le sigh

So it's Christmas Eve.. should be a happy, merry time right? maybe not so much this year. This is the first time EVER that one of my immediate family is not here. I miss you so much Wa! Not only that, but Dad ended up back in the hospital on monday. irregular heartbeat and kept almost fainting. Apparently when they released him, they had discontinued his blood thinner and changed all his other meds. jackasses. So Dad's sitting in the hospital for christmas, physically feeling fine, with a weirdo roommate who's non-christian so not celebrating christmas, waiting for his meds to even out. once they do he can go home. We'd had hopes that he'd be home today, but it doesn't look like it now. My extended family all gathers for christmas eve each year. as long as i can remember, it's been at Grandma's house... until last year when it got moved to my parents' where there is soo much more space for our growing family. Well, this year Mom is more than willing to let the party go on if she's home or not. I just can't do it. It's not a big venture physically because most of the food arrives with family and the pigs in a blanket are always done by my baby cousin (who's now what.. 22? gah!) But without Wa? And with Dad in the hospital? I cannot emotionally handle hosting that party in my parents' house. So we've moved the gathering to my baby cousin's parents' place. I'm so grateful that our family is so flexable! My sister's husband and kids are going to be there, and were willing to travel even further to another Aunt's home if needed.

So during naptime today my MIL is babysitting so The hubby and I will head to the hospital with christmas gifts. I spread the word to the family that everyone is more than welcome to stop by and visit. We can't bring dad to Christmas Eve, so I'm doing my best to bring christmas eve to my Daddy.

on that same kind of sad note.. one of the Catholic campus ministers from my university days passed away last week. After a fall she was diagnosed with cancer.. in her brain and collarbone, and i'd heard her hip too. She was diagnosed Nov 2nd, and passed away at home, resting comfortably with a smile on her face Dec 18th. Anne was a wonderful source of support for so many over the years. She was accepting of all kinds of people, and didn't care that I'd never even been baptized. If the church would have let her, she would have gladly married my hubby and I. And she gave the best, warmest hugs ever. Anne, you will be missed!

What a mixed holiday season it is this year.. Missing so many people, and blessed by the ones that are here.

Today

Dad should finally be on his way home today! He's been up walking on his own this weekend and feeling much better, hitting the milestones they require before they'll release him :)

Post Surgery

Dad's surgery was scheduled for 7am Monday, so i dragged my ass out of the house waaaay too early and got there at 6. (they said they'd take him between 6 n 7) there were a bunch of staff members that stopped in to say hi to dad.. several that hadn't seen him since he woke up, so he didn't recognize them at all, but they were all thrilled at how good he looked and sounded, and told him so. Apparently the hospital has been doing the hypothermia treatment for about a year - still a really new thing, and only done for patients that fit certain criteria, so there haven't been all that many cases.

Dad's surgeon talked with mom when he was done around 1:30. went well, needed to do 4 bypasses, and found a couple of cracked ribs. kinda explains why his chest hurt THAT badly.. not just from compressions which is typical, but also his ribs and some bruising. Dad was joking before surgery that he needs to find Chris (guy that was doing compressions) and jump on his chest later.

so i went to see Dad after hubby got home yesterday.. he was sitting up in a chair when i got there! they woke him up around 1pm.. so he's back to the slightly fuzzy stage, coughing alot which hurts like hell.. but he's doing really well. Dan the RN (he was working with dad yesterday too) said that he'll probably be ready to switch units sometime today which is a good sign, and another (final) step towards going home! I think I'm going to do the same thing today.. go visit when hubby gets home. We were supposed to get 2-3in of snow by 8am and then turn to sleet and rain later, but it's 7am and we have a good 3in already. I'm glad I got my errands done yesterday. Hopefully it'll be ok by 5!

huge improvements

Dad's stable again.. no insulin, no drugs at all other than a blood thinner. yay! he wasn't exactly in good spirits, but he's totally himself. no vegetable! he was making very dad-like jokes all afternoon, and rememebred me and mom no prob.. rememebred the couple of co-workers that stopped by.. my aunts.. we had to tell him what happened a couple times, but that's to be expected. short term memory is fuzzy.. long term is no prob. he doesn't remember if he ate his muffin on the way to work wednesday. He;s going pretty damn good.

monday morning they're planning to do bypass surgery. we talked with the surgeon that'll do it, and he said 3 or 4 arteries - so a tripple or quadruple bypass. that in and of itself is scary as hell, but he's doing really well now. he's on a nasal canula (the air tube under the nose) instead of the mask.. looks good, talking a bit tho it's painful to breathe.. Just need to keep him comfortable and stable for the weekend, and then surgery. I was absolutely thrilled when i got to the hospital and dad was sitting up with his eyes open!

thanks for the prayers, guys.. keep 'em coming!

Update: 10pm

Dad should be up to temp by now.. took 12hrs, but not a single hitch! everything is looking good and smooth. there was a bit of aspirated pneumonia that showed up on an x-ray yesterday that's now gone.. some blood marker that goes up when there's a heart attack/episode/whatever is trending well down now, so whatever happened is in the past... all fantastic things!

they're going to get him to normal body temp and keep him stable for the night. sometime tomorrow they're going to do a catherization and see if there's blockages in his arteries.. put in stents if appropriate.. and most likely after that (could be before) they'll back off on the sedation and see if he'll breathe on his own. so he *could* wake up tomorrow sometime. everything is looking positive..

exactly a year after..

my brother in law's dad suddenly died in his sleep, and about 8.5mo after my only sister died, my Dad had a pretty bad heart attack. thankfully he was at work early (at a hospital!) because on any other day he would have been driving still. thankfully he was talking to one of his coworkers when he dropped mid-sentence. thankfully a dr who usually isn't in his office at that hour was there right around the corner. We have alot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Dad is sedated and stable in the coronary care unit, being treated with a hypothermia procedure.. keeps him cooled to 92 degrees for 24 hrs and then rewarmed over 8-12 hrs to minimize any neurological damage. they'll be starting the warming process in a little over an hr from now, and once he's warm and awake they can start testing to see what happened and if there's any damage. No news overnight was great news, so mom and I are doing ok..

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers