Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Contingency Plans

When we moved here to Dubai, one of the big issues mentally was the fact that we were leaving our families.  Upping and moving around the world to a foreign country without your support network of friends and family was a big deal for us.

One of the things, and its not a great thing to think about, is what happens when something important happens in Australia?  What do we do?  Its not like we can "pop back" anytime... there needs to be a level of importance attached to things.

Well, we reached that point this week when my Mum rang me to tell me that Dad had had a 'minor heart attack' on Saturday night.  To me, there is nothing minor about any heart attack and I was instantly worried.  Calls to home were positive... it was nothing major, it was a heart attack but Mum did the right thing and rang the ambulance quickly and a test on Tuesday will show what damage was done and Dad would have to start to think about changing very ingrained habits.

Unfortunately the tests showed major blockages and Dad is scheduled to have a quadruple bypass on Thursday.  I found all this out this morning and by early afternoon I am booked on a plane to Sydney.  I land very early morning and depending on the timing of the surgery I could be getting straight into a taxi and heading to the hospital.

It is one of those moments that we had talked about between Niki and I and it was an automatic reaction to call my travel guy and get on the next available plane.  I must admit though it is still a shock to actually have this scenario play out and its a bit surreal that in a bit over 24hrs I will be touching down in Sydney.

But this is what family is about and this is what we had discussed when we moved here... the dreaded "what if" scenarios and the contingency plan is being put into effect.

Hopefully though Dad will be OK... it is major surgery but at the same time it almost feels routine these days.  Niki's Dad had the same operation a number of years ago and he's as fit as a fiddle these days, so I know what its going to be like after the surgery.  But nevertheless, its something you have to be there for.

Good luck Dad!

3 comments:

Cathy Miers said...

Hi Clay, I hope all goes well for your dad. Cath xx

fool said...

My Mom had heart surgery last year and it shook me up pretty good. She's fine now and better than ever, but very scary going through it.

My thoughts and prayers are with your family, Clay. I hope your Dad gets well very soon.

Greeshma said...

Hi Clay,
Praying your dad gets better soon.