My brother's entry into the Army has been temporarily postponed.
While he was pretty bummed over the weekend, the rest of the family saw it as a blessing in disguise, particularly because my dad was admitted into the hospital last Tuesday due to chest pains and by Thursday morning the doctors were saying his chance of survival was 50-50. Envision family freak out.
My understanding of the situation with my dad is a little hazy, but his doctor said that it appeared that the bypass on one of the arteries was in the wrong location and that to correct it they'd have to go back in. In addition to that, he had 3 other arteries that were clogged. The method the cardiologist wanted to use was pretty risky, since my dad has already had open heart surgery and is held together with wires and all, so my parents got a second opinion from the surgeon who suggested that the procedure to get to his heart would be too risky and to use stents rather than a bypass.
The doctors got together and concluded that the surgeons plan was safest and the cardiologist was successful at placing stents in 2 of the 4 arteries. Afterwards, he told us that the damage was likely already done to the heart from lack of blood from the arteries he could not fix and that the only other option was to try the bypass, which he did not think we should do now.
That was last Friday and by Sunday my dad was able to go home.
After spending another weekend in the hospital I can see why Joe is interested in becoming a medic, HEB has some really great nurses. Of course, he's currently talking about going to medic school and holding off on nursing school for a couple years because he's really interested in getting out of Texas. Personally, I'd prefer him to get his RN first, then travel but I'm a school first play later kind of gal and I know he's going to do what he wants regardless and seems unconcerned about the prospect of going to Iraq, and in his words, "... would rather die in Iraq than spend the rest of his life as a pizza delivery man...."
Of course, I know going to war is the chance you take when you join the military, it's part of the job, but as his sister, I'd much rather have him in a military hospital compared to the frontline in Iraq. Yea, I'm selfish, I don't care. I just know I had to look at my dad's brothers, a medic in the Marines, picture on the mantel my entire childhood and I'd prefer my brother not suffer the same fate.