Miracles

Friday night Brandon and me and the kids met up with my mom and dad at the mall and visited while Breelyn played at the mall play yard. He told Brandon he had been having chest pains the last couple nights and we were concerned but my mom and dad kindof shook it off. Then we went and got a light dinner and visited somemore. I asked him to go to the Dr. anyways and get checked for my piece of mind if not his own. And he told me "Michelle, If I thought it was something serious I would go to the Dr." Later that night my Dad had a massive heart attack. I called my mom that morning at 6:30ish to let her know I wasn't going with my sibs at 7 and to not wait for me when she said she was at the hospital since Dad had a heart attack and to keep my phone by me. She called later to have Brandon help give Dad a blessing and to try to get a hold of my brother to give Dad a blessing. We threw the kids in the car and went to the hospital. I got to see him for a while and they were going to run some tests so we went home so Brandon could go to a funeral that day. My mom called a while later and all I heard was "Michelle you better get here NOW..."  I just said ok. hung up the phone and frantically called Brandon to hurry home. I was completely hysterical throwing the kids back in the car and sobbing/shaking while Brandon drove home as fast as he could jumped in the car and we drove to the hospital. The new hospital was having an open house that day and there were crowds of people. (Brandon tried to find parking close the hospital since the security was directing traffic they told Brandon to park somewhere else even though he said "i'm here for a patient not the party" so I jumped out and ran crying to the front doors. The guy saw me and ran to catch up with Brandon to tell him he could park in the parking lot. I was trying to push through the huge crowd saying "Excuse me!" When I wanted to yell at them to "Hurry up and MOVE IT!" The elevators were only going DOWN, because of the tours, and I needed to go UP! So the escorts or whatever by the elevator who were really awesome to our family ALL day got security to get me an escort up the elevator. When I got up there it was just my mom I could see, really upset, my bro in law was with her but didn't know anything so I didn't know exactly what was happening except that they were trying to get a hold of Devan and Ashley who had taken a tour (since we didn't know it was so bad) and left their phones on the little table in the waiting room. We noticed them ringing when we were trying to call them. So, security paged them and then had to find them, since there were so many crowds they couldn't make there way up to the 3rd floor. So, when they got there the Dr. came out and told us Dad had a 10% chance of making it. They were going to take him to the O.R. and was in the process of getting things ready so we could go and see him really quickly before they took him into surgery. Some of the tour groups had gotten lost and were on the CV/ICU floor crowding us and watching us hugging and sobbing. Some lady actually came up next to Ashley and I and was asking Ash all about chesney (we couldn't talk through our tears) I think it took her 5 minutes to realize she was standing right in the middle of a big group of hysterically sobbing people before she stopped talking and walked away. So, they took us up to the room, where they did the tests on Dad, so we could see him. They had security standing in every hallway/entrance as they escorted us from the waiting room to where he was to block any tours/people from getting in the way as they quickly took us back so they could get Dad going. We got to whisper our Goodbye's before the Dr. said "Let's hurry and get them out of here so we can get him back." They showed us the x-ray video screens of Dad's blocked arteries and his barely beating heart. If you clench your fist really fast that is what the heart is supposed to do and dad's was just barely clenching. They got us into a private room while they got him back to surgery, so we didn't have to be around all the tour groups. All the technical stuff comes in here but I don't have it down very good so maybe i'll update this later. Turns out they ended up doing a triple bypass on his heart. The Dr. normally stops the heart for this to happen but since he didn't think the heart would ever start if they stopped it they didn't stop it. When the Dr. came out to report the first thing he said was "Miracles do happen."   We were surrounded by really great family and friends. I have to say my Dad has some amazing friends who care about him. The ward was already starting a fast for three other people. Two of them were also having open heart surgery. So, the ward quickly added Dad to the list. My sibs spouses parent's all went to the temple that morning and put his name in their temples. It's amazing the love and support people gave. Dad was covered in tubes and his room was crowded with machines but yesterday, Monday, they were able to clear mostly everything out, and he looks really good. It hurts him to talk but he can. I keep smiling because I am just so happy to have him still here with us and doing so good. He even smiles through the pain. You can definitley tell he is in a lot of pain. We aren't sure yet how this changes everything but we are so grateful we will get to have him around for a long time.
It was so scary when they told us his chances were slim (10%) and let us in to say our goodbye's before the surgery since they didn't think he would make it through, but it seems like he is back to his old self. And now it's like those dark hours never even happened. He obviously has a long haul ahead of him as his heart is very damaged but we are so lucky to have that. Like Dr. Del La Rosa said "Miracles do happen."

A little of what I do know about the situation:

When they showed us the x-ray's the main arteries to the heart were completely blocked. You could see the blood trying to pump to the heart but then it would back up (into his lungs) which is really bad. Since there was so much liquid in his lungs it prevented them from getting him checked and into surgery immediately.
Something else. My Dad couldn't feel the pain his body was going through which also shows how bad the heart attack was. The less you actually feel the worse the heart attack.

Dad must have had a heart attack years ago and not known it. (Just a little joke he probably remembers: I went into his room one night to remind him about the meteor shower we wanted to watch through the telescope. I whispered "Dad... dad..." he opened his eyes and jumped in his bed thinking I was a ghost or something and he told me I gave him a heart attack. I really hope it wasn't me.)

They know that he must have had a heart attack some time ago because at some point his body created it's own bypasses to get blood to the heart. I remember in highschool he had some stress tests done because he was having some episodes but they told him he was healthy as a horse. Maybe if they could have looked closer they might have seem the arteries starting to block or something. He really is a pretty healthy guy.

It sounded at first like they thought the outcome would be a mechanical heart or heart transplant. So it was really good that when they got into the surgery they found they could do a triple bypass instead.

At the mall that Friday Dad was holding Bradley and mentioned he felt hot. We said he always feels hot. When we went to bed Bradley felt hotter and so I stripped him down. But he was really miserable and couldn't sleep. I was scared and wanted to take him to the Dr. Brandon was too tired and wasn't sure what to do. So, I took Bradley out to the living room and tried to rock him and cried. I was worried about my Dad and Bradley and just sobbed and was thinking the worst. What If I lost both of them... Everything seems worse at night. About the time Bradley finally fell asleep 3:30 Dad had his heart attack. They kind of continued on the same ups and down's until Yesterday, Monday, they both had color back in their faces. Not the Bradley's was in anyway similar to Dad's it's just crazy their illnesses had the same up and down pattern as the other.

We are so grateful everything seems to be on the mend and pray it continues that way. I love my Dad so much he is a really wonderful example and i've always wanted to be just like him. He is the friendliest, selfless, caring guy I know. He is an amazing grandpa. He really loves his grandchildren they mean so much to him. He is a wonderful father, too. I'm thankful for his random phone calls to see how our family is doing. Especially those times he called to see how I was doing after I had my babies, those really meant alot I needed them.