A heart attack...ack...ack...ack

With apologies to Billy Joel.

Yesterday was a normal Sunday.

I was an hour into the Packers-Lions game and Chris had just gone outside with Tory, our dog.

The phone rang, it was Chris' mom, she said she wasn't doing good because Chris' dad had a heart attack and was at Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames.

I said we'd be right up, a 40 minute drive from our acreage.

I went outside to get Chris and she could tell from my look that something was wrong.

I held her in my arms and relayed what I knew.

I was surprised at how well she handled the news and the drive up, considering all we didn't know.

We got to Mary Greeley and there was nobody staffing the information desk.

We'd never been there before, but followed the signs to the Emergency area knowing that would have been his arrival point.

A very nice lady there got on the phone and located where her mom would be and walked us down to a waiting area.

Chris' dad had been having chest pains and went to lie down in bed around noon. Her mom checked on him a few minutes later and found him pale and sweating. She said he needed to get to a doctor. They were going to drive to the hospital, she called ahead and they said to dial 911.

Thanks to her insistence that he get help and good luck that the Cardiac Cath Lab staff was there, they normally are closed on Sunday, what would have been a major heart attack was averted.

The staff at Mary Greeley was outstanding.

I was amazed at how friendly each staff member we encountered was. They kept us informed and showed genuine concern.

Chris' dad is in the Intensive Care Unit and may move to a private room today and probably will be hospitalized until Friday.

To quote Emerson, Lake & Palmer...."Ooooh, what a lucky man he was."

Between my mom's ongoing fight with metastatic breast cancer, Chris' dads heart attack and losses we've experienced this year....

I'll end with The Grass Roots lyric..."Sha-la-la-la-la-la, live for today."