Introduction

Our Dad had a heart attack. It was about as severe as it could have been without killing him, and without some amazing paramedics, doctors, nurses, and various and sundry other medical professionals, it would have killed him. It could yet. But we've gone looking online for information on heart attacks, surgery, and recovery, and we have yet to find any useful information or even voices of experience for anyone who has had an attack that was this bad and this sudden. What we read is that after an attack, there might be medication, maybe surgery, and from the sound of it you have days, weeks, even months to schedule the next step. Those who have surgery, we're told, are off the respirator in under 24 hours and often home in a week. This is about as far from our experience as we could imagine, so it inspired us to create this blog, in the hopes that others who go seeking information can find someone out there who has been through it.

There are six children in our family: Kirsten, Eric, Amy, Sarah, Emily, and Katie. We range in age from 27 to 40. Kirsten is severely disabled. It will probably be Amy, Sarah, Emily, and Katie doing most of the posting here, and we'll try to remember to identify ourselves when we post.