Miracles Do Exist

Today was the hardest day of my life. Last week I left for a business trip to California. While out there, my dad was admitted to the hospital for heart problems. Everything was looking good and I was told there was no reason to come home. They were about to release him, when they did further tests to be sure, and they found several blocked arteries. When I landed last night at midnight my mom gave me the news that today dad would be having bypass surgery. Even though the stress tests came out good, they found the blockages after an angiogram (thank god they decided to go ahead with it!!!) Apparently all this time, his body found another way to flow the blood and oxygen to his heart but basically he could have dropped at any given time. So this morning mom and I headed over at about 7am to be with him and wait for the surgery. The doctors said that things were looking good because his heart was completely healthy and they wouldn't need to do anything with that...no damage, no heart disease...nothing. Even though this was all so hard to deal with, we were our typical family and laughed and helped make him feel at ease as best we could until they took him away. Then the waiting started. They told us it would be about 5-7 hours. The nurses came out every two hours to tell us it was all going smoothly, but of course we were wrecks. Anybody who knows me knows how close I am with my family and how much I adore my father. After a little over 5 hours, they came out and told us it all went beautifully. In the end it was quintuple bypass (5 arteries). They told us we could wait another hour and go in there to see him before we headed home. I was terrified to go in, but I know my dad and I know he's an ass kicker and that he would come out on top. And he did. Of course he was hooked up to machines and looking so vulnerable, but he looked so much better than I thought he would. The nurse told us that he might be able to understand if we talked to him, and although he was still in a deep state of sleep, we know that he heard us.
Leaving tonight was so hard and even though I only got two hours of sleep last night, I don't know if I'll really sleep much tonight either. I am counting the hours until we can go back in the morning and see him. As always, my mom is a trooper. My mom and dad are the most amazing couple in the world, after almost 40 years together, they are still like a lovesick teenage couple, even the nurses and doctors couldn't believe how sweet they were, so I can only imagine how hard this has been on my mom. But she is now at home and I think feels a little more at ease after seeing him looking like a rock star right after surgery. Its going to be a LONG road to recovery, but we'll be a family and get through it step by step, day by day. The hospital is giving us classes on how to help care for him and what we need to do to get him back on track.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, I know they helped. As me and mom sat in the waiting room, we can't believe how many people came to be by our side and who called to check-in. We are very lucky people to get through this. I'm so glad this day is over and I will be so happy to see him in the morning.