artery going into his heart was 100% blocked, which they cleared and put a stent in to help, and his left anterior artery was 95% blocked which they will have to go in and repair with a stent either later this week or next week, depending on Dad's strength. He said by the grace of God he survived through just getting from the house to the first ER, let alone being transported in extremely critical condition, to the next ER and the surgery. Many doctors said that it truly is a miracle that he is alive and they would have given him a 25%-30% chance of survival at Henry Mayo and lower to survive the transport and angioplasty. The artery that was 100% blocked is called "The Widowmaker" because not that many men survive any major blockage in that artery. Pastor Geoff Beckwith and Pastor Mike Broyles made it down to Holy Cross just in time to see my dad after his angioplasty with all of us in the hallway. And Gary Catalde, after his terrible bike accident on Monday, even trekked down to Holy Cross and got to tell Dad to hang in there. Mike's mom, Michelle, told me later that God really must have had a tsunami of prayers between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. when the word was getting out to friends and family. My dad was then put in the I.C.U. at Holy Cross and that's where he is now. We were able to see him briefly before and after we went to lunch when we finally got something to eat thanks to Ben and Grace treating us. Mike and I and Cole went down later that night and I was able to sit with my dad for about 20 or 30 minutes and talk with him and rub his back and his arms and just remind him that we all love him so much and how proud we are that he pulled through with the Lord at his side! He even cracked a smile for me. He is still in critical condition, but is stabilized and they actually took out the balloon pump that was helping his heart pump this morning. My mom called down this morning and he is doing okay and is still really weak from everything. Apparently he didn't get too much sleep last night. Go figure with having about 7 I.V.'s in him, that balloon pump going up through his groin and through his femoral artery, and about 15 monitors on in the background. :) Hopefully he'll not be as nauseous today. He vomited many times yesterday which is never fun. Steve Lively and Mike Wilke also were able to come down yesterday and pray with Dad. Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts. I know the Lord heard them and please continue to pray that the Lord will continue to heal Dad and that there will be no complications with any of the procedures that they already have done and will do in the near future. And thank you for your generousity...everyone that we have talked to has said, "If there is anything that we can do, let us know." It's such a wonderful thing knowing that you have so many friends and family right there in times of need. Praise God that my Pop is still here today and he had survived this "out of the blue" attack. He has never had any heart issues and there is no history of heart issues, attacks, or disease in his family. Again, thanks for your prayers, I know my Dad feels better just knowing that he has so many people out there praying for him. Besides, he said last night that he needed to be well enough to play guitar at Brice and Emilie's wedding shower on Sept. 16th, and for sure well enough to walk Emilie down the aisle for their wedding on November 11th!! He reminded the docs of that many times yesterday! :) What a cutie-pie! I'll give more updates as we get them from the doctors!

4 comments:

Lindsay said...

hello. got to your site via some links but I just wanted to say that I'm sending some prayers down south to your Pop! Hope everything turns out okay... stay strong! :)

Anonymous said...

I called my parents to let them know- we all are praying for your family. Love to you all.

Josh and Katy Carothers

Kristal Sawyer said...

You have been in our thoughts and prayers many many times today. We love you guys and wish we could be there to hug you.

Megan @ SimplyThrifty said...

Thank you for sharing. We'll be praying! Would you like me to share this with the Serving-Together class to be praying for?