Papa's Big Scare!

{May 14, 2010}

It was the night of Mitch and Kelly's wedding when one of the biggest or probably it would be fair to say the biggest scare of my life happened! Payton and I had been over in Logan all day because I took the wedding flowers over to the luncheon and then we ate with them and then stayed to finish decorating for the reception. Towards the end of the night my parents came over with Molly and my other 3 kids. We were visiting and eating our cold stone ice cream, when my Dad just got up and walked out. My Mom looked at me and Molly and said we have to go, your Dad is not feeling well.

At that point I think we all thought that his blood sugar levels were low and that he just needed to get some food in his stomach. Olivia was going to go with my parents to get something to eat, while the rest of us stayed until the end of the reception and to help clean up. A few minutes after they had left (or we thought they had left) I walked out in the hall to take Marcus to the bathroom and change Roo Roo's diaper. Marcus couldn't get into the bathroom because the door was locked and my Mom and Olivia were looking everywhere for my Dad. I decided to call my Dad's phone because the noises that we were hearing from the bathroom weren't sounding good at all. He answered his phone and said that he wasn't feeling well. I just thought that he had a bad stomach or something. So me and the two boys went and told my Mom were he was and we went into a different room to go to the bathroom and change Roo's diaper. Once I got done and I heard one of my friends say, "are you okay, do you need any help?" At that point I knew it was my dad. I went running and told Tangi, can you please grab my baby.

When I went around the corner my stomach dropped, my Dad looked like he was dying! I have never seen someone so pale and sick looking in my life. At that point my mom and I both were still thinking that he was having problems with his blood pressure so we were trying to get him to eat. He wasn't with it too much, so my mom went to get her car (oh lets remember that Molly and Alec were in the reception and had no idea what was going on!). Someone went and got our Bishop and when he saw what was going on he had someone go get more guys because we knew we wouldn't get him to walk out of there without any help. I sent Marcus, Olivia, and Payton with some people at the reception to go find Molly and Alec and to let her know what was going on. I remember running to the car while 4 or 5 guys helped my Dad out to the car.

I remember getting more nervous and sick watching him need so much help to just walk! I drove while my mom sat in the back, we were doing our best to talk to him because he wasn't really too coherent. Once we got to the hospital Ryan met us there. We got him right in to the ER and right away they started testing him, taking his blood and doing an EKG. Shortly after being there he came too and admitted to having a lot of chest pain the week before, but didn't say anything because he thought it was just probably nervous and didn't want to scare my mom.

After we got in there and started doing the test Ryan went and got Molly and the four kids. He took Molly and the 3 oldest ones back to his apartment (which my kids loved and want to keep going back too!) and then he brought me Payton. After getting in there it didn't seem to be easing any of our nerves. Watching him move, yawn, his coloring was not coming back, he wasn't very coherent still, and he would cramp up we got more and more nervous. They were concerned with his oxygen level at one point and gave him some oxygen. After being there for 2 1/2 hours they decided that they wanted to keep him overnight because medicine that they gave him to help his heart was seeming to help. Then they admitted him into the ICU so they could monitor him well. Between me, my Mom, and Ryan we decided that my Mom needed her sleep and that I need to get my kids home. So I went and got all the kids and Molly and my Mom waited around a little bit longer.

When we got to my Brothers house the kids were all asleep, but as we were moving them to the car they all woke up. We got home about midnight, but me and the kids didn't go to sleep until 2 am! They were concerned about Papa.

Throughout the night they continued to test his heart and to make sure he hadn't or wasn't going to being having a heart attack. Later that day we went and saw him and I realized how crappy he looked the night before because he had color that day! In the early afternoon they were going to release him and he was supposed to come back on Monday to start doing a stress test. So they got him up and got the IV out, but every time he would stand up his heart would go through the roof. So they hooked him up to an IV again thinking he just needed more fluids. After a little while the Doctor came in and said he just has a feeling that he needed to stay and start the stress test the next morning.

That night Jaime came up and Ryan came over to Tremonton. We were doing yard work and some other things in the house. On Sunday they had gave him medicine to help keep his heart rate down and they started the stress test. Me and my kids, Molly, Ryan, and Jaime all went over to the hospital and met my Mom at the cafeteria to eat and then we were able to go visit with my Dad.

Later Monday afternoon they got all the test results back from everything and found that everything going on with is heart looked good. They aren't completely sure what happened, but we are thinking it was stress related. The poor guy was about to do his 4 or 5 lay off in a year out at ATK. He took the rest of week off work and it really took about that week to gain his strength back.

{me, Olivia, and Payton at the hospital with all of the "popcorn" trees!}


It was quite a few days. I am glad for the outcome, but man it was quite the scary thing to go through. Friday night as he laid there so weak I realized how much my Dad does for me and for everyone around him. Honestly, what would we do without him? I hope and pray that it is a lifetime away until we have to figure that out!