Not an April Fool's Joke
04-01-2003, 8:02 p.m.

We got up a little late late this morning, and headed to work, making a few stops on the way. We joked most of the way to work about April's fool jokes and such because I hate this day.. I am not the jokey type so it's hard for me to think of jokes to play on people, and I fall for them so easily. It was a nice drive to work because the weather was so beautiful today and we had the windows open, and we were having fun, laughing and talking together. Then we got to work. I wasn't there more than 2 minutes before I got a phone call that changed my whole day. It was my mom and she was crying. My stomach dropped and about a million different things went thru my head in the time it took her to answer my question of what's wrong. It was my dad, she had gotten a call from his partner at work, they had rushed him to the ER. That was all she knew.. we didn't know if he had gotten hurt on duty, or what was wrong, and let me tell you, it certainly is hard not to imagine the worst. Then my brother called, they had called him at work (he is a police officer too), and said that my dad had a heart attack and that he was unconsious. I don't ever remember the conversation I had with my boss, but basically I told him that I know I just got there, but I had to go, that my dad was taken to the hospital, and I had to go. He did ask if Stephen was going to drive me, I guess I was a little upset. I ran to get Stephen and we got out of there quickly.

I don't remember much of the ride to the hospital. All I kept thinking over and over was, I am not ready to lose my daddy. Jen called and I rushed off the phone with her since I was waiting for my mom to call. She was ahead of me and I was anxious for her to get to the hospital and call me (It is a 45 minute drive from my work to the hospital he is in). She did call right as we were nearing the hospital and said that it was only a little heart attack and that he was not in danger of dying. All the tears I had been holding back came rushing out then. I can not even imagine my life without my dad. The rest of the day was spent waiting, waiting for test results, waiting for answers. One of the most amazing things, was because it happened at work for him, it was considered an IOD "injured on duty", and thus the hospital waiting room filled quickly with police officers, sargeants, commaders, and so forth. They were ready and willing to do anything we needed, and everything we wanted. It was comforting, to say the least. Turns out that it happened like this..

This morning my mom asked my dad if he was okay, because he didn't look so good, but he said that he was having some cramps and that he was okay, so off to work he went. Well when he got there, his partner, Mary-ann saw him and said that he looked horrible. He said again that he was fine.. and they went thru roll call and got ready to go out. They were pushing out their bikes (they both ride the 3-wheeler police motorcycles), and my dad got really pale, and almost passed out. He started hyperventillating, and having chest pains, as well as severe abdominal pain. Mary-ann ran to get their sargeant, who took one look at my dad and wanted to call an ambulance. My dad refused, but his sargeant said that he wouldn't let him go out, and told Mary-ann to drive him home. So she went to do that, but on the way she thought my dad looked worse and told him that she was taking him to the ER no matter what he said. She did, and they admitted him immediately. She called my mom, but for some reason, had to go quickly and was unable to tell her the whole story.. but she waited around with my dad until my brother got there, and my mom right after him. We are so grateful that she and my dad are so close, and that she was insistent about taking him.

My mom's boss had driven my mom to the hospital (another thing I am grateful for) and waited around with her until Stephen and I got there. My brother pretty much took care of all the police who were coming in and out, and I sat with my mom. Stephen hung around for a few hours, but they would only let 2 of us back in the ER, so eventually I sent him home. I figured that there was no need for him to be there, and he could come back if I needed him. After a couple of hours, they brought my dad back to the room, and he looked much better. Turns out that now they think that it was not a heart attack afterall, but they are really concerned about some of his test results, and he will be seeing some specialists tonight and tomorrow. He has something showing up on his kidney, and he has a lot of blood in his rectum. However, his doctor assures us that he is out of danger, and he doesn't feel that this is life-threatening. Thank you God.

We hung out all day, and eventually they moved him to his own room. He looked so much better and was even joking around and asking my mom to break him out of there. My sister had called and said that she was coming up, my mom had told her to hold off earlier since only 2 of us were allowed in (they didn't count my brother, because he was in uniform, and they were letting the police come and go), but since he was in a room, she decided that she wanted to come. My brother had to get going, because he had to check in at the station, and since I didn't have a car (Stephen had taken it home) my mom told me to let my brother drive me home, and I said I would come back later if she needed me. So my brother drove me home in his police car... well we stopped at the station and he changed, and got his car, and then he took me home.

My dad eventually sent my mom home too and said that he really just wanted to get some rest, and told us not to come back. We are all funny that way, and the times each of us have been in the hospital, we haven't wanted everyone spending all their time hanging out there. My mom is going up in the morning, and we are going to wait and see what they say. We have plans with Sherry and Chuck and the girls tomorrow night, but both my mom and dad didn't want us to cancel them. We'll see, it all depends on how my dad is doing. I am just so glad that things look better and that it seems like he is going to be alright. It was an eye opener and I don't even want to imagine life without him.