No one is immune...

Yesterday, we had a nice family day planned out...some time at the beach watching the girls play and just having fun together.....well, remember I what I said in an earlier post about plans? Yah, well, they don't always go as planned...

At 830am, I was minutes away from going for a run with my nieghbor when the phone rang. It was my mom. Kind of strange for her to be calling at 830am, but I didn't think anything of it until I heard her voice. I didn't like the tone of her voice as she said "Hey, Steph." - then she proceeded to say "Well, I think your father is having a heart attack." I replied "What!?! Dad???" Huh?" - You see, my dad is only 56 and is a workout addict. Since he quit smoking 4 years ago, he has used exercise to help his cravings. You may remember that he ran in the Father's Day 5K  with us last Sunday! He beat me and not to mention, that was his first 5K. He works out about 5-6 days a week or more - he may even do multiple classes in a day! Like I said, crazy. So, you can see why I was a bit shocked when my mom told me the news.

Anyways, during her phone call, he was being admitted to the ER at the local hospital and being assessed. His blood pressure was sky high, had horrendous chest pain, was vomiting and was just miserable. Once they figured out what was going on, he was sent to the Cath lab and they found a complete blockage of an artery, so they placed a stent. He spent yesterday and this morning in the ICU, then they  transferred him to a regular floor this afternoon where he is thankfully doing very well. Hopefully he will go home tomorrow!

Of course when we got the call, I wanted to leave right away, but my mom asked us to wait until they had more news. Once he went to the Cath lab we headed south to be with my family. By the time we got there my dad was out of the cath lab and in a room. He looked pretty good actually. A bit groggy, but overall pretty good. I was so glad to see the girls were allowed in and that I think helped enlighten the situation a bit. The girls were so concerned about "Papa Steve" - they kept asking "Are you all better?" and Mairead was very interested in everything about everything. She asked a million questions and we did our best to answer each and every one of them. We told her Papa's heart got sick and he was in the hospital so the doctors could make it better.

After dealing with this over the weekend, it is definitely a lesson learned. What you do now can certainly come back to haunt you, especially if you have family history. I am so glad that Kevin and I have taken the initiative with our children as well as ourselves to lead as healthy of a lifestyle as possible. Exercising regularly is now more important to me than ever. Making healthy choices in our diet is more important - minimal processed foods, foods that are whole and/or organic. I have enjoyed shopping at local farms, buying local and visiting farmers markets. My dad may lead a healthy lifestyle now, but what he did in his 20s, 30s and 40s could have come back to haunt him...years of eating on the road, smoking, drinking and family history have all played a factor, and I hope to prevent this from happening to me in the future.