My dad, St. Vincent's and the poopy diaper

My dad had to go to the ER at St. Vincent's yesterday. He had 6 bypasses on his heart before Tucker was born, and has since had another bad heart attack last year, around this same time, that we were afraid he was not going to make it out of. So, when he felt some bad chest pains Monday, he was wondering if they might be indigestion, but called his cardiologists office just to check. Dad had undergone a stress test the week before and evidently the doctor's office had left him a message at home to let him know that he needed to call the office to be admitted, because they had found an irregularity on the left side of his heart. He thought the nurse told him to take an ambulance to St. Vincent's ER, but what she meant was, to get to the office, which is across the street from the hospital, as soon as possible because they needed to make sure he wasn't having a heart attack. Long story short, his enzyme levels from the ER came back negative for the enzymes that are present when there has been a heart attack, so it was probably just indigestion. However, because he went to the ER, they admitted him into the hospital and put in him on the no eating or drinking after midnight because he would have the cathertisation the next day. He didn't have it done until around 5:30 this afternoon, and thank the good Lord above, it only showed that his arteries were narrowed in places. He thinks that they are just going to adjust his medication.

Funny and crazy part of the day was that I had both my cell phone and my home phone in the bathroom with me this morning when I decided I should take a shower. Connor was amusing himself with cars on the bathroom tile and I was in the middle of shaving my legs when the house phone rang. I jumped out of the shower, water, shaving cream and all to answer the phone thinking it was my dad telling me that they were about to take him for the cathertisation. It turned out to be the nurse at Tucker's school. Tucker had a rash on his face, arms, and legs and she was afraid he was having an allergic reaction to something. I told her that he had just started taking Stratterra two weeks ago for ADD and that might be the problem. She urged me to get there as soon as possible. I turned around to get back into the shower to finish shaving my leg, and wash the conditioner out of my hair and who is standing in the shower? Connor, pjs and all, smiling and saying, "sower too, sower too." I had no choice at that point but to strip him down and bath him as well. We got out and got dried off, I put a diaper and clothes on him and sat him in front of the tv in our bedroom to watch Bear in the Big Blue house. I attempted to put on some make up because I knew that I would have to either go straight to the pediatrician's office or straight to the hospital to see my dad. Finally, I was almost ready when the nurse called again and wanted to know how much longer I was going to be. I was thinking, "Sheesh woman! I am trying my darnedest to get out of the house as fast as I can." We got to the school and I realized Connor had no shoes.

I checked Tucker out, called his doctor, they said to bring him in immediately and to give him benadryl. I ran by the house to get Conman some shoes, and grabbed a different shirt off of the drying rack to put on thinking it was dry. It wasn't, but I thought it was at least halfway dry. It wasn't, so I was stuck wearing a wet shirt and then went to the pediatricians office. The parking lot was so packed that i drove around 4 times and couldn't find a spot. They share an office building with a bank, and evidently the bank customers were taking up the spaces. So, I called the doctor's office and told them that i would keep an eye on Tucker's rash after the benadryl had time to work and go on to see my dad in the hospital. We got to the hospital and I loaded Connor into the stroller, argued with Tucker to put his jacket on, and freezing in my wet shirt went to see my dad. St. Vincent's is a confusing hospital, but thankfully I had Tucker there, and new my way around pretty good. We got into daddy's room and had not been there ten minutes when I started smelling what I thought was somebody letting one rip. I looked at my dad, and asked, "Is that you?" He laughed and said "no, I think Connor has a stinky." BAM! It dawned on me that I had not packed his diaper bag and had no diapers.

I will conclude here, with saying that I ended up taking a 30 min trip around St. Vincent's hospital in search of diapers, and almost had to pay 6.00 for a tiny pack of convenience diapers which consisted of two diapers of indeterminable quality or size, a tiny thing of wipes and some diaper cream. I was in line to buy them when a SWEET mom behind me said, "Do you need diapers? You can have two of mine." She reached into her sons stroller and gave me two huggies and I have never wanted to kiss someones feet so much in my life! Thankfully I had some wet wipes in my purse so we made it fine.



Please pray for my friend and her husband tomorrow, and for my sweet Daddy to get home tomorrow with no complications from the procedure today.



Love to all,

April