My Dad

Last Wednesday my dad had surgery on his right shoulder. He injured it when he flipped his riding lawn mower. I don't know how he did that, but he did. It turned out that injury may have saved his life.

While dad was recovering from his shoulder surgery, he suffered a heart attack. Since the surgery took place in a hospital in a small town, they had to fly him via a helicopter to a hospital in Greeley, CO.

After they stabilized him, they discover he had blood clots in all his arteries. They immediately started him on blood thinners, but that caused internal bleeding from his surgically repaired shoulder. After a back and forth with the blood thinners, they were able to stop the bleeding and begin thinning out the blood clots.

I almost lost my dad that day. Thankfully he is out of the woods and may go home today. What a relief. If dad would have been at work or home instead of in a hospital when he suffered the heart attack, he may not have survived. Interesting how an accident in the summer saved his life this fall. I'm grateful.

Who am I?

When I was four my parents divorced. My biological father made the decision to let mom and my stepdad raise my sister and myself without inteference from him. Don't feel too bad for me. My stepdad (who will be refered to as dad) is great. He is the only dad I know. He helped make me what I am today.

I knew that my biological father lived in Texas, but that was about the extent of my knowledge. My sister had contacted him and actually went to live with him. I really never thought about contacting him. It wasn't that I had any bad feelings. I just didn't care to engage someone I don't remember.

A few years ago my sister tells my wife that my biological father has expressed his desire to get to know me. The wife sent a letter to him to make sure his intentions were just. We received a letter back from him and that got us started on a relationship. It started as letter writing and it progressed to phone calls.

Then one day on my way to work, he called me to say that he and some family were coming up and wanted to know if I wanted met him. So, we set up a meeting. I was curious to meet the man. Mainly because I am not like anyone in my family. I mean completely different. I was hoping that this meeting would shed some light on who I am.

After meeting him and his family, it was obvious that I am NOT like any of them either. I will discuss the meeting in another post. I was a little disappointed, but not terribly that I didn't see any of my traits on display by another person. So, I'm not like my mother, father, biological father, brother, or sister. Somewhere there may be a milkman that acts just like me or I'm one of a kind.

I am very analytical, quiet, and easy going. Everyone in my nuclear family is boisterous, out going, and always has some drama. My biological father is quiet like me, but has a different value system and is very southern. I guess I would be a combination of the two families. Yup. That sounds right. I'm going with that.