Another Update On The Old Man

Today was yet another day filled with miracles.

When we got to the hospital this morning, The Old Man was sitting up in a chair. The nurse said he had a great, restful night with no pain. And he was in very good spirits. All of this 18 hours after having major life-saving surgery. First miracle.

Things didn't go as we had wanted this morning and most of the afternoon. His kidneys seemed to have stopped working, even though his surgeon had put the stints in lower to not touch the arteries going to the kidneys. And his blood pressure was very low. It scared me because his nurse Katie was upset and so concerned. We all sat there around his hospital bed, everyone of us staring at the catheter bag, hoping to see it get fuller. I took a break and walked down the long hallway to the water fountain to fill my water bottle, and on the way I saw The Old Man's awesome cardiologist talking to one of the nurses. He recognized me and waved, and walked over to say hi. I told him that The Old Man was here, and gave him the Reader's Digest version of what had happened. He literally ran to The Old Man's room, got on the computer to check all of his charts, and started talking with The Old Man. He said he was going to tell the nurse and the other doctors that he was taking him off two of his current meds, as they might have some impact on his kidneys. When he left The Old Man's room, I walked out with him and thanked him, and he put his arm around me and said that he was truly amazed. He said that the majority of people that have an aortic artery aneurysm rupture don't make it. He also told me that even the test results and numbers say that he has a weak heart, it is a strong heart with the will to live. Second miracle.

The nurse came in to remove the stints and tubes they had in his neck and she asked us to go get a snack or whatever while she did her work. We (me, Minnie, my cousin and her husband, and The Old Man's cousin and his wife) all walked down to the big ICU waiting room and chatted. While we were there, The Old Man's vascular surgeon walked up and had a huge smile on his face, and gave us the thumb's up sign. Even though it appeared that The Old Man's kidneys had shut down, he said he was amazed at how good he was doing, and he was still optimistic for no dialysis. At the time, we were honestly a bit skeptical, but this came from the surgeon, so we were happy. Third miracle.

After many glasses of water and a couple of IV bags, the BP was still low and he wasn't peeing. My cousin and I started sending out text prayer requests and asked our faithful prayer warriors to specifically pray for the BP to stabilize and most of all for him to pee. Shortly there after, his BP had risen, and praise the Lord, he started to pee. Fourth [major] miracle.

Shortly after, the renal specialist came in to check things out. Just like the vascular surgeon, he was amazed at how good The Old Man was doing, especially now that his BP had risen some and he was peeing. He asked The Old Man where we lived, and when The Old Man told him PRP, he said that they had just built a new dialysis center off of Dixie Highway. And then he said "But you won't need to use it." Fifth miracle.

People can be skeptical if they want - that's their prerogative. But my family and friends can testify to the many miracles we've seen performed over the past two days. And something tells me, there are more miracles to come.

Thank you all so much for your comments, texts, phone calls, and messages, but most of all for the prayers.