I'm back.

To be short: the "blockage" apparently wasn't there, or it dissolved before the catheterization. He got to go home the same day and we all had Thanksgiving together.

The longer version: Got up early and went over to the hospital with them. Waited around a lot while my dad argued about having to have a chest x-ray (he grew up with parents who were smokers and also did research in uranium mines, so he's understandably reticent to expose his lungs to any more potential carcinogens).

I did mostly okay. At one point I got a little verklempt, when I stepped out in the hall while he was changing, and I saw the infamous "crash cart" (I don't think I'll watch medical dramas any more...) and also a small sign that listed a couple of churches that were praying for the patients in the cardiac center for that month (The hospital he was in is loosely affiliated with the Mennonite Church). I told myself I had to suck it up, though, and be a big tough cowgirl. And for once, that worked.

Then my mom and I went and waited. Oh, I had my knitting. In fact, I finished an entire sock and began a second - this with fingering weight yarn on size 2 needles - during the whole day.

It wasn't really all that long. It was cold in the waiting room; it was poorly designed in that a revolving door opened right onto the waiting area.

About an hour and a half after we sat down, a nurse came and got us. "Oh, you're HERE," she said, "I thought you were in the cath waiting room" (I had seen a sign but assumed it was for patients awaiting the procedure). She said she was going to take us down to see him - a good sign, that, I decided. On the way, she remarked "The cath came out okay." I took it literally - meaning they had no trouble removing the catheter. When we got to the room, I found out she also meant it figuratively - the doctor said they could find no blockage, just a little "age-related" narrowing that was nothing to be concerned about. And that he could go home that day and wouldn't need to come back unless he had trouble or some future stress test showed a problem.

Interestingly, three different "noninvasive" (or minimally invasive) tests had showed a blockage roughly in the same area and they could not find one. So either there were three false positives, or somehow the blockage went away between the tests and the catheterization.

My mother handed me a handful of change - there were people that needed to be called and told.

As reserved as I am, as little as I am given to spontaneous public demonstrations of joy, I practically danced down that hallway to get to the phone.

The rest of the day was sort of long for us - he had to stay for a while to make sure everything was okay. At least he was in a small sort-of-private room, and the nurses brought in chairs for my mom and me. And I had my infamous sock. (several of the nurses had to stop in to see what I was doing; I guess not many people have seen people knit in the round on numerous double pointed needles before).

So anyway. The rest of the holiday passed fast - a little too fast. We had the big meal on Thursday, just the three of us (my brother and sister-in-law being at her mother's house). I left yesterday evening and got in to Longview today at noon. (I did take a run to the yarn shop for a few things-to-become-future-presents. Not Christmas presents, but presents for some indeterminate future time. And, well, okay, a few skeins of Aruacania Nature Wool for me - it's my new favorite yarn and I want to make a pair of mittens and that cabled hat in S-n-B Nation out of it). Had a Monte Cristo sandwich at Barron's, and a big big cup of hot chai tea. And I sat there, and thought about happiness, and how sometimes it's just something very simple. It made me happy to be sitting there, drinking my chai. The ridiculously big teacup it was in made me happy. The thought that I would soon be on the road for home made me happy. And I was happy that I could now more or less give myself up to Holiday Brain (at least at the times I'm not teaching and obeying New Rule - which kind of went out the window since Tuesday the 15th) and really ENJOY being alive and being creative and having lots of CDs of nice Christmas music (both good old sacred music - Handel and all that - and also some good old secular music like Bing Crosby) and making the fruitcakes (which got sidelined after last week) and wrapping presents and going to parties and all of that good stuff.

And in three weeks and a day or so, I repeat the train trip again - this time, without worry, with a couple weeks of relaxation ahead of me, with Christmas to look forward to.