Unexpected New Year's Eve

My dad is in the cardiac unit of the university hospital near us right now.  He went into the ER at his local hospital on Saturday evening and was transported to the other hospital yesterday, so that specialists could see him and work on him.  He is getting a heart catheter and a stress test and a multitude of other tests run today. They have cords and pads stuck all over him. It feels weird to be sitting here at my house, listening to my kids watch cartoons, while he is down in a hospital bed. It is weird to see him in a hospital bed at all. He doesn't sit around often and he definitely didn't lay around. I hardly ever remember him ever laying on the couch, only on extremely rare occasions when he was so sick, that even his stubbornness couldn't keep him going.  Last night when I was at the hospital with my dad, an alarm on the heart monitor kept going off, indicating that dad's heart was beating too low or out of rhythm. It was very unsettling.

I have heard about people getting heart catheters done and it being called a procedure and having slight concern, but not being too worried about their safety. But when it is one of your loved ones hooked up to those machines, with defibrillator pads stuck to his chest, just in case they are needed, it feels much more serious than the word "procedure" indicates.

My dad comes from a long line of heart problems. His dad and a brother both died from heart attacks and 2 of his other brothers had multiple heart surgeries and procedures. He is 72 and only recently began to have problems with his heart, so I am thankful for that. His younger brother has had a pacemaker for about 10 years. But no matter how old he is, I don't like that he's having these problems now any more than I would have 10 years ago.

I am going down to the hospital now to see him.  Not exactly how I pictured spending New Year's Eve, but I still feel blessed that I can spend another New Year's Eve with my parents.  Many people my age, and much younger, don't have that privilege.