Yesterday was a long day. Ralph and I got up at 4:30 am and headed down to the hospital to see my dad before he went in for surgery. My brother John, sis-in-love Lynn, my parent's pastor and another man from their church, were there with mom and dad already when we got there. We had time for a short visit, the pastor and church man left, they took my dad away, and the rest of us settled in the waiting room for a long wait. They said it could be 6 - 10 hours, and it ended up being about 9 hours surgery time, with total of 10 1/2 hours of waiting time. We had our area of the waiting room staked out, Lynn got them to fix the machine so we had free hot chocolate, Mom bought us all lunch in the cafeteria, we joked around quite a bit, and so the wait wasn't unbearable. Probably was to my mom, but she was strong and didn't let on. I know she got very tired as the day went on though. When it was all over and the doctor (who we really liked and really knows his stuff!) came out and told us all that he did, it finally sank in just how serious this surgery really was. I knew it was serious, but just didn't understand the extent of what was all going to happen. I can't explain it adequately, but he split my dad's chest open, and pretty much replaced/rebuilt the aorta right where it ascends out of the heart and the part where it hooks around and back down. The back side may have to be done later, but he left stuff in where it can be a much simpler surgery if that needs to happen down the road. When the doctor started talking about possible side effects and explained the risk of stroke that could have happened during surgery (and there's no way of knowing about that til he wakes up and starts talking to us and stuff), it really hit that this was a huge deal my dad just had done. But we have the knowledge that God is in control and provided Dad with an excellent doctor, and good health, and so his prognosis for recovery is very good. (How do people get through the trails of life without the Lord?)
We were able to take a quick peak at him (not that I really wanted to...it was scary.....) and the nurse explained some of what happens next, and then they said to just go home and get some sleep, since he wouldn't be waking up for hours. Soooo, we got home around 7:30 pm, to see our kids, who had been holding down things here by themselves all day. I haven't heard anything yet this morning as to how the night went.
Today is another busy day. Nick has an appointment at 11:30 for poison oak that is getting worse instead of better (when he gets it, he gets it BAD), and then Cara sees a specialist to see if we can discover why she is sick so much of the time.
Also, my mom has a cat scan today, which also needs prayers.
Time to wake the blessings and get busy!
Today is another busy day. Nick has an appointment at 11:30 for poison oak that is getting worse instead of better (when he gets it, he gets it BAD), and then Cara sees a specialist to see if we can discover why she is sick so much of the time.
Also, my mom has a cat scan today, which also needs prayers.
Time to wake the blessings and get busy!
