Dad

Wow, cannot believe everything that has been going on lately, and how fast the time has slipped away. OK, first off, Dad has been having some breathing troubles for a couple of months now, not really pneumonia, but really close. He finally got so bad last Friday morning that Mom took him to the ER, and they did a sonogram on him and it showed that a valve in his heart wasn't working right.

On to St. Thomas in Nashiville. I find out late friday afternoon that that is where he is, and that they are waiting for tests. Sunday I took Emily down to see her Papa since she was headed off for camp on Monday, anyway, she got a chance to visit, but there wasn't any news from any drs. Dad, understandably, was getting really frustrated and bored. Monday, Will and I went down and visited. Mom and Amber had gone down really early since they thought that they would get to one of the tests that was needed. Amber and Will left to pick up Carol at the airport and proceeded to head home. Mom and I visited and then headed home around 5 or so.

Tuesday: Will, Tori and I head down. I wanted Tori to see her Papa in case he had to have surgery or worse. Since St. Thomas has rooms that you can stay in like a motel right in the hospital, I got a room for us. We found out that they were going to do a valve replacement, and 3 bypasses. The surgery was set for 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday. After picking up some things at Target and eating some dinner, we all visited and the crashed at the hospital.

Wed: Mom came down early and was able to see Dad before he went to surgery. Tori and Will headed for home and I took a nap as the surgery was to be at least 5-6 hours and then another 5-6 hours before he would be allowed to start waking up. Fast forward to about 1:30 p.m., the valve had been replaced and the new veins were being hooked up, at 2:30 the surgeons nurse came down to talk to us. They had run into some complications. Dad's aorta was calcified and thin as paper and had to be replaced. OK, he has be on bypass for 5-6 hours already, and now they have to cool him down to 26 degrees centigrade, take him off the bypass and basically let him die so that they can replace the aorta. That would take until about 5 or 6 p.m.

At 8:30p.m. we finally got to see him. He had good color but they were going to keep him under until morning.

Thursday (today): I finally got to see Dad at 9 a.m. He looked better that last night, and was moving both legs and his right arm. He was swallowing and chewing on the bite stick in his mouth, but the tube isn't coming out until some time tonight, whenever he can breath on his own. He isn't moving his left arm at all which is a concern, and he hasn't opened his eyes yet.

I left to come home after the 11:30 am visit. I needed to sleep in my own bed and really get some rest. Patsy and Will conspired to get me to come home for at least one night. She insisted that I breing her car home and she would stay down there until I was ready to come back down.

Sud hasn't bothered to even try to make it down to the hospital. He always has some excuse or another, and for the first 3 days didn't even ask how he was. He makes me so mad. I would like to ring his neck!

We are looking at a very long road to recovery, but I am thankful that they did to the surgery because I still have my Dad, with his aorta the way it was I wouldn't have had him for long otherwise. Thank you Lord for keeping my Dad in you heart.