Full of Joy

We are PRAISING GOD today! Thank God with us! My dad was released from the hospital early this morning. He came back to my aunt's house (where we've been crashing for almost 2 weeks!) to settle for the day. PLEASE PRAY tomorrow morning (Monday)! My mom will be driving dad, and my grammy back home. Pray for managable pain during the car ride, no pukes, safety, and good weather! I know my mom is nervous about the trip. I think they probably all are. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive. We will certainly all rest easy once my dad is back in his own home! He can't wait to get there, rest, and heal by his massive Christmas tree! We are rejoicing! Today has been quite an emotional day. When I said good-bye to my dad, I just crumbled into his arms and wept. I feel like I have "Post-Traumatic-My-Dad-Had-Major-Heart-Surgery-Stress-Syndrome". BUT, I am thanking God my dad will soon be on his way home! And soon, we will ALL be together for Christmas...

Today is dad's 11th day in the hospital! Yikes-O. He is just "chomping at the bit" (says my mother) to get out of here. Yesterday was a ROUGH day. I said everybody's Thanksgiving prayers must have fizzled out for Black Friday. It was certainly black for my dad. He was pukey ALL day. The pain was pretty bad on top of that as well. Once night fell, so did everything he had eaten that day. (IF you catch my drift.) Many of the nurses, the PA, and the head medical doctor all came in. They were worried, we were worried, dad thought he was gonna die. For cryin' out loud! Anyway. Today things are much calmer. Dad is resting better, and feeling better. No pukies to report. We even had visitors, which always lifts our spirits! He has gone for his walks, and is now sleeping. Mom and I are ready for a snack. Thanks for praying, and continuing to pray!

From our hospital to your's...oh wait! I hope no one else reading this is in the hospital! ;) Seriously, we have had so much FUN reading your comments! When I first blogged, I had hoped for 15 comments for my dad. When I checked periodically, the number kept climbing. I was getting more and more excited as Thanksgiving day came closer. When I finally suprised my dad with his blog post, there were 113 comments! Whoa baby! THANK YOU all so much for your sweet messages! As I've been reading them to my dad, there's been laughter, near tears, "aw's", stories told, and definite over all encouragement! What a priceless gift! Thank you for participating and sharing your sweet love with my dad and family! I am humbled and overwhelmed by your kindness to us today! With blog comments PLUS Facebook comments, we had over 130 responses!! WOW! THANK YOU!

This year, my daddy will be celebrating Thanksgiving from his lovely hospital bed! My mom and I will be spending the entire holiday with him, and my family wanted to do something special. Please post a THANKSGIVING greeting to my dad! You can tell him anything you want. Whether it's why you're thankful for him, that you're praying for him, an iside joke, that you love him, or whatever you come up with on your own. I am going to read all the posts to him sometime on Thanksgiving day! I know it will blow him away! We are so grateful to all of you who have been praying for my dad! We are all humbled and overwhelmed by God's faithfulness to us through you. Today we are THANKFUL for our loving God and THANKFUL for you! For those of you who know my dad, as he would say, "Our hearts are full and overflowing..."

Dad has been having another positive day of recovery! He went for another "long" walk, which is wonderful. After heart sugery, the lungs can get filled with fluid, especially when sitting in bed all the time. Walking is necessary to get the circulation flowing. My Dad is determined! My mom got him a Coke today and said he's been talking quite a bit. He also ate a good amount of lunch! This is also a praise because for the past several days, we've just been spoon-feeding him about 3 bites of jell-o. Yay for real food going down, and staying down! Mom bought him an electric razor so she could shave him, too. Yesterday my dad was joking with the nurse about him being "good lookin'". A sure sign he is starting to feel a little bit more like himself. We find so much joy in these little steps of progress. Seeing any glimpse of my true Dad is so refreshing! He's still got a ways to go in the hospital, but we want him to be completely OK before h...

Praise the Lord! Dad developed a bit of a fever today. He knows that walking helps a fever go down, so he said, "Let's go for a walk!" Mom and I looked at each other like "Is he for real?!" We are so impressed with his determination and strength! Dad walked all the way down the hallway and back. In the midst of the pain and everything, he pushed himself to do it! Go Dad! We are so proud of him! SO VERY PROUD!!! We also had some more visitors today which lifted dad's spirits! PRAISE THE LORD!

Thank you God for all those who were praying for my Dad last night! God answered all of your prayers! We are so grateful to all of you for CRYING OUT TO GOD for him! Dad is thankful, that's for sure! He had a good night, according to the nurse, and my dad agreed. This morning we walked into his room to find him standing up! He had "bathed" himself (part of his PT) and walked to his bed. Wonderful progress! Yesterday Dad had requested Starbucks coffee (of COURSE!) and so mom and I went there first thing this morning for him. (We just happend to need stuff, too.;) When we brought it in, mom told him it was decaf, so he didn't want it anymore. HaHa! :) The pain is still present, but he is definitely able to rest much better. YAY! THANK YOU for praying! It really means so much to my dad, and to my whole family. I know I say that all the time, but boy do we mean it.

It's Saturday night, November 22. As mom and I were preparing to leave the hospital tonight, we were making sure my dad had everything he needed or wanted. We kissed him, and told him we loved him. Right before we walked out the door he said: "Tell people to pray." Us: "Ok. We will." Dad: "Tell them..." (LONG pause, it's hard for him to talk.) "CRY OUT TO GOD!" Mom burst into tears and we went rushing back to his bedside. I asked my dad if he wanted us to pray over him right then, and of course he did. Mom grabbed his hand, I rested my hand on his leg, and CRIED OUT TO GOD for my sweet Daddy. The pain is so bad right now for him. He told the nurse 10/10 and that's WHILE he's on a morphine pump, perkaset, AND motrine! I can not even imagine! From my precious Dad's healing heart to your's, Please CRY OUT TO GOD for relief from his pain and suffering tonight! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

This post is something that is just over-flowing from my heart. I know this whole ordeal is completely about my Daddy, but God is still taking care of me in such special ways! I am amazed by that! I thought it might be cool for those of you faithful readers to hear the neat ways that God is specifically watching over my every need, and even wants. Most of you know this crazy "diet" that I've been on for almost 2 weeks. I am proud to say God has given me the self-control to stay ON the wagon for this whole time. I am so thankful for that! It's been extremely difficult to eat the way I need to right now in this hospital situation. One night I was absolutely CRAVING strawberries. (Which I am allowed to eat!) The next day my mom and I went on our routine Starbucks visit. It was cold, the wind was blowing, and we just put our heads down and plowed down the block. All of the sudden I looked up to see one of those Philly fruit carts. I hustled over, and what do I see...

My dad is in his regular room now. We are thankful because that means he is progressing well! They also took out 2 of his 3 drainage tubes this morning, which is more positive proof of his progression. Taking out those tubs is really painful. It gives me major creeps to even think about. Every one on his level of the hospital is either here for heart or lung surgery recovery. They all drag along these drainage tubes behind them wherever they go. The body just fills up with fluids during surgery and they drain it, I guess. My dads hands are hugely puffy. He always looks at his hands like they're really bothering him. One part of my dad's suffering is naseau. (sp?) He's constantly feeling sick, and many times actually does throw up. They are trying to get that under control, but nothing has really worked yet. He does seem to be resting better this afternoon then he had been. Thanks for praying!! We appreciate it so much! And if my dad could speak well enough, he'd certain...

Well, we're halfway through the afternoon and making our trip to Starbucks. (Thus the wireless.) So far today, my dad has really had a rough morning. Sadly, he thought that the nurses were trying to kill him. He was terrified. He was on such high dosages of drugs that it made him think crazy things, obviously. Thankfully, God worked it so two dear friends were in the ICU with my dad during that time. It would have been difficult for us to have seen that. At least we were able to be prepared for what we were about to see. The pain is still absolutely horrible. He can barely move without just about going through the roof. Even a tiny burp is excruciating. It's very sad to see. We wish we could do something to help. The good news is, my dad's progressing well. His heart is doing well! The pain from breaking his ribs, the inflamation, and finding the correct pain killers has made this process just awful. More good news is that he is most likely being moved out of th...

When mom talked to the ICU nurse this morning, the nurse asked if my dad had a low pain tolerance. This, of couse, was hard for us to hear because we know that my dad actually has a very high pain tolerance! My mom informed the nurse of his past 2 heart surgeries and kidney stones. Since they now know that dad does have a high pain tolerance, they were able to better determine that he is in an incredible amount of pain! Please pray for the pain to subside! We haven't gone back to the ICU yet today. We are still waiting for one of my brothers to arrive and then we'll all go together. Other then the pain, my dad is doing well. That is great news! We just ache for him suffering so much. It's incredibly difficult to see him like that. He can not talk very much, and when he looks at us the pain in his eyes is almost unbearable. Sometimes it's hard to stay in the room. THANK YOU for your continued prayers for my dad and my family. We can still feel God's peace ...

Mom and I were just in dad's room. We watched his chest moving, and it seemed a bit alarming. He was getting sick, and ended up throwing up. I can't imagine the pain of throwing up with all ribs being broken, along with the heart just having had been opened up. Mom and I left the nurse to deal with it and are back in the lounge with internet. The ICU is packed and there is no place to sit. We are feeling pretty tired and emotional. It's hard to see the man you love most in this world suffering so much. To clarify from my ealier post, we are praising God they went in through his ribs. Though it is the most painful, going back in through his previous scar from his first 2 surgeries would have been incredibly difficult. They already went back through the scar tissue last time and doing it a third time would be a lot more complicated. Though it's a bad thing, it's the best scenerio for my dad! Someone visited my dad while we were out, and we are disappointed to...

I feel terrible that I was not able to update you after dad's surgery was over. Our family waiting room closed at 9PM, and we got shifted to the ICU waiting area where there is no internet available. Dad was in surgery until around 9:30 PM or 10:00 PM last night. It got to be really hard for us waiting there at the end! Finally an ICU nurse came out and we were allowed to go in and see him. It's always such a sad sight. And it's sad to me that I can even say "it's always" becasue of how we've been through this before! It was a very difficult surgery. (That cracks me up when the doctors or nurses say that. What heart surgery ISN'T difficult?!) They ended up going through my dad's left ribs (EW.) and working on his heart that way. They cut all his ribs, so his incision is rather large on his left side. It looks like a shark bite! For those of you who know my daddy, that will be his "famous" line from here on out! HaHa! We are ab...

The LONG wait is turning longer. My aunt just said, "Ok, it's starting to creep." We're getting a little restless. Dad's been in surgery for 4 hours and 15 minutes. We have no updates, and do not know how much longer it's going to be. The family waiting room is slowly emptying out as their family members are done. We'll probably be one of the last families to leave. I just saw a surgeon walk in and my stomach flipped, but he wasn't dad's. Still waiting... My Mama's getting anxious. So am I.

Apparently our update nurse was off at 5PM, so we will no longer hear updates until dad's surgery is complete! It's only been 3 hours since his surgery started, so we have a ways to go. I just got back from the hospital "cafe". For those of you who normally follow my blog: I am getting tired of salad, chicken, and plain coffee. Sigh. That was a completely selfish sidenote. Moving on. Most of my family/friends here waiting with us are getting pretty exhausted. We are all in good spirits, but it's been a long day! I can't wait until the operation is over! We are feeling God's peace and His mighty presence! Thank you for praying!

I haven't seen my dad since my last post. After posting, we circled my dad (some family and friends) and one of dad's friends prayed. Hello tears. I decided to embrace the tears. All too often I try to hold myself back from crying. Maybe it's me trying to be strong. Maybe I don't want my dad to see me so upset. But today I concluded it's good to cry. I let the tears fall as I gripped my dad's hand with both of my hands and his friend cried out to our loving and powerful God. Before they wheeled him away on the lovely gurney, I leaned down and hugged and kissed my daddy. We held each other and cried. It's a helpless feeling to watch my mom follow my dad's gurney down the hallway to open heart sugery. But, there is peace. Explanation? Our God, and all your prayers! There are people praying all over the world, and we couldn't survive without them. THANK YOU to all of you who are praying! After the first time we said "good-bye", they called my ...

They OR people are about to come get my dad. It's about 11AM. So, that means the surgery will be underway in the next couple of hours. The surgery will be around 6-8 hours long. It's different every time. Dad met with the surgeon this morning, and he informed my dad that they will be going in through his side, instead of cutting open his original scar. We are glad about that! I am getting close to tears, so that's all I'm gonna say for now! I will try to keep you posted as we know things. I am thankful for God. I am thankful for His love. I am thankful for His peace.

I am all packed. I am ready to go. I am waiting for relief to come so I can leave for Philly/NJ! (Relief for the babes, I mean!) Chail and I had a fun day of running errands and getting things done so Auntie can leave today! (Ok, I am going to stop talking like a KG teacher now.) My dad checks in the hospital today at 3PM. They are going to do some testing, get his cumodin (sp?) levels worked out, and make sure he looks spify in his gown. We still do not know what time the surgery will be tomorrow! I will do my best to post as often as I can. From my whole family, we all appreciate your prayers so very much! We can all sense God's presence and feel His arms around us. There are trying times. THANK YOU!! Chail and I sent this to Grandpa's phone this morning! =)

Hello everyone!Thank you for praying for our family! Thank you for praying for my precious daddy and his heart! My dad has the most giving, forgiving, loving, and huge heart out of any man I know. It hurts my own heart to watch him go through yet another physical heart surgery. It seems ironic to me that the man with the purest heart I know has had to have so many physical heart operations. I 100% wish I could go through this surgery FOR him. I would if I could. I guess God has chosen for my dad to endure this, and to learn things that I will never know. We, as a family, are praising God that Dr. Bavaria will be his surgeon, officially! He has performed my dad's first 2 operations, and we feel confident in his skills. We are so overwhelmed with God's goodness in the insurance approving this, and allowing it all to take place. It has been a looooooooooooooong process for my parents. But, here we are. This Wednesday, November 19, the surgery will officially take place in Philly, ...

You think I am kidding. I am not. Hi. My name is Abby and I'm a bread addict. For quite awhile now, one of my dear BFF's, Caleb, has been talking to me about my diet. He has been concerned about my "issues". You all know my issues. Why try to hide it? It's the facts of life, people. Along with him my mom, brother, and sister-in-law have voiced concerns. Fine. So...coached by Caleb, I decided to TRY a new diet (not a lose weight diet, a change-what-I-eat diet) It all started on Tuesday. I had NO IDEA what I was getting myself into! No bread. No unatural carbs. No sugar. No yeast. No gluten. This eliminates almost my entire normal diet. I am now consuming lots of protein (mostly meats/eggs/nuts: I am not a meat-girl), vegetables (I've always hated vegetables), and a select few berries. (of which I had been WRONG about ealier today and just about had a melt down when I found out I could not, in fact, eat cranBERRIES) Unless you've tried it, yo...

The ridiculously long drive TOGETHER from MN all the way to PA! Father put together all my new furniture when the fam visited me here over Labor Day! He can build or fix ANYthing! I miss my Daddy. I wish I could see him before his surgery. I wish that wasn't the next event that was bringing us together. It is what it is. We're pressing on. One day at a time...