FIL Update

Well, what do you know?  My worrying and heartache may have been for nothing! 

My father-in-law went into the hospital last week, with a rapid and irregular heartbeat, in a-fib, weak and confused.  We were thinking he had "weeks" left, and then suddenly we were wondering if he'd even make it through the week.  Not a good place to be. 


We ended up deciding to go to New Orleans for the race anyway as it sounded like he'd stabilized and he was being assessed by a cardiologist, but we had kind of heavy hearts.  We were completely relying on my husband's brother who lives near my in-laws to keep us in the loop, and we both packed more outfits than we needed for New Orleans, in case we got a call and had to fly from NO to Pittsburgh.  But we got through the weekend with no such call, and we made it back to Dallas. 

And now, it sounds like he's turned a corner!


The cardiologist wanted to give him a pacemaker, which struck me as the best news -- I have no medical training, but logically, I didn't think they'd do that if they knew he was too weak to survive the surgery, or if he only had a matter of weeks left.


So he had the pacemaker implantation surgery yesterday and he got through it -- when my brother-in-law left the hospital yesterday, he was still in recovery and sleeping.  They think he'll be transported back to the nursing home's medical unit (or whatever it's called) sometime in the next couple days!


So I'm making plans to go visit in about 2 weeks (squeezing it into a work trip to Ohio), and my husband is trying to decide when he's going, but the immediate threat seems to have passed.


It feels like a weight has been lifted.  Well, not really.  Given that I'm less than 48 hours post-marathon, it feels like there's a different weight on me, primarily strapped onto my quads, which don't even have the strength to lift my legs, let alone support me going down stairs...


Race report to follow!