Grandpa Dan

The week of November 10th will mark a turning point for the Powell Family.



Alex's dad was sent to the ER on Monday, after visiting his doctor due to heart palpitations. Turns out he has arterial fibrillation, and they wanted to keep him a few days to run some tests to make sure he didn't have clots in his heart, and to thin his blood so that they could shock his heart back into rhythm.

On Wednesday morning I was at work and Alex was in hearings when he got the terrible news that something had gone wrong during one of the tests. We all feared the worst and the next 6 hours were filled with confusion and many emotions. Alex went to the hospital immediately, and was met there by all the family and many close friends. Even Jason flew in from Pennsylvania.

In the end it was found that the anesthesiologist over medicated Dan which stopped his heart and breathing. They shocked Dan with the full force of the defibrillator to bring him back.



I saw so many emotions of others through this- I saw the grief of the family, the fear of losing a loved one, the regret of missed time spent together, the joy of many memories, and the anger at the mistakes of others.

But one that really surprised me was the awe I felt for my father-in-law. He is the most perceptive man I know. There he was, just hours after having a death experience- not blaming the doctors, but himself.

He mused over life choices that he had made that put his body in such terrible physical disarray, how he always thought those choices only really affected him. And it wasn't until he looked into the terrified faces of his family that he, in a sense, is born again.

That man will never touch alcohol, or caffeine again.

He will start exercising.

And he has inspired others to do the same.



One of which I am so proud of....

Try as I might, with all the begging, pleading, and bribing that I could think of, I could never get Alex to quit caffeine. But thanks to Dan and he realization of the terrible affects caffeine can have on your heart, Alex has also changed his life.