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Flight of the Iron Horse - My Dad's Dead End Diet - It is the dawn of Valentine's Day, 2005 and it marks my dad's three-week Rendezvous With Death.  Will he make it?  I honestly don't know, but I do know his Diet History and I don't want you to make the same mistakes as he made.

This is his story.  It is mine, too.  For you see, when we live a life of satisfying ourselves with the food we love, we rarely pause to think how our folly may play out in our loved one's lives.

As a note, my dad was diagnosed with diabetes shortly after turning 40.  Diet wouldn't control the diabetes because he never gave it a serious chance.  He progressed to insulin when he entered his late 40's.  We take up with his story, 30 years later....

Sunday, January 23, 2005 - My dad awoke and didn't feel so well.  He had experienced a light heart attack last April and tests showed that he had 90% blockage in three arteries.  At 71, he had opted not to have by-pass heart surgery and to just enjoy what little life he had left.  Diabetics have a problem losing limbs and since the doctors would be taking veins from his leg to use for the surgery, my dad was concerned that it might cost him a leg.  He had already lost a toe several years ago to diabetes and it was a scary ordeal.  So scary that he avoided cakes and cookies for two weeks after the toe came off.

In the emergency room, the doctors tell dad that he has experienced another heart attack, but his heart is now too weak to perform by-pass surgery.  He is admitted to the Critical Care Unit (CCU) for observation.

Monday, January 24, 2005 - Tom and I arrive at the hospital to find dad propped up on the bed looking like he'd been hit by a beer truck.  Eight doctors are working on him in the room.  Later we would learn that dad experienced a massive heart attack.

He is placed into a drug-induced coma and on a breathing machine.  He is finally stabilized before midnight.  His kidneys have shut down.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - Dad had a very rough night.  The doctors have decided that he's got one shot.  Unless his arteries are cleared, he won't make it.  My mother signs all the necessary papers and dad is rolled into surgery.  My mom and I wait for almost 4 long hours.  We talk.  We cry.  We cry some more.  The doctor doing the surgery says that dad has less than a 50% chance in making it through the surgery.  A balloon pump will also be inserted into my dad to assist the heart in pumping blood.

During this time, people are coming and going out of the surgical unit.  Every time someone exits, our hearts go into our throats.  In the meantime, my mom is feeling very ill - like she's coming down with the flu.

Dad pulls through the surgery, but I must take mom home.  She is looking a bit green at this point.  We meet up with Tom and drive mom home.

On this day, I think about all the abuse that my dad did to his body over the years.  He would eat whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and as much as he wanted.  At this point, he was about 50 pounds overweight and although he had once been extremely active, due to his heart condition he had been very inactive the last few months.  I wished so bad that he had wanted to have the by-pass surgery, but it hadn't been my decision to make.  Or mom's either.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - My dad looks fairly peaceful laying in bed, though the breathing machine terrifies me.  I want so badly to talk with him.  I wonder if his mind will be all there when he awakes because his blood pressure got very low during the surgery.  The doctors have him on 4 blood thinners, a barrage of other medications, as well as medicine to keep his blood pressure from dipping too low again.

Mom is at home, ill with the flu.  She frets because she is unable to come to the hospital to see dad.  It's so hard when you've been married to someone for 53 years.  

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