It’s been a long week. This past weekend my dad went to the hospital with chest pains and found out he had a heart attack last week (well, possibly last week, they can’t pinpoint the exact time and it could have been earlier than that) and also found out that he has diabetes, along with high blood pressure and high blood sugar. He’s been in the hospital since Sunday. They did a heart catheterization a couple of days ago and discovered that he has three blocked arteries, one 99% blocked and the others less (I forget the exact numbers but something like 60% and 40%). So tomorrow (Friday) morning he is going to have heart bypass surgery. Your prayers are much appreciated.

Wednesdays and Thursdays my mom generally watches my son while I work because my wife works part time. However, with my dad in the hospital that didn’t work out this week, so I stayed home with him yesterday. He was tired and clingy (wouldn’t let me put him down all day) and when my wife got home we discovered that he had a fever. He didn’t sleep well last night (but he’s sooooo tired!) and although he’s a bit better today, my wife and I both stayed home and have been alternating taking care of him and sleeping. And I’ve been contemplating the homework I have due tonight and tomorrow night that I haven’t started yet. We’ll see how that works out.

Long week.

UPDATE at 11:30 pm Thursday: Surgery is at 7:30 am EST tomorrow (Friday) morning, and will take 3-4 hours (and possibly some extra time for prep). It will be a double, triple, or quadruple bypass, but they won’t know until they start. He will be in the hospital for 4-6 days afterwards and will be at home for at least a month after that. As for my son, he is still running a fever but no other symptoms, so the pediatrician said wait it out or call back if there are more symptoms or it lasts longer than a week.

UPDATE at 10:40 am Friday: My son’s fever seems to have broken overnight and he was sleeping when I woke up! He kept us up a lot again last night though, and I just woke up about a half-hour ago and have been waiting to get ready to go until he and my wife woke up, since they were both sleeping (and they both just woke up). My dad’s surgery started on time at 7:30, with no updates yet. My mom is supposed to know more sometime around 11-noon, and he will be unconscious for two hours afterwards and in ICU for two days, with 5-7 days in hospital total and then a month where he can’t drive. He likely won’t know who is around him until dinnertime tonight, or possibly later.

UPDATE at 11:30 am on Friday: My dad’s out of surgery and it went well! It ended up being a double-bypass; although there were three blockages the surgeon said the third one was not a primary artery and wouldn’t be an issue (for some reason they couldn’t do the bypass on it but like I said it doesn’t matter). My mom will be able to visit him in 45 minutes or so. Thanks again to everyone for your prayers; obviously the surgery itself is over now but it’ll be a week before he’s out of the hospital, so if you remember to send some prayers his way in the coming week they would be much appreciated.

UPDATE at 11:15 pm on Friday: My dad is doing OK but because he lost some blood during surgery, his blood pressure was low and thus his vitals were not stabilizing after the surgery and he kept moving around too soon. So they had to give him two pints of blood and knock him out again. So far his vitals have not stabilized enough for them to let him become fully conscious yet, although he is conscious enough at times to know that my mom and brother are there. I will be visiting tomorrow, although I think I may have to wait a couple of days before he’ll be interested in my new iPod (it came today!). My son’s fever and accompanying lethargy came back all afternoon but went away again a couple of hours ago and he just went to sleep. My wife and I are following suit, but I may have to listen to a podcast or two in bed first, now that it’s so easy :-) Thanks for your continued prayers.

UPDATE at 8:00 am on Saturday: Found a text message this morning that I got overnight saying that my dad was up and talking with breathing tube removed at 2:46 am!!! Also, my son was a bit fussy this morning and is asleep again after his morning bottle, but he does seem to still be fever-free.

UPDATE at 5:00 pm on Sunday: I got to visit with dad for about four hours yesterday and it went well. He was still drugged up but was still talkative and making his usual jokes. Some were funny (I thought most were). As many as usual anyway :-) Will go again this evening. They moved him to a new room and out of the ICU today! My mom tells me he is tired from the move, but doing OK.

UPDATE at 2:25 pm on Monday: The surgeon stopped by to see my dad and said he can go home tomorrow! That’s faster than expected!

UPDATE on Tuesday evening: My dad came home today and my parents are settling in. I stopped by on my way home from work for a couple of hours. There is enough to do tomorrow that I will still be staying home to watch my son while my wife is at work, although my mom will probably be able to watch him on Thursday. We believe my son had Roseola, based on the rash he’s had after his fever, but it’s about gone now and he’s back to his normal, happy self! Thank God!