More Serendipity

Dr. Maddux, the cardiologist that cared for Dad at St. Pats., walked to the waiting room of the Cardiac Cath. Lab. within minutes of Mom & me arriving there. He reported that Dad's 12 lead EKG, blood work & angiogram were totally normal. In fact, my Dad had the injection fraction or cardiac output of a much younger man, with coronary arteries as clean as a whistle. He had not had a heart attack, but perhaps had experienced angina from some other mechanism than plugged arteries. He wanted to admit Dad to the hospital for overnight observation & more diagnostic procedures. We followed Dad to the 4th floor - the very cardiac ward for which I had been the Cardiac Clinical Nurse Specialist for 2-3 years after I moved back to Montana upon retirement from the Army Nurse Corps. Although I have not been back for 8-9 years, several nursing staff throughout the day & into the next recognized me & we were able to chat & catch up on our lives. This familiar setting put me at ease, which in turn caused Mom & Dad to relax.

Dad had an MRI of his chest which revealed only a small calcified spot in one lung, which was unremarkable. Dr. Maddux later told us that over half of all people over the age of 50 had something similar in their lungs...a small foreign body that entered their lung at some point & was isolated by the body layering it with a covering of calcium. A pearl effect? More blood work, physical exams & continuous EKG monitoring showed nothing out of the normal range. Mom, Dad & I were handed a gift of several restful hours to softly talk & pray together.

Before 9:00 p.m. I drove Mom to our home in Florence to spend the night. Our daughter, Esther, arrived just after we left & she had gotten off work at the nursing home. She kept her Grandpa company for awhile. No sooner than she left & the chaplain for St. Pats. stopped to talk with Dad & compare chaplain experiences. God just kept reminding Dad that he was loved & being watched over.

When we returned to the hospital Thursday morning before the doctors' rounds, Dad looked fairly rested & said he felt great. He no longer had to lie flat because of the cardiac cath. site. Soon his IV was also removed & Dr. Maddux came by & said Dad would be discharged before noon. He had found nothing major & thought Dad had experienced an isolated vagal episode. Dad would be referred back to his general practitioner in Hamilton for follow-up. God just kept sending folks by the hospital room door that either I or my parents knew. These visitors would act pleasantly surprised to see us & linger to chat a bit. Most had not come to the hospital to purposefully visit Dad. We guessed that we were placed there to actually encourage several of them. It was a wonderful morning that ended with Dad's discharge around 11:30 a.m. We drove back to Hamilton, renewed a couple prescriptions & got Dad settled into his lounger in the livingroom at home by 1:30 p.m.

Esther called during our drive, asking if I could come back to Missoula & help her finish cleaning the apartment that she had moved out of during our recent minus degree weather. We finished the cleaning & she handed in her keys a couple minutes before she was supposed to do so. Praise God that He even oversaw these details of our lives. I have been full of praise for His constant presence & straightening of our paths this week. I have had the sense that He allowed Dad some physical discomfort to meet the emotional needs of many others.