Prayers for Grandpa

We've been down with the flu the last couple of days. I was pretty sure I was going to die Saturday afternoon. Aches, chills, nausea, fever - everything Melanie had had the day before. Madilyn came down with a lesser version of it that afternoon too. Around 3pm I ran a bath. I figured either the warm bath would make me feel better - or if I were lucky, I'd become unconscious and slip under the water and drown! Well, just before either one happened, my sister called.

L: Hi, are you coming up? (She was at my parents' 1hr away)
Me: Uh, no, why?
L: For dad.
Me: (Truly clueless) Dad's what?
L: He's in the hospital, didn't mom call you?
Me: Doy, no!

Dad was sick with the flu a couple of weeks ago and never really got better. He took a week off work, which should have been enough for us to insist that he see a doctor as he's never missed a day of work!

Long story short, he became ill again Friday night and Saturday morning my mom told him she'd had enough and he was going to the doctor.

They did find a spot of pneumonia on his lung (which he suspected) but they also found that his heart has a large amount of fluid around it - his blood pressure drops far too low - his enzyme levels are off - they suspect he had a heart attack back when he thought he had the flu - and they suspect he's likely to have another one soon if something isn't done.

The plan was to keep him in the little home-town hospital until Monday when there would be a tech to do an echo-something test - but apparently he had a "bad night". Ran a high fever, shakes, sweats - and Dr. Quinn decided he'd better go to the "big city" hospital. An ambulance is bringing him down as I type. I went and saw him last night - wearing a very attractive surgical mask and all! He looked tired. He looked a little scared. But he was trying so hard to make us all think he's blowing it off, "no big deal". It was just all so familiar of being at the hospital with Brandon's dad. There is just something about seeing the strongest, most important men in your life as a patient in a hospital.

I'm selfishly asking for prayers for my dad. We haven't told the kids anything yet. I don't want to tell them that it's ok if it's not - and I don't want to tell them it's worse than it really is either. Our kids truly do better with the truth - no sugar-coating! I hope to have some answers in a few hours - and I pray they are the answers we want to hear.