My Dad

It was after 11 p.m. when the phone rang and we were in bed. Calls that late at night are never good, and as my husband answered the phone, I knew it was bad news. It was my brother and he told me dad had just had a heart attack.

The agony in my stomach was immediate. I asked if dad was alive. All my brother could tell me was that he had a heart attack and was being transferred by ambulance to the Heart Hospital of Milwaukee. He was alive when he entered the squad, but I would have to wait to hear from mom who was following the ambulance. (I learned that my brother-in-law's fire station was the one called to transport my dad to the Heart Hospital.) My mom called me shortly after to tell me that dad was having a cardiac catheterization. Dad had suffered a major heart attack with complete blockage in 3 vessels and had received 3 stents. He would need bypass, but he wasn't in any condition for surgery.

My dad's heart attack had lots of warning signs, but no one noticed; not even me. That night my dad was being honored at a dinner by my brother's optimist club and he thought the discomfort in his chest was due to all the food and emotion of the evening. The 'heartburn' worsened once they got back to my brother's house. He asked mom for some Tums.  Mom noticed that he was starting to sweat profusely and turn white. 

Only one week prior at my house, dad had asked me for some Tums because he was having heartburn. I didn't think much of it, as my dad is always asking for Tums. He had other symptoms that he didn't share with any of us. We found out later that dad would quit golfing due to severe shortness of breath. The signs were there: shortness of breath, extreme fatigue (dad naps every day), heartburn, obesity, type II diabetes and hypertension.

My agony quickly turned to anger and resentment once I knew that dad had survived the heart attack. Why didn't my dad's doctor's 'catch this' before it happened? Why didn't my dad take better care of himself? The victim of heart disease isn't always patient, but the family members whose lives are turned upside down are emotionally strained from the fear of losing a loved one. It was terrible to see my dad in such rough shape, but even harder to stand by my mom and comfort her.

This is the time I should say how sorry I was for my dad, but I felt more sorry for me, the daughter who might lose her father. My dad needed bypass and my parents decided to have the surgery closer to home. I wanted them to come live with me and I could take care of dad post-op, but I understood that they wanted to be home. He had a quadruple bypass in Wausau and less than 48 hours after surgery, we brought my dad home. I wanted to be there and luckily, I work at a great place, with a great bunch of co-workers. They cleared my schedule and I was home for my family. It made my mom and dad both feel better to have a nurse in the house.

While home in Wisconsin Rapids, I kept up with my work e-mails and learned of the Heart Walk last August. I yelled to my dad in the other room, only a couple weeks post-op that he was walking in it....and he did. We walked as a family (my mom, husband, 2 daughters, brother, sister-in-law and niece).

My dad marked his one-year anniversary this past summer and we are walking again this year, as a family, to support my dad in his ongoing recovery. Since his heart attack, he has lost about 40 lbs. and walks every day. My mom too, works out every morning at Curves. 

It is sad, but true, that awareness comes at a high cost. Heart disease is not something new, especially to me in the health care field, but until it happens to you or your family, it is not real. Heart disease affects the entire family and I think the entire family needs to be treated through education. Heart disease is real and I thank the medical professionals that are responsible for my dad being here today.

- Kerin, Green Bay