Big Dave is just fine
Posted by delta on May 25th, 2009
Wow, what a week! I’m gonna put it all down here and direct you all to it so I only have to say/write it once…
Thursday the 14th, my Dad went in for testing on his heart. They didn’t like what they saw, so they held him over to retest him on Friday the 15th. The Doc really didn’t like what he saw on the 15th, so he flew my Dad to Straub Clinic & Hospital, in Honolulu (we just happen to live a short plane ride away from the perfect place to go if you have something wrong with your heart). He said that he could’ve tested Dad here on Maui, but if he found something he couldn’t do anything with the facilities here on the island (thanks Doc for the foresight)…
Saturday the 16th, Dad had an angioplasty done. Turns out they couldn’t do a balloon or stent cause two of his arteries were 100% closed and one was 90% closed – so they scheduled him for a triple-bypass on Monday the 18th…
Strange thing is that he didn’t have a heart attack – that takes one strong heart to be able to push blood through a pin hole like that. He did, of course, have high blood pressure…
So, now the fun begins. My Mom and I got to the Hospital in time to spend a few hours with him before the operation. The nurse said the Op would take 4-6 hours, so we went to the hotel to check in, ate, and came back…
The Op started at 14:00, we got back to the waiting room at 17:00. At 21:00, the head nurse came in to talk to the other folks in the waiting room. On his way out, I asked him if he could check on the status of Dad – he said he didn’t know anyone else was in the OR (great, no stress). He came back 10 minutes later and said Dad was in ICU recovering from surgery – said he had been in there for an hour!
Could’ve done without the added stress of the head nurse not having a clue as to where he was, or what was going on…
So we get in the ICU, Dad is fully conscious and totally trying to get out of there. The nurse said we could stay for 10 minutes, but she let us stay for as long as we wanted cause just having my Mom and I in the room calmed him down so much. When we left for the night, the ICU nurse said to me “I’m gonna know where you are at all times” with a big smile on her face – it really calmed him down to have us in there…
The next morning, we get in there and find him ready to get out of there (ICU) saying the Doc is gonna let him upstairs (a regular room) that afternoon. The nurses, again, let us stay as long as we wanted (really funny, they didn’t want us to leave); another few people came out of the OR to recover in there, so we went to the waiting room at about 14:00. We went downstairs to eat lunch and waited around a bit more and finally went back. They told us he had been moved upstairs – nice communication these guys have yeah?
The week went well, the nurses and doctors are really great there as far as “care” goes…
They actually gave him a pacemaker on Thursday, and it only took a few hours from the time he left the room to the time he got back in the room. He had to get that because they need to give him medication to keep his heart rate down. My Dad’s natural heart rate is slow (as is mine, which is why I can run forever without getting tired), which is normally a pretty cool thing to have, but too slow to take the medication. There is a high probability that the medication would slow his heart down so much that it stops. The pacemaker keeps his heart rate from getting too slow – so he can take the medication which will keep his heart from racing (total catch 22)…
Anyway, I stuck around till Friday the 22nd. All I have to say about that day is “Hawaiian Airlines sucks!” I had to wait 30 minutes in a line just for them to tell me that I was in the wrong line (they could’ve checked me in right then and there). I waited in the other line for 20 minutes and it took me 20 minutes to get through security (the line got really long while I was waiting in the second line). I got to the plane in just enough time to board…
Man, it was good to be home on Maui! I never realized how much I learned to ignore in the city as a kid until being in Honolulu for a week. My senses were working overtime, and I was getting it all at once – wasn’t able to turn any of it off. Ambient sounds from everything!
So, Saturday the 23rd I’m in a show and get a phone call from the hospital telling me that they are trying to get a hold of my Mom cause they’re going to release my Dad on Sunday the 24th. I do what I do to make sure my Mom knows they are looking for her…
They were actually going to just wheel him downstairs and release him! They were also giving him all kinds of meds that he won’t be able to get until Tuesday because everything in Maui is closed over the weekend. They had a hard time believing me when I told them that – they actually called around to confirm it…
I ended up flying over there, getting him, and flying back with him. Tell you what, Mokulele is a great airline! They really hooked us up all the way. From the moment we got to the airport, they really did a great job with everything!
Anyway, Dad is home and doing well. Now we just have to make sure he eats right. That is going to be a real hard thing to happen – everyone in that house is a fast food maniac (my niece actually works at McDonald’s – and she lives in that house).
One meal from any fast food place has more salt in it than he is suppose to have in a month – I totally don’t know what to do about it…
Please, everyone gang up on them to make sure they do the right thing!