Holidays Change of Plans

Thursday AM I went down to Indy to be with my Dad during his heart catheterization. A few hours later they were admitting him to the hospital and preparing to do open heart surgery. Wow! What a turn of events...On Wednesday he went to work and did his thing and on Thursday the doctors say it's too risky for him to go anywhere...he could have a heart attack. See what you don't know CAN hurt you! ;-P He had his Surgery on Friday, which actually was a blessing because the next option was to have to wait (in the hospital) until Tuesday because of New Years weekend. The doctor did a total of 4 by-passes or ( ). It's really an amazing process and it again proves that our body is NOT simply a random collection cells that just happened to come together one day...There as a designer and creator and that was God!

And though the operation has been around for 50 years and the doctor that did dad's surgery had done about 4000 of them in his 23 years of experience...It's still a BIG deal when it's happening to you or a loved one! We've spent a ton of time in the hospital the past several days...not because it's fun or because you like the cafeteria food...it's a labor of love...it's just what you do when these things come up in life. And though there's no good time to have your breast bone broken, your heart paralyzed, your body depending on a heart / lung machine to keep it alive, your breast bone wired back together with stainless steel, your heart restarted (if all goes according to plan), and then not being able to drive or lift more then 10lbs. for six weeks...The fact that it happened while my step-mom is on break from school teaching and that Smoothie King is closed the week between Christmas and New Years worked out really well.

The time between when dad went into surgery and when we got to see him again was about 5 hrs. The hospital we were at was St. Vincent and there was a volunteer Nun that walked families thru the process out near the waiting room. She had direct access to the doctors / nurses actually doing dad's surgery via a special hospital cell phone. There were a few milestones during the surgery that they always let the family know about. 1) When they are ready to open them up...it's takes an hour or two before hand "harvesting" good artery's and veins (one's that aren't all clogged up) from other places in the body...this is the material they use to "by-pass" the bad areas of the heart. 2) When he goes on the pump (a.k.a. heart / lung machine). This means they have stopped the heart to do the work and that his is totally dependent on the machine to keep him alive...we all know (or should know) that it always has been and will be God that allows us to be alive, but you get my point in this example. and 3) When they are closing him up. This Nun was great and she is absolutely PERFECT for that job. She doesn't pull any punches and tells you exactly how it is. She is VERY funny and a HUGH Indianapolis Colts fan. Her little scooter that she goes around on is all decked out in blue and white. She won a Today Show contest as the nations best sports fan. Her prize was a trip to last years super bowl in Detroit...No lie. When she been Ben Rothlesburger (sp) she said he was all smiles when she told him she was cheering for the Steelers to win. She then told them that she was don't so because they, the Steelers, had beat the best team, the Colts. He then stopped smiling...She said she really enjoy telling him that. There is a picture of her and my step-mom below.

God answered virtually all of our prayers through this trail in a way that totally blows me away. I think the only pray er that didn't come to be was when I asked God that there be no blockage at all when dad when into the heart cath. lab...It would have been a complete miracle...I knew it was a long shot but it could have happened with God and I didn't want to be blamed for not asking ;-)

There is much more that happened this weekend but I'll stop for now. Please thank God that everything went as well as it did. Sometimes things turn out how we like for them to and we have to praise God for this. Sometimes things turn out mostly bad and they're not fun at all and we have to praise God for this too! That is the mighty God we get to worship for ever, and ever, for ever!! And of course I have to throw some pics. of my niece because she's the best ever.