the PeRfEcT father's day

So I would like to officially deem Sunday, June 20th, 2010 as the perfect father's day.

If you are okay reading a long post I will tell you why-

On Thursday, June 17th, I received a call from my mom at about 11:15am saying that dad was out running and had taken a fall. My mom was very calm (at this point we did not know the extent of my dad's condition) as she told me that the ambulance had come to pick up my dad and that my sister Brooke was driving her to the American Fork hospital. I told my mom I would meet them over at the hospital. When I got to the hospital they had my dad strapped to a stretcher with a neck brace on and they were running some tests.

My mom and Brooke gave me the details as to what had happened (once again, thanks Brooke for being such a faithful blogger):

My dad (who will be 80 this year and who is the healthiest man I know) has been training for the St. George Marathon this year and was running up to Sliding Rock like he usually does. My dad said he arrived at Sliding Rock around 8:10am - he was pretty happy with his time :o) On the way back down he said he started getting light headed & dizzy, so he walked over to the side of the road and as soon as he did that he passed out and rolled 10' down an embankment & from what we figure, he was there around 30 to 45 minutes until to awoke, climbed up the embankment and started to head back home. He said it was very painful- he had a gashes on his head, shoulders, knees, elbows, and hands.

Almost half way home, he finally saw one of their neighbors in his garden so he stopped & asked if he'd give him a ride home. At this time it was about 10 am, when mom was starting to worry. Not worried enough yet, just because my dad sometimes stops at Aunt Alta's and visits on his way home from his morning jogs.

Their neighbor dropped my dad off and made sure he got in the house okay. My mom got my dad in the tub to clean up all the scratches. Just after that he started to get woozy again and his eyes rolled back into his head. So my mom called 911- she remembers now, looking back saying "What's taking the ambulance SO LONG to get here?" When the dispatcher said "Ma'am it's only been 4 minutes," then continued to ask her all kinds of questions.



The EMT's were able to convince my dad to let them put him on the stretcher and take him to just "check him out" to American Fork Hospital. THANK GOODNESS they DID! - the doctors later told my mom that if she would have called an hour later the outcome would have been different. My sister drove my mom down, and they arrived soon after the ambulance arrived. I had arrived at this point to see them running some tests. After they checked him over, ran tests, etc. they told us that it looked like he had suffered a heart attack! It was a huge shock to all of us there. I couldn't believe it.

The doctor told us at this point that he wanted to have my dad transported to Utah Valley Regional Hospital- where they have doctors & specialists there to check him over more. My mom was able to ride along in the front of the ambulance as they transported my dad. This was a relief for her to be with him as they transported him this time.


He arrived at the hospital (around 12:30pm) where they did some other tests and found out that he had some plaque built up that was blocking his artery so they put a stent in to open up his artery. My dad handled everything so well. He was happy and very strong about everything. My sweet mom was with him the whole time - the only reason she left was at night to sleep and thats only because the nurses MADE her. He had to stay in the hospital a few days so that they could monitor him and make sure everything was working properly but yesterday around noon he got to come home!

That is why yesterday

was the perfect father's day.

My dad is alive and well and he got to come home.

I am just so full of gratitude for my Heavenly Father and his tender mercies. My dad even said yesterday that he is feeling vitality that he hasn't felt before. What a blessing! Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers, they were heard.

note: this picture was taken yesterday.

the day my dad got home from the hospital.

he is aMaZiNG.