Health watch 2006: Friday nights are becoming stressful

So Fridays are starting to kind of suck for us.

After dad's heart attack a week ago Friday, he finally came home on Thursday - he is fine and taking things maybe slightly slower, but will recover fully, and for that we are thankful.

This past Friday, my father in law had a stroke.
At least we think it was a stroke.

He and his wife had been about to discuss where they were going to go for dinner, but his side of the conversation was unintelligible. Chris' brother immediately thought it might be a stroke, so they were fortunate that they took him in to emergency right away, and that they live within minutes of one of the best trauma hospitals in T.O.

He was able to walk into the emerg room on his own strength, but was speaking gibberish and not understanding what people were saying to him, seeming to be somewhat disoriented. They took him for a few imaging scans, to rule out tumours, and blood clots, but he had a seizure while in the imaging room, so they had to sedate him and put him on a breathing tube.

that's how he was when we arrived at Emerg. It was scary, and surreal and felt much MUCH too soon to be doing this.

Thankfully, the Good Lord agreed that it WAS too soon, and after several anxious hours waiting in the critical ICU waiting room, the doctors decided to ease back on the sedation and see if he could breath on his own.

Imagine my surprise when I finally got a chance to see him without the respirator and he said "We were supposed to be going out for dinner".
Of course I shot back "we went without you - and the food was awful!" Laughter is good for the soul isn't it?

He was tired, so we let him sleep, and it was a good note to leave the hospital on, as it was close to midnight and any other outcome probably would not have let any of us get much sleep that night.

He has been moved out of critical care and into a regular room, and is anxious to come home (also a good sign).
There are a few minor effects, some of which have disappeared already, and others that we hope will disappear. We continue to thank all of those who prayed for us, and sent us their thoughts and offered babysitting and all the wonderful things that good friends and family like ours have done.

This Friday nobody is to do anything except win lotteries, and spend time with friends being happy!