Ice Storm and the Emergency Room

Did you miss me? I really wasn't awol that long, just a couple of days, but those two days were pure madness around here. Fair warning: This is a really, really long post and I tend to ramble when I'm retelling stories so if you are short on time, just skip this.

First off, Tuesday we got a major ice storm. It wasn't too bad until the power went out at 10:50am and didn't come back on the rest of the day! It was actually fun for the first couple of hours because the kids were home, my phone (cordless) didn't work, and we just lazed around, played some board games and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Once the temperature started to really drop however, it took all the fun out of the day and we just kept wishing that the power would come back on. Finally at 6pm, hubby and I decided to just go to a hotel in town. We all climbed into the truck and slipped and slid all the way into town, but were able to get a couple of rooms for the evening. It was nice and warm and quiet. As the kids and I watched the sleet then snow swirl around outside our window, we also kept an eye glued to the tv, waiting with baited breath to see if school would be cancelled for the following day. Well, come 10pm, when there was still no sign of our schools being closed I told the kids that they'd better go to sleep...just in case, really doubting that school would be open the next day. I mean, we'd just gotten 1/4 inch of ice, who in their right mind would send kids to school with all that junk on the roads.

Apparently, our school district would because the next morning when I flipped on the tv, there was no mention of our schools being closed. I even took the liberty of calling the district office and was told that yes, there was indeed school that day. So, even though I'd not slept more then a couple of hours the night before (I never sleep well in a hotel) I begrudgingly woke the kids and hubby up at 6am to get dressed and head back out to the house to get ready for school. At least the power was back on. It had come on at 4am according to the message my mom had left on our answering machine.

Once we got home, my son decided that he still didn't feel well enough to go back to school. He'd been sick since Sunday. I took his temperature and it was up to 100 degrees so, even though I think he could have went, I let him stay home. Once my daughter and hubby had left for the day, I had every intention of laying down in my own bed and taking a nap. I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. My son said he was going back to bed too so it would have been perfect. It didn't happen though. As soon as I walked into my bedroom, the phone rang. It was my brother. He said that my dad had passed out at work again and they were taking him to the ER. Would I go tell mom because he couldn't get through to her to let her know. So, I changed clothes, ran a comb through my hair, told my son I had to leave (he was fine being here alone and slept pretty much all day anyway) and drove to my mom's. She greeted me at the door with an immediate "What's wrong" and when I told her, she immediately went into freaked out phase. She calmed down though when I made her sit down and take a few deep breathes. Dad had been sick all week and we figured he'd just passed out because he tried to do too much, too soon.

Fast forward a few minutes: My brother arrives and we all pile into mom's car (it's front wheel drive and handled awesome on the icy roads) and head to the ER. When we got there, dad was already in an exam room and mom went back to be with him. My brother and I took up residence in the waiting room. When mom comes out, she says that the doctors think it was dad's migraine medicine that caused his heart rate to drop too low and that's why he passed out. They are, however, going to continue to run tests. My brother and I take turns going back to see dad. He's acting fine, like his usual self, joking with everybody who comes in. I went back out to the waiting room and called my son, my hubby, my daughter, etc. My brother came out and did the same by calling his wife. Then mom comes out and we can tell that something is wrong. She comes up and says that now the doctors are wanting to admit dad because they think he needs a pacemaker. What??!?!?! When did that come into the situation? What happened to it just being his medicine? So, now we wait on them to find a room for him. My brother and I are both pretty tense, but keep trying to keep the mood light.

Finally, after 6 hours in the ER, they finally get dad up to his room. When we got up there, he was still laughing, happy, joking around. We sat and visited with him a while longer when the heart doctor came in. He examined dad then talked to all of us. He said that he still thinks it is the migraine medicine causing dad's heart rate to plummet and really doesn't think a pacemaker is needed, but they want to watch him for 24 hours to make sure. If, after that amount of time, his heart rate doesn't rebound on its own (once all the meds are out of his system) then they will consider a pacemaker, but he assured all of us that he really doesn't think that will be the case. The doctor leaves and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We stayed for awhile longer, but then dad said that he could tell we were all exhausted and needed to go home. He wanted to take a nap himself.

So, here it is 8 hours later and we are all dragging ourselves out to the car to head home. When I got here, I had 30 (yes, you read that right...30!) messages on the machine. I was so tired after not sleeping the night before and then spending all day in the ER that I didn't even listen to them. I just went in, took a bath then went to bed. Me, in bed at 6pm, that's odd unless I'm sick. I needed it though. I slept straight through the night until the alarm woke me up this morning. I've gotten everything that I missed yesterday done today and am now just waiting on mom to call me from the hospital to let me know when/if they are going to release dad. I will keep everyone posted as I know more.