September 18, 2022
Literally one of the worst days of my life...well that one and the next.
Greg and I were in the living room watching TV. He got up and went to the bedroom, and I heard the blood pressure cuff, which was weird to me. He took his BP in the morning, not 7:00 at night. I asked him about it. He said a little elevated. I of course did not believe him so went and looked at it. A little elevated was a huge lie.....something like 178/120 or something ridiculous like that. We took it again in 10 minutes, it was down some. We took it again; it was back up. I told him we were going to the hospital, and he did not argue at all, which told me all I needed to know.
We got there, and it was still elevated. They had him do the stroke test, and he looked at me when they left and asked what that was about. I said, "They are making sure you aren't stroking out on me." I sent texts and had my people there within minutes. We needed to go to Garden. Sam drove me; Alan followed. The plan was to take him directly from ER to the cath lab, another scary thought. Dr. Freund came out with pictures. He had opened up one but couldn't get another. We had to go somewhere. I was asked where we wanted to go...Colorado, Wichita, and then he said KC. I said we need to go to KC. That's where our kids are. He said I'll call KU Med now.
I met Greg in the room and told him we were taking a trip. He was less than thrilled. The kids arrived, even though I had called and told them to just turn around. We would be in KC the next day. Dr. Freund came back in and said air ambulance would be here at 1. That was when I panicked. The calmness of him before this made me think I was going to be able to transport Greg myself, foolish I know. Most likely wishful thinking on my part. RayLynn decided she would ride with her dad in the plane. I headed home to pack my clothes and get our dog, who I knew was totally confused about why we didn't come home.
Ray called and said they wouldn't let her on the plane because it would be overloaded...my 110 pound kid was too heavy. 🙄That was when my next panic occurred. I am a person who believes things happen for a reason (ex. low pressure light on tire came on when I was on my way to Wichita so I came back and Dad was admitted to hospital that night). I just knew Greg was going to have an issue and not make it, and that is why Ray wasn't on the plane....so she didn't have to witness losing her dad. I was so relieved when he called me from his hospital room. He tells me I'm crazy when I tell this story.
Then the waiting game. He was scheduled to have triple bypass, then they said possibly quadruple. We didn't get to have surgery until Friday, so it was a long week of taking laps around the hospital floor and sitting around. Finally Friday came, and his surgery was a success and seemed to go faster than I thought it would. Thankfully when I got to see him after surgery, he was already off the vent and breathing on his own. Ray had prepared me for this. We stayed in the hospital until Wednesday.
I have never been so glad to make the trip across the state as I was that day with him next to me. On the way home, it began hitting me about how lucky we were, so we started a bucket list. My goal is to check those things off. There are often times now that I will glance over at him and am overwhelmed with gratefulness. I am so glad he listens to his body and knows when something is wrong.
