Paige Trutna
Mrs. Wiederrich
English 2
13 April 2018
Heart Attack
One of the major adversities that I have faced in my life happened about a month ago, when my dad had a heart attack. This event was so unexpected, and it taught me many lessons about who I should be as a person through struggles and how God works in mysterious ways.
When this adversity happened to me, nothing seemed like it was wrong. It was a perfectly normal B day. It was at the end of the day, around 2:30. I was sitting in Christ and the Church with my group, working on a project, when I heard the phone ring at Mr. Bassett’s desk. I didn’t think much of it, because that happened quite often and it never related to me. Then, Mr. Bassett said “Paige, they need you up in the office.” It occurred to me that maybe they thought I’d done something wrong, but I wasn’t sure why. I’m a good student, and I don’t get in trouble, so I knew that something was wrong. I walked out of the room, confused, and when I got to the office, Mrs. Martin told me that I needed to leave immediately, because my dad was in the emergency room. I don’t exactly remember this part, because a lot of thoughts were going through my head, but I do remember that my hands started sweating and shaking as I got my supplies out of the room. I told my best friend, Gretchen, that my dad was in the emergency room for reasons unknown and that I would text her updates.
When I got out to my car, my mom was there with my brother, and you could clearly see that they were both worried. Every second in that car felt like an eternity, and the seconds only seemed to get longer. After about 5 minutes of silent driving (which felt more like an hour), I asked my mom what had happened. She said that they didn’t know, but he was in an ambulance driving to the hospital with his coworker. In the car ride to Bryan East, I texted my friends and family and asked them to pray, and Gretchen responded in no time saying that they’d already prayed in class. I remember thinking how blessed I was with friends and classmates that could help me get through this time. When we got to the hospital, we found the emergency room. Up until now, I’d been trying to stay strong for my mom and little brother. I kept telling myself that I couldn’t cry until I was alone. So when we got to the waiting room, I went to the bathroom, and just sat there for a few minutes and let it all out.
After we’d been waiting for 15 minutes, a doctor came in and said that they could lead us to the waiting room in the cardiology wing of the hospital. In those 15 minutes, both of my grandparents had texted and said that they were on their way. This was one of the many moments that we were thankful we all lived in Lincoln. When they arrived, I could clearly see that my grandpa had been crying, which was incredibly hard for me. I’d never seen him cry before. One of the things that I remember thinking was how thankful I was that the circumstances were the way that they were. If even a minor thing had been changed, the results could have been a lot different, and my father might not be alive. This is something I still think about today. When the doctor came into the waiting room, we were all expecting bad news, but instead, we got good news. There wasn’t much plaque buildup, and they had put in a stent to prevent another heart attack. He was fine, but he’d have to stay in the hospital for a couple days. All of this had happened by about 5:00. Little did I know, we would all be in the hospital for another 4-5 hours. In those hours, I would have eaten, texted other people, and gotten many texts from classmates asking how my dad was. I was so comforted by how much people cared.
When I finally got to see my dad, there were cords all around him, and he was pale, and coughing up blood. This was so hard for me to see, as I’d looked up to my dad all my life. I remember that talking to him was so relieving, and I swore in that moment that I would never take anything for granted again. After I was able to see him, I remember being relaxed and relieved, and I started to actually believe that everything would be ok. I walked through the halls of the hospital, and I was able to let my shoulders down, and release a breath I didn’t even know I was holding.
After a couple hours of waiting (which for me involved reading, listening to Hamilton, and watching Friends on Netflix), we were able to get time to go down to the cafeteria and eat. While we were eating, my friend called me, and we talked on the phone for a half an hour. It was so comforting knowing that people cared about my dad and how he was doing, and talking to my friends allowed me to relax even more.
Over the next two days at the hospital, my friend and my neighbor visited, along with their parents. They brought a lot of food, some of which I still have stashed in my room. I was able to go to school, and I got hugs and questions from many people. The community I was placed in helped me to get through this adversity.
Through this experience, I learned a lot about adversity. Before this happened, I’d never really experienced anything this big in my life, and so when I heard the news that my father had a heart attack, I was shocked to the core. I kept thinking “this can’t be happening to me, why me, why my family?” The thing I learned about adversity is that it can be incredibly unexpected and it can happen to anyone.
I also learned that while adversity seems awful at the time (even if it is), you can always power through it. When my dad had a heart attack, I thought that I would never overcome it, and things would never go back to normal. However, as I’m writing this paper, my dad is doing great, and is back to his normal self. No matter what may happen during a time of adversity, it will get better. God will help us overcome it.