Oh boy.....what an evening it has been.    This afternoon, I took my dad and my niece to the grocery store for their weekly shopping trip.  While in the store, I noticed that my dad did not seem to be himself (of course, he hasn't been himself for the past year or so.....but this was different.)   He had a Far Away look on his face, but yet......he had this expression of needing help written all across his forehead.   

I wasn't sure what was going on, so I phoned my brother to get his opinion of what I needed to do.   We both decided that I needed to go ahead and get their groceries checked out....and get him home as soon as possible.   We quickly checked out, but while standing at the counter,  I could clearly see that my dad was having some difficulty breathing.   

I called my brother back to let him know that I was going to go ahead and take my dad to the ER, just to be on the safe side.   The ER staff immediately ordered an EKG as well as blood work. The doctor quickly determined that dad would need to be admitted for further blood work and more test.

It appears that dad has either had a light heart attack OR....... he is not getting enough blood to his heart.

So now......not only does he have Alzheimer's, but he also has some issues going on with his heart. 
During the past 30 years, dad has already had 4 completely different surgeries for bypass replacements, plus a valve replacement surgery.   Can you imagine having your chest spread apart that many times?  Me either!!

Can this situation have a funny part to it?   Yes it can!!.............While I was at the hospital a few hours ago, there must have been at least 4 different nurses come in to get vitals on dad, or to get him all connected to the massive amounts of wires and gadgets.   

Not just once, but several times......both my brother and I, informed the staff that our dad is a DEFINITE Alzheimer's patient.   To our amazement, each one continued to ask dad all these questions that he had NO CLUE as to what they were talking about.    "Mr. Kidd......on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the greatest, what is your pain level?"    ..........and dad would say:  "This is my daughter's blanket!"    (He was right, about the blanket....I took it in for him because he was cold.....the answer just didn't match the question.)

The next staff member would ask dad a question, to which he would give some "off the wall"
answer.   I'm not sure if they were giving some kind of a test to my brother and I to see if we were telling the truth about dad having Alzheimer's, OR......if they just didn't realize that Alzheimer's patients have a difficult time answering the smallest of questions, like when is your birthday.

Needless to say.......it took a while to get all their questions answered!!!!!!


I sure that dad is going to be just fine, but a few extra prayers would be super nice. Thanks to each of you for being strong prayer warriors.  

Shug ~