owner of the lonely heart is better than...

Ok this is a hard one to write.

We should start the story on Friday, we were in the car going to the hair dressers and having a conversation about the health service. We were saying that it makes no sense that you have to go to the dentist every six months, and yet there is no obligation to go to the doctors...ever. So you’re mouth is in perfect health but your body could be falling apart. Let’s just leave that hanging there.

For various reasons there was no hair appointment that day, so we headed home. We had a Chinese and me and Bri went home.

I had my normal Saturday nightshift, but didn’t sleep well and got up a bit early on Sunday (about 2pm). I got a phone call from my mum about 5pm. She sounded concerned. My first thought was, “what’s happened to Oscar?!”, because the last time I got a concerned call from my mum our other cat had died. This was worse.

My dad was having a heart attack. He was being prepared to be transported in the air ambulance to Leeds hospital (which is a specialist place for heart conditions). Obviously I was in a state of panic by then, actually I was numb and went onto auto pilot. I got dressed and went round there. I saw the helicopter fly overhead, and when I got to the house they weren’t there. A paramedic outside said he was ok and that I shouldn’t worry.

They had taken him down the road in an ambulance to get into the helicopter. I saw it take off over the top of the house on it’s way to Leeds. Then my mum came back and told me the story of what happened. He went to the shops and came back feeling funny so they called for an ambulance.

During the next couple of hours we made buns to keep busy then rang up the hospital to find out what was happening. He was having a procedure done, having a stent put in, then would be transferred to Airedale hospital the next day.

Long story short, don’t worry, he’s ok. We went to visit him and he was walking about the ward, fully clothed, as if he was staying in a hotel not a hospital hehe!

Suffice is to say, the good news is – it was a minor heart attack which is either caused by diet, life style, smoking or (the bad news) a genetic condition. He’s never smoked, he has a good diet (apart from pizza a lot hehe) and he walks every day. Most men who are going to have heart attacks have them in their 40s, so that means he has a body which is at least ten years younger than his actual age (59). My grandad, grandma, and uncle have all had heart attacks. So that suggests it’s a genetic thing – a predisposition to have something wrong. So I have to go have a cholesterol test. I’m nervous.

I think after my last post about my heart thing, I’m quite concerned. I think I need to see someone about anxiety, and advice about a cholesterol friendly diet. The funny thing is my dad has an extremely positive outlook on things, it seems. He never gets ill, and even this he is making light of. I know if it was me this happened to I’d have been lying in my hospital bed sobbing and feeling sorry for myself, not walking up and down chatting to nurses.

He’s back home now. Three days later and apart from the big bag of pills it’s like it never happened. I think maybe it’s all a bit fast for my brain to process. I’m still in the ‘worried’ stage, instead of the ‘well, that’s ok then’ stage.

I’ll leave it there and update when I know more about it all. Oh and good news is, we have doctors permission, nay Orders to have one glass of red wine a day. Not just for it’s antioxidants, but also for the ‘zap’ to the system apparently. Score!