Valeria Out Loud

Well, if there was a day to have a drink to shake off stress, it would be this one.

I got woken up this morning by a phone call. It was from my eldest sister in Italy. She was calling to tell me that my dad was being rushed to the hospital with chest pains. My sister talks to my parents at the crack of dawn every morning from Italy, and for hours (no joke). She was on the phone with them this morning as my dad wasn’t feeling so well.

I sprinted out of bed to get dressed as fast as possible because I had to pick up my mom on the way to the hospital. My mom doesn’t drive. The whole ride down was a blur between the tears under my sunglasses and my brain taking me down scenarios that I am not ready for. And never will be.

We got to the hospital in record timing. We checked in with the ER and were asked to wait. And wait we did. After a bit of time, the registrar who checked us in approached us; he was a gentle giant. He notified us of their Covid19 restrictions for their patients. Only one person a day is able to visit with a patient, and only one person per patient is allowed to wait in the waiting room. Which meant my mom was the person to see my dad in the ER room as I waited in the waiting room.

So I waited.

And waited.

After a few hours, my mom got word that my dad was in great health. His heart is strong and all his vitals were perfect. He showed no signs of a heart attack but they wanted to perform another test. Apparently, his liver showed a high level of some enzymes. The test was to take up to three hours, so we took off for home to wait for results and chill out.

AWESOMELY, after this long day of exhausting emotions and tests, my dad is home and resting. He feels fatigued but good. They released him with a complete clean bill of health!

Just my two cents here… I am thinking that he had a bout of gastroesophegeal reflux, aka GERD. It can cause the feeling of having a heart attack in the middle of the ribs. It totally come on from bad eating habits. Ahem like my dad can be guilty of! He is 81 years old but thinks he is in his twenties.

I am so relieved my father is ok. He is one of my favorite people on planet Earth. We are more alike than unalike, which is good and bad. My joke and storytelling style come from him which is bad 😆. But my large heart, dedication to my children and agreeableness come from him, which is good. And don’t tell anyone, but I am his favorite child. It isn’t a secret really. He likes to tell me all the time and he is the reason my nickname is Sunshine. He says that I light up his world like the sun. ☀️

I am really so relieved he is ok. 😊

Now I need to unwind and calm my nerves…with tea. And maybe cbd oil.

Goodnight! Thank you for reading! Till next time!