Angina | Drovers Run

Life is Short, Make it Count

On December 16, 2009, in Family Drama, Health & Beauty, Illness, UK, family, by ness

I’ll make this brief.

My FIL is in hospital, after suffering an angina attack. As serious as that sounds, I can’t bring myself to say “angina” without having to suppress a very immature giggle.

For those of you who don’t know what “angina” is (there I go again) you can go and read this wiki, because I’m too lazy to explain it. It’s like a heart attack, only it’s not a heart attack at all, although it’s frequently mistaken for a heart attack. So much so in fact that despite the FOUR episodes that my FIL has had in the last three weeks, apparently his GP, a hospital, and a SPECIALIST cardiac unit failed to diagnose him with it even after an angiogram (there is something I’d rather *never* go through thanks), sending him home. According to my SIL he’s been very tired, but following doctors orders to rest, but not really showing any improvement since then.

Then last night just minutes after FIL has spoken to husband on the phone (during which husband assures FIL that husband is in fact on the mend after the viral incident that flattened him last week), I hear hubby’s phone ring again, followed by some stressed talking, and my curiosity gets the better of me and I stop what I was doing (yes I was at the computer why do you ask?) and make my way to the lounge where hubby had just finished speaking to his family in the UK.

Apparently what had happened is that after speaking to the husband, FIL apparently came downstairs into the lounge where MIL and SIL were, in tears from chest pain, and struggling to breathe, and in the following few minutes that elapsed he was dispatched via ambulance to the nearest hospital. MIL had called hubby to let him know what had happened, and was apparently so overcome with tears (let me assure you this is VERY unlike her, regardless of the situation) that she had to hand the phone to SIL to finish talking.

I think that it is this more than anything else that scared the hell out of hubby, and we sat up last night waiting for ‘that dreaded phone call’. Eventually around 11pm they called to say that he was stable, though still very breathless.

This seems to be his state today as well, and we wait for snippets of information as to what the course of action will be. It does seem as though they seemed to have confirmed the diagnoses now (no I am not going to say it again), so hopefully a successful treatment plan will follow.

My own dad was diagnosed with angina **snort** when I was just 7 (he was 55). Had a heart bi-pass when I was 10 (58), and he’s just beaten cancer at the grand old age of 81, so the diagnoses of FIL is not necessarily a death sentence by any means. But it was certainly a reminder that we’re only on this planet for a fixed amount of time.

Nothing like a little mortality wake-up call to help you see past the stupid little things that we seem to so easily occupy ourselves with.

So, I command you, hug your loved ones, forgive your offspring their noise levels, and make every moment count.

Thus spake Ness.