Josh Reigle

Professor Hughes
English 0482
September 30th 2015

Writing to Explore an Event

They say, you never know what you have till its gone. I find this statement partially
untrue. You might be asking yourself why I find it untrue. Let me take you back to September
14, 2012. A moment or should I say moments that not only changed me, but my whole family as
well. An event that reminds you how special the people in your life are to you.
Alright going back to the morning of September 14, 2012. I remember it so well even
though I wish I didnt. Its Friday about 7am I know this because I was in a state of sleep where I
could hear people in the house but I wasnt really awake. I heard my dads voice and my
mothers. Seeing that it was a Friday it was strange my dad was still home that late. My dad
usually is out the door before sun rise. At this point my mind is fading in and out of
consciousness. Suddenly my moms yelling! Josh! Josh! Wake up! Im taking your father to
the Emergency room! Let me tell you, when you hear those words your heart starts beating like
you just finished running a marathon. I jumped out of bed and threw on the first things in my
grasp.
I arrived about 10 minutes after my parents. Its funny how when you need to get
somewhere important fast, you manage to get all the stupid red lights. By the time I got there and
the nurse escorted me to the back room he was already done with the surgery. That quick! You
hear about heart attacks killing people and how horrible they are, but ten minutes? The procedure
was pretty easy how they explained it to me. I guess I got the super non-medical civilian talk. In

this case of a heart attack he had a blocked artery so, what they do is make an incision and insert
this device. The device is called a stent. Which they described to me as a Chinese finger trap but
it was like metal mesh. What the stent does is basically the flow of blood pushes the stent and the
force keeps the stent expanded so the artery isnt blocked anymore.
Thank god the scary part was over, or so we thought. Due to some other factors them and
my dad not wanting to be in the hospital they sent him home with a portable heart monitoring
defibulator. What the machine basically does is monitor heart rate and if the heart rate should
stop it will shock it back into rhythm. We were all just relieved to see him doing better. Little did
we know that next month or so our nerves would reach peak heights. Being in a normal
household my parents room was already adjacent to mine. My parents have always been big
snorers. I remember the creaky floors we used to have in the hallway. When my brother and I
were little we used to use their snoring to cover up the noise of the creaks. We would wait to take
a step till the snoring was just in effect, and the stop during the exhale where there was no noise.
The same night His vest went off! Let me just tell you it was the scariest thing ever, almost as
bad as the heart attack. So basically sometimes when he would snore and take a long pause
before snoring again his heart would stop. This little monitor would flash red and say
WARNING WARING! Defibulation in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. In the middle of the night we knew at that
moment his heart had stopped beating. It didnt stop for long only for a few seconds. The doctor
said it isnt anything to be alarmed about as long as the machine doesnt go off. My mother and I
were like zombies for the next month, hardly sleeping worrying it would go off again. Funny part
was for as loud as it was, my dad slept through it.
Bringing us to the present day, our lives have change drastically. I dont know how it
would have been different if it was just the heart attack and thats it. After the scare of the heart

attack and the monitor going off multiple times at night for a month or 2 life is different. Its
basically like a heart attack multiple times a month like it was really testing our emotions. To this
day my dad has lost 90 pounds and my mother about 30. We watch what we eat a little better and
I try to make time with my dad often to ride our bikes for exercise. I personally think it has made
us a lot more conscious of portion control and getting a better amount fruits and veggies in our
diet.