Phone Calls

SO on Sun morning my Dad checked into the hospital and at about 6:45am they took him from his room for surgery. They did what they needed to do and finally after 2pm we were told that they were done with the operation, that he was off of the heart/lung bypass machine adn that his heart was beating on its own!!! But we were told he was still on the operating table he needed to be closed and such and that it would be at least another 40 min or so before we would hear anything more. Finally close to 4pm we were told he would soon be coming back to his ICU room, where he arrived about 4:30. We saw him briefly as they wheeled him past and into the ICU and they said it would be an hour or so for them to get him transferred into bed and connected to all his tubes and drainage tubes, blood transfusion and the moniters and such. So around 6 I think it was we finally got to see him but only briefly! It was hard to see him with all the drainage tubes, he was still intubated (breathing tube in his throat) because he had been under anesthesia so long they didnt want to remove it until they were sure he would be ok on his own. They are going to remove it in the morning! But when we went into the room to see him his eyes were open. He was able to hear and understand us but he couldn't talk. He would blink his eyes to respond though so we knew he was there. I didn't really say anything. I was crying. I know the scariest part is/was over but it was hard to see him like that! I can handle it when I am working but when its my own family, especially my Dad its hard! I guess to some extent that is probably pretty common for most people in my field of work. I am sure its always easier when you have no connection to the person! I am looking forward to going back tomorrow and this week when he can communicate more and we can really see how he is doing. There is still a chance of danger and complications, with infections and recovery and such and making sure he doesn't "bust a seam" (blow the stitches/staples or whatever they used to close him) but the surgeons said his heart is already pumping better than it was before the surgery! They removed a good size piece of the calcification and they said it was completely solid, possibly more-so then they were expecting. I don't know how pliable they were expecting it to be but I was told it was completely solid!

We did have a couple moments of fun though in the waiting room today despite all that was going on. During part of the waiting I was talking with my sister Denise about something and I wanted to go tell my mom my idea, I had known she was in the hall with my cousins wife Darla, so as I went around the corner I was calling for her, "Mom" but at the same time there was a nurse walking by and she heard me call "mom" and stopped turned around as if I was talking to her and looked right at me. Then she got a little bit of a look of confusion on her face and kept going. It was kinda funny, so then we were joking around about how she would have thought something like "why would my kid be here?" or something like "I don't even have daughter why did I look?" Anyways the other thing was my other "mom" was asian! SO we had a good laugh at my moment! The whole time my mom wasn't even in the hall anymore, she had stepped outside! UGH!!!

The other moment was during a moment when we knew what was going on and we were waiting for dad to come back to the ICU. we were making phone calls and letting people know what we knew. During this time my mom was asking us to call some of the people to make it easier... she told us at one point she was to the "M"'s in her cell-phonebook list. SHe called someone and with whatever she was saying we were tryign to figure out who she had called. We werent sure if her phonebook was the M for the first or last name. We figured out she hadn't called Marie Osmund, or Tim McGraw, and it wasn't Madonna either! I said maybe it's "mama" meaning my grandma! It wasn 't her either. Anywyas after though she decided to call my grandma! When she did apparantly something happened on the phone line and both her and my gma heard a ringing type noise in the phone and they got disconnected. Well we didn't know this part of the situation and I hear my mom say on the phone "did your phone just ring?" and so being the sarcastic person I am, I was like "you just called her and she answered didnt she?" anyways Denise and I got a good lauhg out of this even though my mom didn't find it very amusing. So we told DEann about it later and we were all a little giggly and had a good laugh about it, except when we were teasing mom about it she got a little aggressive and smacked Denise and I upside the head for laughing at her! It really hurt! I didn't think that was very nice or neccessary, in fact she hit me more than once! I already had a headache! UGH! SO then a little while later when we were leaving and we were getting in the elevator I was like "did your phone just ring?" and she looked at her phone, so I was laughing, I thought she was going to hit me again but I am glas she didn't!

Well I am glad the scariest part is over, even though I know he is going to be super sore in the morning and that he will probably be grouchier than ever because they are going to make him get out of bed and stuff and he isn't going to like that! I know we still have quite the road ahead, but I am thankful he made it so far! I am thankful for my Savior and the comfor ti have had in this time, as well as my family! I am thankful for the dinners being provided this week by ward members from church! I am truely blessed!~ I am thankful too for the little moments of fun despite a long and tiresome scary day!!!