My Dad's Open Heart Surgery

Trying to give us the thumbs up

I was having a girls night with my sisters on Friday, January 27th. They got to my apartment around 8 pm, and not thirty minutes had passed before we got a facetime call from our mom. Emma was still up, and I was trying to get her to say, "I love you grandma!" when I noticed my mom was crying at the other end. I was like, "Uhhhh mom, what's up??" She kept saying over and over how it was such a miracle that we were all together so she didn't have to make three different phone calls and repeat the same story three times. She preceded to tell us that dad was going to have a triple bypass surgery. 

An urge instantly came over me of wanting to be there to support my family. It was late but we packed up the kids and scrambled what we could into a suitcase and drove late into the night and arrived at 1:30 am. Luck has it, that my Monday classes were canceled, allowing me to stay for almost a whole week with them. Unfortunately, Joel had to stay behind since he had too many classes that he couldn't miss. 

Following the night we arrived, dad was in for the surgery all morning. It took a total of five hours, and the first three was only to break open his sternum and get to his heart. As strange it might sound, the surgeons took veins from his leg, and unexpectedly ended up doing a quadruple bypass, instead of "just" a triple. Seeing him with so many tubes and struggling to breathe... that was rough. 

The first night out of surgery, his goal was simply to sit up in a chair for an hour. I needed my strong and funny dad back! It was weird to see him so out of it. I missed his humor so much!! He had all these little "goals", and the more he accomplished the sooner he could come home! Usually, heart patients need to stay a week at the hospital. Because my dad was doing so well, he was able to come home a few days early! He seemed to get better and better by every passing day, and he was able to come home by the time we eventually left for Idaho again. My dad is now doing great, and will return to work around the beginning of March!! I just feel so grateful I could be home to help and support my parents during this time, and that he is recovering so well.