Wow Scott, In a way I feel your pain with this post.

I got a call from my sister in Jax last night that my dad ( who had knee surgery earlier that day due to an old injury from 40 years ago) was in an ambulance on his way to the hospital, and his boss - the President of the company he works for (since my mom and dad are on their own in Cleveland) and my mom were headed to the hospital. My sister said - "Mom thinks dad had a stroke"! My first thought was OMG I'm going to lose my father. It wasn't any easier having my younger sister breaking down and crying to me over the phone about it - I could tell she was scared.

All they told me was that they think he had a stroke. Apparently his eyes had crossed - he said something to my mom about not being able to see, and he passed out. The firefighters in the ambulance said he had lost some use of the muscles on one side of his body / face, and couldn't speak very well, but he was awake and lucid.

I didn't hear back for an hour until I heard he was being tested and they still had no clue, but that he was awake and kidding with the doctors a little.

They still don't know what happened - he's still in the ICU, he sounds really really bad when I called him a few hours ago. In my entire life I have never heard him sound so tired and weak. We're still hoping everything will come out ok. Now they are talking about him maybe having pneumonia.

Basically in a matter of a minute last night my life went from fine to "what am I going to do".

Even though I talked to him and he is awake and seems to be in ok spirits - I am still not really ok yet. I am still completely freaked out about it, and thoughts of what would happen if things took a turn for the worse have been filling my head.

I already lost both grandfathers a few years ago - I'm not ready to lose my dad!

I hope that your mom comes through this ok, and that your family stays strong and supportive through all of it.