36 Hours Later
A big thank you to everyone who sent their well wishes - - I read them all and appreciate each and every single word.
They sent him in for a cardiac cath. early Monday morning. They didn’t even finish it all before they rushed him in for emergency surgery. He had a double coronary artery bypass as they found that one of his arteries was 100% blocked, the other two were 90% blocked.
Apparently, the surgeon told us that the one artery that is 100% blocked has been that way since birth. “That’s the way god made you, ” he said. He said his artery looks like a tree branch because it’s grown it’s own little system of blood vessels to compensate for not having a ‘normal’ artery.
They replaced the two on the left side of the heart - - both were 90% blocked. They did it by grafting a blood vessel from his right calf.
He was in surgery for 6 hours. I’ve been at the hospital since 2am Sunday evening. He went into surgery at 1pm Monday afternoon - was out by 7pm and admitted directly into ICU. We went up to see him - and it was so hard. He was on a ventilator and had every other tube known to man stuck in him, keeping him alive while his body recovered from the surgery.
Besides worrying if he’d make it through the surgery ok - - the hardest part was seeing him that way in the ICU. I guess, even as a nurse, I just wasn’t prepared to see him like that. For some stupid reason, I expected to go see him after his surgery and see just him. Not dad, buried underneath all that technology.
The nurse in me dissapeared for a good 24 hours and I was simply his daugher. I just love him so much. There are absolutely no words that exist to explain my father. He is the most wonderful man that anyone could ever meet. He is good, through and through - with a heart as big as the universe. That mans capacity for love and acceptance is truly amazing.
But he’s ok.
I stayed overnight at the hospital last night with my mom. This morning, they let us into the ICU to see him. He was still on the ventilator - - and still had all those tubes and wires. But he was more alert - and less sedated. He opened his eyes and I told him I love him.
He nodded and his eyes welled up with tears and I knew I had my Dad back.
I brought Mom home just about an hour ago - - we both needed some decent food and a shower. We’re headed back to the hospital in a few hours. We got a phone call shortly after I took her home - the nurse from the ICU said that they were able to remove the ventilator and the aortic balloon pump - and he was sitting up a bit in bed.
His first words to the nurse were, “Did Lisa take Penny (my mom) home so she could get her medication?”
I knew then that he’s going to be ok. If my Dad is worrying about other people, rather than himself - then everything is on it’s way back to normal now