Tender Mercies

I wrote about the whole heart attack experience in the post after this one, so if you don't know the details of it, you may want to read that post first. Along with the trauma of the weekend, we experienced some sweet moments when we realized that the hand of God was in our lives. We had several of those "tender mercies" that Elder Bednar spoke of in a conference talk a while back. Here are a few:

--In a last-minute decision, I asked Jared and Maren to take Jensen with them to my mom's house after we went skiing. I can't imagine what she would have gone through had she been at home to see her dad suffering like he was and to see firemen and paramedics taking him away.

--I had planned on going to my mom's with Jared and Maren and having Brent bring the girls to mom's after school. I decided instead to stay home and wait for them so Brent could get ready for the father/son's outing that night. If I hadn't done that, Brent would have been home alone when he had his heart attack.

--Brent had only been home from skiing for about 45 minutes when he had the heart attack. Who knows what would have happened if we had still been on the lake.

--Dalin came home from school earlier than he usually does--a blessing for me because he was there to hold and support me and go with me to the hospital. He is an incredible young man.

--There was one paramedic, a woman, who kept trying to convince the others that Brent was indeed having a heart attack. She persisted, got him hooked up to an EKG in the ambulance, and finally convinced the others. I need to find out her name.

--The first cardiologist went off call and took off right after Brent started having the second attack symptoms. If he had stayed, who knows how long his pride would have let the attack go on while telling us all it was post-surgical pain.

--The second cardiologist, the one that we really liked, happened to be here from Seattle doing weekend call. He flies here whenever there are no cardiologists to cover weekends. Thank goodness he was here to take Brent back to surgery for the second procedure. Thanks, Dr. Angelo Ferraro.

--Brent's heart suffered no permanent damage from what the docs can tell so far.

I know there are others, but my brain isn't completely back to full function yet. I'll add others as soon as I remember them. Of course, don't hold your breath. . . .