I was going to do a post on a Saturday night series between the 1971 San Francisco Giants and the 1942 St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals took the first two games, the previous night; The last two games were in St. Louis, I was going to squeeze them during my break that night at work. I was good on my work projects, got there early, and was blasting through my work.
This blog piece was going to be about how sometimes we have series that we wish we could somehow skip, many APBA rollers know this with season replays & APBA projects of their own. This was going to be how even the dullest series could propel excitement. The Giants entered the last two games, losers of 6 of their last 7 games, while the Cards are winners 4 of their last 5 games; The Giants are 8-18, while St. Louis 14-12.
I was also going to mention that my friend Ron Emch hosted the first Toledo Glass City APBA Baseball Tournament as well (I still will in the next week or so)...
Like I said, this was supposed to be a blog piece about an APBA series & the tournament that took place on Saturday -- when reality smacked me in the face at 2:15 am (Sunday morning, August 30th at work); I work overnights as a maintenance guy from 10:30 pm to 6:30 am. It was my father, I happened to call my mom earlier Saturday evening to wish her a happy birthday, so I figured my dad was calling to tell me about the Foo Fighters concert that they went to earlier in the week at DTE Energy (Pine Knob) in Clarkston, Michigan.
No...
He was calling from the back of an ambulance on route to the hospital, my mom complained of chest pains & not feeling good -- so he called an ambulance.
See, earlier in the evening around 7 pm (Saturday, August 29th), I called my mom to wish her a happy birthday, and from the get-go I could tell she sounded sluggish, asked her if she did anything exciting on her birthday; Nope -- My dad and my brother Jared both had nasty colds, and were under the weather, which also canceled my idea of celebrating her birthday on Sunday with a visit from me & my wife, Becky.
During the conversation, she started mentioning that she was having arm problems (angina) for weeks, most of her arteries in both arms, and the nerves & arteries that connect with the collar bone area have apparently been clogged. She went on to tell me that she has most of her episodes before bed, or right after waking up from sleep, I remember during the conversation, I started to cling to every sound of her voice, every annunciation of her words -- a eerie feeling.
For weeks, I was trying to get out to the house (my parents live 22-30 minutes away, depending), but not far from us. Sadly, the last time I saw her in person before this phone message was Father's Day, and after a dear friend of mine (a former coworkers pasted unexpectedly in first week of July), I was going to stop by the house on the way back from the memorial -- wish that I did. My friend's memorial really rocked me and other friends, and really put things into perspective, especially during a time of my life, where my 20th high school reunion just happened and the fact that I'm inching closer and closer to age 40 (I'll be 39 in October). We are not immortal, and nor did I believe that I had superpowers to defeat death.
My friend's death gave me and my wife Becky, a bad vibe, that someone close would be fighting for their life -- we have overall been blessed for a few years with both families on most part not suffering any losses, while many friends around us have been losing their parents. Becky and I got together, started dating shortly after her mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer -- that June (2006) we fell in love... she likes to say, it was the best & worst month of her life; Best part was our romance, the worst part: her mom's illness. Her mom was diagnosed in early May to have 4-12 months to live, she passed away, just a couple months later, at the beginning of July.
Now everything is starting to come full circle where Becky is now taking care of my heartbreak, watching my mother in a hospital bed, unable to have a conversation, with tubes in her. She had a massive heart attack (apparently still going through the process of one, as they have been stabilizing her body). The doctor that saved her through the early procedure, was the same doctor that saved my mom's life in 2002 -- that heart attack at that time, although a major one that could have killed her, paled in comparison with the one she is suffering now -- her body has also took much more abuse through the years, since 2002.
You see, the last few years, my mom's health woes took a backseat to my dad dealing with a serious diabetic condition that at one time, he was losing serious weight at a rapid pace & couldn't even stand up then, at 54 years of age. Meanwhile, my mom kept her smoking habit, the same smoking habit that she was supposed to quit after the first heart attack.
She is so tough, and I feel maybe because of that, we took it for granted; In fact, she took it for granted. Talking with my brother Jared, we could relate with our bad teeth & gums, and dealing with blood infections, you actually get accustomed to the pain, sad to say. We believe that she's been in pain for so long, that she may not have known the danger she was already in, or that she was having a heart attack. The doctor said that the heart attack may have easily started in the week. Talking with Jared, he said she was doing bad all week, my dad insisted that she should go, finally she woke him up at 1:45 am that Sunday morning to call an ambulance. I'm convinced that if she waited any longer & from what the doctor already mentioned, if she waited, we wouldn't even be in the position to be praying for her right now -- we would instead most likely be making arrangements.
The doctor came out around 6:30 am, and told us that she survived the procedure. He went on to explain that he basically had to drill a wire through such-hard calcium build-up in a major artery / passage way of her heart & compared it to drilling through concrete; Through that artery he managed to get just enough opening for her. My dad asked him, "Is this the same artery from 2002"?; The doctor replied "Nope". This artery, this time, was the most critical artery, down the front of the heart -- and that the third artery or passage way was apparently 100% clogged (from what I'm understanding). I think I was more in shock, Jared is balling & my father is starting to shake now -- I did most of my crying at the restaurant, finishing my job as soon as I can, because I had a bad feeling the whole time.
I was a bit surprised that the doctor went on to tell us that she has a 60-70% chance of pulling out of this, due to the feeling I was getting from it (which Jared would later tell me his feeling as well) that it feels more 50/50, we are trying to be optimistic & strong and my mom fortunately had a great doctor worked on her. My dad still in denial or shock, asked the doctor if he mean't the next heart attack, and the doctor replied "No, this one... if she has another, that is it." My dad started shaking again, the doctor looked right at me, and said "Do any of you boys, smoke?" I told him I have not smoked cigarettes for almost 13 years -- he looked right at my brother Jared, "You?" -- My brother replied yes, and the doctor said throw those things out, because he was heading the same route as my mom.
I think the discussion was a huge wake-up for everyone, we then had to try and contact my younger brother Chris (who some of you in the APBA world know) and contact my sister Sara, who happened to be on a weekend mountain getaway with girlfriends in Vermont, and happens to be living in Boston. My wife around 7:30 got hold of Chris, I talked to him, you can tell there was a case of shock on the other end -- Nothing harder than telling the baby of the family that his mom was in serious condition. Due to the elevation & reception, my sister would not find out until a little after 2 p.m.
We did get some optimistic, positive news, or what we are taking as positive news. They did a test to check the condition of the heart, they told us -- don't be surprised if the numbers are low at 15-20% operation of the heart, the test came back at 35% operation of the heart, my dad definitely took that as a plus. At the same time, her heart has been through so much, that the nurse said imagine having a huge bruise on your upper leg, it's going to take time to heal -- that's major artery is really bruised right now, which hopefully my mom gets stabilized and doesn't have any issues -- any problems would be pretty chaotic.
They are speaking that she will at least be there a good solid week, and that if everything goes right in her hospital stay, that she is still going to be even weaker than what she was brought in as. After a little sleep at home, the wife and I visited, and for some reason I was thinking that my mom might be alert, and nope she was still in a deep sleep, resting. We talked words of encouragement for my mom, and told her we loved her and told her that's she tough, and that she will battle through this. We know she can hear us, she would once in awhile move a bit, the doctors said it was normal, and that if she moved too much, that they would probably give her more morphine to make sure she stays steady -- her heart is tender.
A WEEK LATER...
Earlier that week, Monday evening, a good 30-35 hours after being rushed to the hospital -- She was alert, even though she was doped up on Morphine. She was a bit comical on the stuff, when I mentioned all the love, prayers and support on Facebook, she wondered how she would be able to thank everyone, so I joked that she would have to get a Facebook account. When my sister was combing my mom's hair (which is long by the way, goes down the length of her back down to her waist), my sister twisted into a braid, my sister joked that she was Snow White, which my mom extended her arm and pointed as us, saying that we were all dwarves.
The next night after there was significant change for the better, she was a bit more coherent and was able to have full-on conversations. The doctors mentioned that it was really impressive to see her go from life support to making trips to the bathroom in less than 24 hours. She was out for 30 hours after being brought there -- so Tuesday was a significant day for her and all of us. It really has been a miracle to watch it all transpire.
Throughout the week we would visit, she had a chance to go home as early as Thursday (just 4 days after knocking on death's door) -- but would have some set-backs, Tuesday they dis find out that she had pneumonia (due to the tubes) and then after I visited her Thursday morning her angio ultrasound showed that she had blood clots around the southern front of her heart where she had the work done, which apparently isn't unusual, so a few more days for her at that point.
FINALLY...
She was released on September 7th, Monday after coming to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City in the early hours of Sunday, August 29th. The fact that she walked away from this recent storm is a bit mind-blowing when you consider the condition she was in that Sunday morning -- I shouldn't be surprised at the power of God, if anything it reawakened me about the power of God & prayers, and that a miracle definitely has happened, watching my mother fight back with God by her side and now being able to be at home.
We are blessed, I now need to find a way to balance more God in my life, with the same appreciation for APBA. It's a shame that I have been undervaluing his part in our lives, and need to show it more. APBA is just a game, it's not life, it's a fun hobby... Family is life, God is what makes all of this possible for us.
We are simply blessed.
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