Dan's Home!

With thanksgiving, we all rejoice that Dan's double by-pass surgery went well! Since his stroke about 2 months ago, he made good progress but eventully encountered the same problem causing shortage of breath due to lack of blood flow. A trip to emergency last week and thorough testing, the recommended solution was surgery. This past Thursday, first thing in the morning, he was anxious to move ahead with the surgery. . .recognizing that although routine, it was risky. Even the head surgeon was a man of faith and asked Dan's Pastor to have prayer with all before the surgery! From 7 to 1 pm before we saw him again and as you can imagine there were so many tubes it seemed impossible to keep track of them all! As he opened his eyes for the first time, we could hardly contain ourselves. . .he wanted to talk but with tubes, he couldn't say a word. The doctor and nurse were amazed at his quick response and recovery and within 3 hours they had removed the mouth tube! which we were told would be in place for 6 hours! He could now talk a little and drink! Now the slow recovery process. . .and as you might guess, that first night was 48 hours long!!!! Day one was liquids and some easy food. By noon of the following day, he was sitting up. . .very gently. Everything was easy does it. They watched him like hawks only they were God's Angels! . . checking all pressures, blood sugar every hour, numerous drains as though he were a new house under construction. . .until Sunday and all tubes were removed. . . including oxygen!!!! This was a great sign that his by-passes were working. The staff felt he was now ready for release! although he was not sure he was ready! He had his ups and downs along the way but the ups have won out and he is now home as of 6 pm today, Tuesday!!!! We plan to travel to Portland again tomorrow and help Sheila in Dan's efforts towards independence. We thank God for mercy, grace and strength and above all for love we all share. It's this love that gives us strength to endure the times like this!!