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

drunken sailor

we've had an eventful week here.. Lilly finally cut that 4th bottom tooth, so we're up to 10! the 4 top and 4 bottom front, plus two top molars. and she smiles alot more while showing her top teeth now :)

So since mid october Lilly has been talking a few wobbly steps even tho she can basically run with a walker. well, this weekend she figured out how to really walk on her own and that it's faster (not having to find her walker and then get where she wants)

eeek!

Yesterday was brutal.. turns out Lilly decided to cut her first two top molars. she was MISERABLE all day long, refusing to nap, didn't eat much.. we went to grandma's in hopes of a good distraction which did work for awhile. and she ate some spaghetti and meatballs and fruit.. but good lord she was cranky! 3 minutes into the ride home she started to sleep, so Daddy climbed into the back to keep her awake til we got home. and i thought we were doing well, getting her to bed around 6:15.. that is until she woke up screaming at 7! It took us both quite awhile to get her calmed down, but eventually she relaxed.. Finally got her back to bed around 9:30, this time without a peep. Thankfully she's still quiet so I can get a few things done, the dogs out & fed, and run thru the shower.

oh yeah, and I'm fighting a head cold. great timing, eh? :)