In July of 2000, my life was normal. I had just celebrated the 4th of July two days before then. My father went off to work as he did regularly during the summer days. At about noon my mother, brother, and I came home to find nine messages on our answering machine. Out of curiosity we played the messages and we heard the worst news someone could hear. Hospitals calling.neighbors calling, people trying to get a hold of us. We found out later after my mom panicly called the hospital that my dad was now in Indianapolisafter being flown by helicopter there. We weren't sure about the news, but something was bad.
After recieving the news, complete caos broke out in my house. Crying, screaming, panic. Blood rushed to my head and I had a bloody nose before I could think. That was the worst bleeding nose I have ever had. It lastedover an hour as we sped to our state capital.
Once we got there, we talked to nurses and doctors. Finally they let us see our wreck of a father. They said that he had a series of miniture strokes and a heart attack. We found this shocking for he was only fourty-six at the time. The mini stroke theory had changed to two small heart attacksand one heart attack. My dad progressed and was better in less than a week. He could walk around and do almost everything normal. Even though his right side was a bit weak. He was going to probably come home in a few days, but he had another day full of testing.
My mom decided to come home that day but only for a little while. Since she had been wiped out, she decided to try and take a nap. We soon got a phone call. Apparently during some of the testing he had another stroke. This one was major.
After then rushing again to Indianapolis we found out that it was a life or death situation. He needed brain surgery now. As we sait in the waiting roomfor over two hours thinking about our possible future could be with or without my dad, finally some doctors came in. The surgery had gone smooth and his vitals were okay.
The rest of that period that I can remember was going down almost every day to Indianapolis and seeing my dad slowly improve. We paid for two hotel rooms for over a month.
Finally my dad was moved to a rehabilitation hospital still in Indianapolisand was there for about three months. He came home later for a visit and then he finally came home for good. The doctors had now called his problem vasculitis,which is the inflamation of the blood vessels. Apparently, He produces too manywhite blood cells anyway.
He has slowly improved, and now is walking(with a walker), talking, eating, sleeping, etc. His speech could have improvements and so could his walking, but I would rather have him like he is than dead. He currently has therapy sessions and has become a Harry Potter fan through my own conversion.
Now just a few weeks ago they changed his diagnosis to something that could be caused by being exposed to radiation or is in my family bloodline. He has a chance of getting leukiema in the future, but I guess I will have to enjoy him the way he is for as long as I can.
