Where to start...
So last August, my dad took a trip to a local lake and took some water-skiing lessons. He and my stepmom are both avid skiiers, and while they can both ski slalom (on one ski) after standing up on two, my dad wanted to learn to get up on one. During this lesson, he had a painful fall, and when it didn't get better they went to the hospital. A few days and a few doctors later, we get the diagnosis. I don't remember the exact terminology, but he pretty much ruptured one of the small muscles that attaches the hamstring up near the hip. A pretty intensive surgery by the doctor who works on one of my city's major sports teams fixed it, but his leg was still really swollen days later.
A week after the surgery, he fell from his crutches while coming into work. A coworker saw and helped him to his office, where he nearly fell again. He asked what was happening because he couldn't figure out why he was falling, and his coworker said his hand wasn't on the crutch. When he tried to log into his computer he couldn't get in, and realized that what he thought he was typing wasn't actually what he was putting in. A trip to the ER later, it was confirmed he had had a minor stroke. A clot from the surgery had made it to his brain due to a previously undetected hole in his heart called a patent foramen ovale, a relatively common birth defect. Fortunately there were no complications from the stroke. However, while in the hospital, there were two recorded instances of atrial fibrillation, so he was placed on blood thinners and the following week had a device implanted to his heart to monitor his heart patterns. This recorded nothing for a year.
Fast forward to six weeks ago, when he had a surgery to close the PFO. It's this weird tiny umbrella they basically snake up through a vein in your leg and pop open. It all went well. But then a few weeks ago his doctor monitoring the heart monitor called, and said he'd noticed some abnormalities. My dad went to him, then to an electrocardiologist, and they confirmed he has been experiencing atrial flutter. It's been asymptomatic, although my stepmom said sometimes he looks really pale. No clue if this is new since the closure or was being masked by the blood thinners, but he's getting a pacemaker Friday.
It's just not fair. He takes such good care of himself - he's a big guy, 6'6", but in the normal weight range. He eats a ton of vegetables and exercises every day over lunch. He takes my dogs on walks and goes skiing and boating and hunting and fishing, but none of that matters, because there's still some electrical bullshit going on in his heart. And overlaying it all is this big WHAT IF. If he'd never torn his hamstring, would he have had these heart problems?
Cheers to you if you read this novel. I just... I have a lot of feelings. I can so easily see this turning into me telling the story of my dad's health decline and I can't picture losing him. Fuck.