Dad Update

Time for the Dad update...

The prayers did it! My Dad is doing great!!

The Sunday after he went into Cardiac Arrest they started to wean him off all the drugs he was on to bring him around. The first thing they did was to see if he could breathe with out the respirator. Then they removed the tube. They wanted to know how is mental state was but with the report we were getting that he was able to identify everyone and say he wanted out...THAT was a good sign. Before I go on...Sunday was the first time I had seen my Dad since this all started. I, of course, lost it when I seen him lying there all hooked up, tube down his throat, and so out of it. Very hard to see.
Anyway, he was awake and during the week everything happened so fast. He still was without food and you could tell he was so hungry but his swallowing reflexes were not the best yet. Then they got out of bed to sit in a chair for a while. He liked that but it was still tough to see someone so independent become dependent. By Thursday he was whisked away and they put in a Medtronic Device called a Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator. They felt that what triggered this whole thing was "electrical". In fact wherever this is in the brain, Dad did suffer some slight injury but it will heal in time. Dad was discharged out of CCU and moved to Telemetry and stayed there for a couple of days. After that he went right into Rehab. He improved so fast that he claimed his independence and was ready to go home. So last Friday he refused the wheelchair and wanted to walk out of the hospital. That he did!
He is home now. Off and on he talks with us about what had happened. He then told us that he saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Someone was standing in this light but didn't get to see who it was. I told him maybe it was someone keeping him from entering because it was not his time to go. Or maybe it was someone leading him to it. I guess I would like to look at it the other way.
Now that he is home he will be continuing his recovery with Cardiac Rehab, Doctors appointments and eating healthy. We all will be. We will take this one day at a time and thank God for everyday he gives us with Dad.