April 21st

It's been a scary week for the family as my dad has been in the hospital since Tuesday. He came over that night with terrible pains around his chest and neck, I never really got a good idea of what he was feeling, but he was in a lot of pain so he asked me to take him to the emergency room. At first no one thought it would be anything serious. My dad frequently goes to the doctor for various ailments and had never faced anything too serious, until now.

We went to Evergreen where they got him in immediately, but had trouble finding out exactly what the problem was. He was having distorted vision, among other bizarre symptoms but it took many hours before anyone could figure out the problem (I'll try my best to describe what exactly was wrong). At about 10 or 11, the doctor came to the conclusion that his aorta (a large artery that sends oxygenated blood to parts of the body) was tearing, calling for an immediate transfer to Overlake Hospital and immediate cardiovascular surgery.

This was a lot to take in all at once. This was a very serious surgery and he could very well die from many different factors. He started calling family members and telling me things if he didn't make it through the night, it was an extremely emotional moment. Initially, the doctor said I should follow the ambulance driver to Overlake, but when the driver came in he responded with "What? No that's insane do you know how fast I drive?" I was a little relieved that I wouldn't have to follow a speeding ambulance, but that didn't take much of a dent out of my worries.

I drove home to meet up with the rest of the family, where we would head out after I filled them in on what I knew. We arrived at Overlake later that night, where we would meet the surgeon that would be performing the surgery Dr. Vu Trong Hoang. The doctor gave us a little more insight on the condition, which apparently in the medical world had become known as "John Ritter Syndrome" after John Ritter died of essentially the same condition in 2003.

After this we went to see my dad one last time before the surgery. He seemed fairly optimistic but I was still freaked out and with good reason. We spent about three or so hours at the hospital and soon enough, my grandma and aunts showed up. We all talked for awhile but later decided that at least Paul and I should go home and try and get some sleep. We did so, but I didn't get much sleep that night. We went back to the hospital the next morning to luckily find that the surgery was a success, but he wasn't in the clear yet. There was about a 48 hour time frame where other things could go wrong. I could tell you of all the other worries that went through everyone's minds in that period, but let's flash forward to today.

It's been almost five days since my dad went into surgery and he's recovering quite nicely. I've missed some school and literally hadn't felt like doing anything for most of the week, this including missing the last Killers concert among other things. Luckily, everything seems to be stable now, it's been comforting seeing everyone in the family come and visit, not to mention some of my dad's friends such as; his best friend Dick, his boss Sam and his old friend Ron, who visited my dad before he could recognize anyone (due to the drugs he'd be given) my dad thought he was a doctor.

That's about as much as I feel comfortable talking about, it's been really hard on everyone, especially my dad. Fortunately this isn't some condition that's going to drastically change his life afterwards, at least to my understanding. Once it is fixed, it's fixed and shouldn't come back in some new form. As a matter of fact my Grandpa went through the same surgery in the 80s and lived another twenty or so years, dying from an unrelated ailment, plus he was older than my dad when he had it done. So I'm optimistic towards the future and as of right now, it appears everything is going to be just fine.