Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Well, it sounds like more bad news from Salt Lake. While we're still waiting for the test results to come back to confirm the initial diagnosis, it looks like my Dad suffered a heart attack sometime late last week that has done damage to the heart muscle. In a way I've been worrying about this since my Mom died. Everyone has heard of the case where a person followed a spouse in death within a few months. Well, this is an old wives' tale that actually has some basis behind it fr4om what I understand. Due to the stress of losing a loved one and adjust to a new life, it is more common for the widow or widower to suffer from heart attacks and strokes and the general population.

I'm not sure if this is what happened with my Dad but I do know that he's been under a good deal of stress of late. Not so much from my Mom's death (maybe) but from having to deal with his in-laws who haven't exactly handled it all very well. I've been fearful that something might happen to him now that he's alone with no one to check up on him. Fortunately my brother checked in on him and he complained of shortness of breath, nausea and chest pains. Chris talked him into going to calling the nurse line and that got him sent to a doctor's office. I'm very thankful that this wasn't the massive heart attack I've sort of feared he would suffer. He's smoked for the last 50 years and weighs about 150 lbs more than he should.

The results are due back tomorrow and I'll check in on him then to find out the results and to see how he's doing. I have to say this raised a lot of issues for me. I really don't like that he's out there all by himself with no one to check in on him. I keep wondering if I should think about looking for a job out there and moving in with him. I'm not sure I want to live in Salt Lake but I'm torn about how to handle this. Maybe I should build something onto my house here to care for him or build a "father-in-law's" place here. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't move down here if we asked him to but I'm wondering about it.

Anyways, please keep Hank in your prayers if that's the sort of thing you do.

Thanks and thanks for reading.

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