Running

It's been a pretty stressful week for me, and it's only partially due to work this time.  I am seriously, like 3 weeks, behind at work and the new girl is kind of not catching on all that quickly.  But I honestly have been trying to focus on leaving work at work.  I can't do anything about it from home, so why fret over it?

My Dad's health is my biggest worry right now.  Last week, my Mom took him to the hospital with chest pains.  They discovered that one of his bypass grafts is 100% blocked and they can't do anything about it.  I'm assuming he's not a good candidate for surgery to repair it, and they can't put a stent in there.  So all they can do is treat it with medication.  They sent him home on Thursday, and he had a heart attack that night.  He was OK enough to be the one to call me about it Friday.  He was still having pain, bad enough to need morphine, as late as Monday night.  My sister went to go see him Tuesday and texted me that they were talking about releasing him.  All of us were just shocked that they would even consider it.  And they did.  About 7pm last night, my Mom went to go ask the nurses if a doctor was going to come see him, and was told he had already left.  So they called the doctor and were told to release him.  He hadn't seen my Dad since Sunday and just released him.  I'm really unhappy about that.  I think it's careless and unprofessional, to say the least.  Dangerous, really.  But he's home now, regardless of what I think.

I went to go see him today.  He's very weak and seems pretty nervous about his condition.  He said his blood pressure has been erratic all day... high earlier today, then too low, and when I was there and he had it checked, it was normal. 

My parents live in a retirement village - they're two of the youngest people there - and they eat most of their meals in the dining room.  I went and sat with them while they had lunch today.  I really love that place.  Several people came by to tell my Dad they had missed him while he was in the hospital.  He had two "get well" cards sitting on the table.  Everyone there is just so sweet and you can tell my parents are very well liked.  My Mom had driven them over to the dining hall because it was raining and my Dad is so weak, and as we waited on her to pull the car around, my Dad was talking to this 90-something year old gentleman named Charles.  Charles was going out to run some errands with his daughter.  My Dad told her that Charles is his hero.  He helped Charles get his jacket on.  It just melted my heart.  Charles is a few years older than my Pawpaw would have been if he hadn't passed away 18 years ago, and I just felt like my Dad sees his own Dad in Charles.

Anyway, probably best of all is that they're very close to the nurse there.  When my Grandpa was getting pretty bad towards the end of his life, she and her other nurses were just amazing and they bonded a lot with my parents.  So, she's keeping a very close eye on my Dad.  She's getting his medical records from the hospital (since he hadn't seen the doctor, they had a lot of unanswered questions) and I know she'll do everything she can to help him out.

I've been trying to really focus this week on being better with my food and exercise.  Last night, I took the girls to the rec center for the first time in months.  I got on the treadmill and did 1/4 mile intervals of walking and running.  Running my heart out.  It felt so good, and I was impressed that I could run as fast and long as I did considering it's been months since I last ran.  I definitely have to get back into the routine of going to the rec center twice a week.  Especially with everything going on.  Having that kind of release, along with the runner's high, is just what I need.