The Gillens.net

This was my last triathlon of the season and it was certainly an emotional roller coaster. The weekend started out great with a nice visit with my friends the Schayots. Their 9 month old twin girls are precious and I was shocked about how different they looked and how much baby fat Willa had. She was quite cute despite having a bit of a cold. After short visit at their house, I did a short brick workout at my old college, Southwestern University. It was really neat to be back on campus, but it seemed much smaller and I was shocked that I used to drive to class sometimes. It couldn’t have been more than a 5 minute walk.

After a quick lunch, my Dad and I head to packet pickup for the race. We racked my bike in transition and attended the pre-race meeting. When we got back home, my Mom told us her resting heart rate was 130, she had chest pains, and that she wanted to go the hospital! We drove to ER quick and after they ran a battery of tests they were afraid that she had a clot in her heart or lungs. After a few more tests, they finally called her cardiologist’s office and they recommend that they give her some treatment for her irregular heart rhythm and go ahead and admit her to the hospital. When we left that night, my Dad and I thought they were going to have to put her under in the morning and go down her throat with a camera to try look at the back of her heart for blood clots. If there wasn’t a clot, they’d try to “shock” her heart back into normal rhythm. If there was a clot, they’d give her blood thinners. Either way, we both were extremely nervous. It was really an emotional day. I walked around the block before going to bed just to try to gather my thoughts and pray.

I didn’t really feel like racing, but I knew my Mom would be upset if I didn’t race, and I knew she was in good hands with my Dad and the doctors. So, I got up and drove to the race at 5am on Sunday, but my mind was obviously else where. The race went relatively well, but I often found myself just going through the motions without really focusing on the task at hand. If you want to read more about my race, you can view my race report here.

Immediately after finishing, I called my Dad to see how my Mom was doing and he said that the treatment for the irregular rhythm worked really well over night and they decided that they didn’t need to check her heart for a clot! They had give her some different medicine to try to lower her heart rate and they were just waiting for that to take effect. I quickly packed up my gear and headed to the hospital. My mom was in much better spirits and within a few hours she was discharged.

There is more testing and treatment to come, but things have stabilized and my Mom is in the extremely capable hands of my Dad. I’m really glad he’s there. He really takes good care of her.