An Emergency
Sunday, April 27, 2008
This has been an extremely long 2 days and quite an emotional roller coaster ride to say the least. It began by a phone call at about 6 am yesterday morning from Lynne. She was hysterical crying, which quite frankly is an odd thing. She is usually so together that I knew something must be seriously wrong. She told me that her father was having chest pains and had to be rushed to their local emergency room, and that she was taking the next flight out to be with her family at the hospital. I immediately told her I would go with and that I would be there to pick her up in about 20 minutes. I quickly hung up the phone and called the airlines to book a flight while flinging my personal belongings into a duffel bag. Needless to say, without my morning cup of coffee, I was really struggling with this level of multitasking. I got to her in about 25 minutes, not a bad amount of time considering all I had accomplished before my arrival.
Needless to say, she was shaken and in and out of contact with her sister via cell phone. She cried and I drove, quickly as I didn’t want to miss our flight out. We arrived at the airport in about 45 minutes, which is pretty good time, and even had time to grab a cup of coffee at the airport before our flight. By this point, her sister informed us that they were running tests to see about his heart function. Well, we couldn’t get in touch with them during the flight, which thank goodness was not too long and when we got to the airport, we rented a car and drove straight over to the hospital. When we arrived, they had determined that her father had a heart attack and needed to have triple bypass surgery. We got there in time for her to see him before the surgery and then the waiting began. We waited for what seemed like an eternity, it was really only about 4 hours which is pretty standard. I comforted Lynne and her mother and sister, served refreshments and chatted about some trivial items to try and distract them slightly from their fears.
A few times, hospital staff would come and update us on where they were at in the procedure and how her dad was doing. When it was all over, they said that the surgery had been a success and that Lynne’s dad was in recovery and they would be able to see him in about an hour. After we got to see him, we went and grabbed a bite to eat. I don’t think they really wanted to, but there were a few places up the road, and I really thought it would be good for them to get something to eat and escape the hospital for a little bit. We gave the staff our cell numbers in case they needed to reach us for anything. Her dad was still under the anesthesia and they said that when they take people out from under it, some people need to be sedated again as they wake up confused, disorientated, and some times violent.
When we returned, Lynne’s dad was awake and seemed well, a little groggy but at least he was going to be okay. We spent that evening at her mom’s house, and the next morning went to see her dad before our flight out. Her dad thanked me for coming with her and her for coming and it wasn’t necessary, but it was nice to get to see her.
We flew home, hand in hand, and although a very tumultuous time, I do think that we became that much closer handling this situation together. She is an incredible person and I am blessed to have her in my life.
Posted by Clinton Wells at 8:52 PM