Chapter 10: Late Night Exercise

Kelly called me about fifteen minutes after she got my text message. “Grim, what’s up? What happened?”

My text had been a simple ‘911 no danger’, signifying it was important, but I was safe. “Hey, babe. It’s not me but my folks. Dad’s in the hospital. They think he had a heart attack last night.”

“Oh my God! Is he all right?”

I shrugged, though she couldn’t see me. “I saw them this morning. They sounded positive, but I don’t know.” I explained what my mother had told me.

“So, what happens now? What about the kids? Your mom was supposed to be picking them up this afternoon.”

“Mom was going to call your mother, have her pick them up. You should give her a call. I figure to go over to the hospital after I get off shift.” Kelly’s mom often swapped with my mother, at least when she was in town. She and Kelly’s father were frequent travelers, and she spent at least a week every month in New York with him, and at least a couple times a year went with him to England.

Kelly said, “Okay, I’ll call her. We’ll meet you at the hospital.”

“Uh...” Somehow that seemed questionable. If Grandpop was ill, did the kids need to be there? Likewise, turning the Daring Duo loose on a hospital was a bad idea. Matucket General might not survive.

“We’ll meet you at the hospital,” she repeated, in a tone that defied any arguments.

I agreed. I also promised myself that I would call Mom and check before that happened.

In any case, my call to Mom that afternoon was good. She reported that the ‘cath’ as she called it went well and Dad had a couple of brand-new stents. It would be safe to bring the kids over, at least for Dad. As for the hospital, that was more questionable. By the time Riley and Seamus got through with them, the place could well be nothing but a pile of smoking rubble!

I made sure I got out of the station as early as possible. That meant that I only gave out a few warnings on speeding stops, and I passed on one late in the day. So, I’m human, sue me! I didn’t even bother changing out of my uniform and gear but just drove over and parked. I got there just as Kelly drove up. The kids were waving at me as they passed by looking for a parking spot. I followed them over to the parking spot and helped my wife with our offspring. Specifically, I held Riley’s hand while Kelly carried Seamus. He was almost three years old but tended to take the longest way possible to get someplace. Left on his own, he would get to Dad’s room by eight or nine – tomorrow!

Kelly put him down once we got to the second floor, so that we could each grab a hand and walk Seamus down the hall. Seamus solved that problem by lifting his feet and swinging between us, laughing the entire time. I looked over at Kelly and said, “I really think we need to reconsider that stadium naming contract with your father.”

Kelly looked down and Seamus giggled while kicking his feet up. “I was never in favor of that deal, and it’s looking worse and worse every day.” She moved to drop Seamus and said, “Seamus, knock it off! We need to keep moving!” Our son just laughed.

“Daddy, what’s a stadium?” asked Riley.

I just looked at Riley’s mother and groaned.

Kelly and I maneuvered our children to East 214, and I knocked on the partially open door. “Come on in,” called out Mom.

The thundering herd let go of our hands and ran inside. Fortunately, Mom corralled them and gave them hugs. She was sitting in her chair and Dad was sitting up in his bed. Dad said, “Hi guys! What’s up?”

“Grandpop!” exclaimed Riley. She squirmed out of Grandmom’s arms and scrambled up the side of the bed.

Seamus got loose and tried to follow but couldn’t figure it out. Grandpop laughed at the pair of them and said, “Hold on.” He moved Riley around so that she was under his right arm. He lifted his left arm and said, “Okay, let’s have Seamus.” Kelly picked up Seamus and set him on the bed, and Dad pulled him in.

I looked Dad over and he seemed okay, though his right forearm had a giant bandage on it and was bruised. “How you doing, Dad?”

“Good. I’m getting out of here tomorrow.”

“And your heart? Did they actually find it?”

“It was a long search, but yeah, they found it smarta ... guy.”

I laughed at that. Both Kelly and Mom punched me in the arm. “So, what’s the latest? Mom said you had a cath today. What’s with that?”

He nodded. “Your mom can explain it better, but this morning they took me down to a room in the basement called cardiac catheterization. They knocked me out and stuck a tube in my arm and I woke up a couple of hours later with a pair of stents in my heart.”

“Stents?”

“They’re sort of like tiny flexible metal mesh tubes,” explained my mother. “The catheter is a very thin tube with a balloon on the end. When it gets to the point where one of the coronary arteries is restricted, they expand the balloon and puff the artery out. Then they slip the stent in and expand it in the constriction, to hold the artery open. In your dad’s case, they had to do this twice, once each on two of his coronary arteries.”

My eyes popped open, and I glanced at Kelly, who looked equally concerned. “That sounds kind of serious,” I said.

Mom shook her head. “Actually, it’s incredibly common. The cardiology department probably does a dozen of these a week. Your dad got two stents, one in the left anterior descending artery and the other in the right coronary artery. Here, I got these brochures describing what happened.” Mom dug a couple of brochures out of her purse.

Kelly and I looked at the brochures. In the meantime, Mom grabbed Seamus out of Grandpop’s grasp. “You are getting into trouble! Leave your grandfather’s IV alone!”

“Good Lord!” I muttered. I took the future father of generations of Reapers from Mom and set him on the floor. Then I looked at Dad and said, “They call this the ‘widow maker’?”