Mortality

On Tuesday, Mom called to tell me that Dad was in the ER at the Heart Hospital. I got there quickly and learned that the doctors thought he was in danger of having a heart attack.
My parents and I are very close. Dad is the picture of health. He's been very careful about his diet since we learned about the dangers of cholesterol (I guess that's been about 20 years) and is scrupulous about getting enough exercise each day. He hadn't been going on his daily walks with Mom and their sweet dog Hannah for the past month or so because of the terrible weather. Turns out that may have been a lifesaver!
The doctors fitted him with two stents (which look a lot like the fingertraps I've given my students for rewards). It seems that an artery that gets blood to the left chamber of his heart was more than 95% occluded. He was a ticking time bomb. Any stress could have dislodged the plaque or starved his heart of oxygen.
As it is, though, he is fine. His heart is not damaged at all. The stents are securing the plaque against the walls of the artery and opening up the artery so blood can get through.


There's an adage that "all's well that ends well." I have to disagree. Even as a fan of math, with its numbers and operations that lead to exact answers without thought to circumstances, I still have emotions. Seeing Dad in the hospital and knowing that he was so close to death is scary. I'm glad everything's OK now, but my family is still pretty shaken up.
Just another example of our mortality. My theme song for now is "If Tomorrow Never Comes."