Friday, May 06, 2011

His Heart

It is seven in the morning when Mom calls.

"I'm taking your Dad to the ER. He's having chest pains."

Not how I like to wake.

By eight, no update. Dad was still hurting somewhere. I needed to know more. So I hit the road.

I know now, but I didn't know then, Dad was writhing in pain. It had slowly gotten worse. Aspirin didn't work. (Does it ever?) Nitroglycerin didn't work. And it took three shots of morphine (12mg) before he stopped hurting. The rolled him into the CT lab. And didn't see anything notable.

I arrived after the fireworks. He was done with the first battery of tests. The pain had subsided. He was mostly sleeping. And Mom was calm. So I spent the next couple of hours smiling and nodding as he'd blink briefly awake. Gave Mom a break to get some supplies from home. And tried to keep up with the flow of woe from work. Fortunately for all of us, he didn't hurt after that first test.

Eventually the doctor arrived. He said Dad's tests were good. It was not his heart. No cardiac issues. Not a pancreatic issue. And it was not an obvious gal bladder issue. But (here's the "but!") a CT scan would not pick up gal stones. Only an ultrasound would detect stones. So... It was very possible that Dad had something rumbling around his gal bladder which caused spasms. And intense radiating pain.

By eleven in the morning, I left  for work. At 1PM, Dad had a repeat battery of tests. They were negative as well. And by 3PM, he was on his way home.

They plan to check for gal stones. But I'll sleep better knowing it was NOT his heart.

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