It was about 5:30 in the evening and I was cooking  dinner.  I was wondering how my 74 year old father was doing on his first day on the job as a bagger at Publix.  It had been over six months that we had lost my Mom and I had done everything I could to get him back out and working and seeing people again.

Dad had been sitting for long periods of time and this was not healthy.  He needed to get up and move  or as they always say “get that blood pumping.”  When I called, he didn’t answer right away.  Finally, I heard a breathy “hello” on the other end and I asked him how it went.”   My Dad, a former golden gloves boxer was usually very positive and upbeat when describing things and he said, “terrible.  I’m exhausted and I’m going to bed.  Did you know cat litter weighs a ton?  I thought to myself, “it’s 5:30 in the AFTERNOON!  He can’t go to bed now.  I said, “you know we were going to get you that stress test next week to see if all of your pistons are firing in the right order, why don’t we just run over to the ER and see if they can’t do it sooner?  I was shocked when he agreed to go.  Once we got to the ER, things began to move rapidly, tests were performed and on Monday morning, my father went through a procedure called coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.  It’s where blood flow is rerouted through a new artery or vein that is grafted around diseased sections of your coronary arteries to increase blood flow to the heart muscle tissue. Within a week he was out of the hospital and after spending ten days in a rehab facility to gain his strength back, he went home.  It’s been over four and a half years, and my soon to be 79 year old father is working parting time, but it does not involve lifting 10# bags of of cat litter!