NOT an April Fools Joke

I really hate April Fool's Day jokes. Some can be pretty harmless, but usually I think people take it a bit too far. My brother in law was one of them yesterday. He posted on his facebook page that he was in a motorcycle accident and in the ER. Not funny.

Especially since at almost the same time, 2000 miles to the West, I was sitting in the ER with my father who was experiencing chest pain. This wasn't a joke and it's certainly not funny. My dad has had a lot of medical issues over the years. He had a stroke in December and now this. Except this is much more serious when you consider he's had 5 previous heart attacks, had bypass surgery 14 years ago and he just isn't in good health.


So, off we went to Banner Desert Hospital for the umpteenth time. I'm pretty good at getting their fast. My dad should have gone by ambulance but he wouldn't let my mom call 911. When is she going to learn to do it anyway? We first thought it was his pacemaker as they have been telling him the battery is about to run out and they will need to replace it anywhere from 1-4 months. Of course they said that in December, so we figured it was time. That would have been too easy though. They checked it out and said he still had some time left on the battery.

Turns out he was in Afib. Now I am sure some medical types can explain this a whole lot better but from what I understand, his heart was beating wayyyyy tooo fast. When we got in there it was in the 150-180 range. With all the meds he's one they like to keep it at 50-70 range. Plus, his blood pressure was all over the place. They took lots of blood, xrays, EKG's and all the usual work ups. At this point they don't think he had another heart attack, but won't rule that out yet either because of his bloodwork. They do think he may have damaged his heart more though. And that's not good for a guy that is only working on one artery.

So, I am off to spend the day at the hosptial, checking on my dad and trying to keep my Mom sane. Please keep my dad in your prayers. I'm really not ready to loose him.