Cancer? Heart Complications? My Life... Now what?
September 22, 2014. The day life hit me hard. Why? I woke up at 6 am to my mom screaming for me to wake up. The ambulance was on their way and my stepdad was having yet another heart attack. He has a defibrillator due to his previous heart attacks and it had shocked him 2 times. The ambulance arrived, which they knew my family well as my stepdad was on the fire department for 30 years. He retired in January of 2013 due to his heart complications. The ambulance left and we followed shortly after as I needed to brush my teeth and we figured we would let them get him into the ER so there was no need to rush.
My mom and I arrived shortly after the squad and we walked into the ER and could here him screaming.. He was still getting shocked. 4 of the 6 nurses were at the nurses station laughing and smiling.. 2 of the 6 were in the room with my dad trying to get his heart to regulate. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! Are they seriously acting like that while a patient is fighting for his life? Finally they called for life flight. The Samaritan in Fort Wayne, Indiana was down for maintenance. They then called for life flight out of Toledo, Ohio which was about 20 minutes further. I walked outside and made a phone call to my best friend.. Bawling. I couldn't believe this. I didn't think he was going to survive. My biggest fear as a child was not having him at my wedding, he raised me. We left the hospital before he did so we could hopefully arrive about the same time. This was something we thought was small.. Not anymore. We arrived to the hospital and at this point he had been shocked 48 times. They say every time you are shocked by a defibrillator it is like being kicked in the chest by a horse. While we were there he was shocked one last time. 49 times he had been shocked. That is crazy. They finally got him stable and they took him to coronary ICU. He then spent the next 6 days there. I was with him from 9 am until about 8 pm when my mom got off work and would spend time with him. His son didn't come up once to see him, nor did he call.
During his time in ICU my mom wasn't feeling too well.. I kept telling her she needed to go to the doctor and she wouldn't. Finally I told her if she didn't then I was going to call for her and schedule her an appointment. She went in and they decided to do more tests even after her monthly check ups for her past run in with cancer. The test came back negative and the doctors were still worried.. Surgery. That was our only option.
I couldn't believe what the doctors were telling me. The cancer came back and has spread to multiple parts of her abdomen. Appendix Cancer. It is everywhere. They can't remove all of it. Chemotherapy won't do a thing besides slow down the cancer. Which will only draw out her death.
So now, not only do I have a stepdad with a heart that only works at 30% but a mom with stage IV appendix cancer. I am 19 years old. I have an entire life ahead of me that I may not have my parents to be by my side for. I guess I better just hold on and hope for the best.