Mohammad Ali Has Nothing On Dad!

In 24 Hours We Have Made UNBELIEVABLE Strides!!!

 Yesterday we were in a pretty bad place! The "artwork" in the room Mom and I went to, to talk to the social worker just added to the awfulness. This looks like the guy cut off his head with a sword and it was eaten by the dragon...comforting!!!! 

Yesterday things had gone from bad to worse! Dad's liver failed, kidney's were failing, blood gases were off. Potassium level was rising so high that there was a danger of the heart stopping. If the potassium kept rising they were pretty sure in fact the heart would stop and there would be no coming back from it. He started bleeding from a lung...There is on Dr. whose name will not be mentioned but he is not our favorite person. He gave us the doom and gloom report three times as of last night! 

The good thing is, Dad's surgeon is a brilliant man who is very thorough and very talented! He is also a man who does not give up! In fact after they gave us the whole rundown of failing everything and failing vessels the last thing he said is we need a miracle but we WON'T GIVE UP!

So basically you just need to hit rock bottom and Dad will amaze you!

We all took turns going in and out of the room last night so someone was always with him. At 3:00a.m. when I went in they said there was a marginal improvement but at least it was some type of improvement. When I almost fell over 45 minutes later I told the nurse I was going back to sleep for an hour but I would be back. By the time I went back at 5:45 things were even better. By 2:00 p.m. today His potassium level was normal, kidney function was normal, they reduced the vent to 50% so he was doing 50% of the work on his own, his liver function even showed signs of marginal improvement. He was no longer bleeding, blood product and clotting factor was no longer needed as bleeding had stopped, they were able to reduce two blood pressure medications, and his blood pressure was normal, temp was normal! Even Dr. Doom was surprised. He said, he never thought we would be where we are today as of last night. 

He doesn't know Dad and the support and love he has pulling him through. As my cousin Ryan put it " I am pretty sure Uncle Michael has more people praying for him than the POPE!" 

So we have made crazy progress in 24 hours and when we actually sat down and figured out the hours it had been less than 48 hours since the second surgery so ANYONE would need some time to recover!!!!

My cousin Erin sent us this awesome surprise today! While we were in the room Dad's nurse called me out to the hall to give me this beautiful edible arrangement. It was soooo delicious and I ate way more than my share of fruit :) We also shared it with Dad's awesome team of nurses. They were so very happy to be able to share it. 

Brett, Ryan and Tracy came up again tonight too. " The Boys" all sat around the table in the 7th floor family lobby where we have taken up residence ( please forward my mail here :)...just kidding )

Auntie Janet came up this morning and brought me a much needed package of socks. It was silly. I had brought a bunch of everything, but socks. Mine were so stretched out from wearing them for 5 days that they kept falling into my shoes! The nurse set me up in another room today so I could take a much needed shower and I was very happy to put on clean clothes and start the new day of healing.

Little Vivian came to visit again today and cheer everyone up :) I am pretty sure she is Dad's Littlest Biggest Cheerleader. The boys have started calling her "Ant Viv after the Aunt Vivian on the old TV Show "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" :) She's such a great baby and always manages to save a smile for Auntie Laurie too :)

 

Brett's Boys Andrew and Mason made these really cute Butterflies for Dad to let him know they love him and are thinking of him...complete with stickers! ( If anyone has seen that AT&T commercial...they are not stickers on "casttests" that say get better ) LOL sorry had to put that in there I love those ads!

Because things were a little better today I was able to visit my friendly neighborhood gift shop and peruse the Halloween collection :)

I love Halloween, All the purple, Orange and Green decorations. The fun stuff in the gift shop was not disappointing :)

They Even had the "Days of the week" Mustaches! I wonder if Lilly would like to wear these with her days of the week socks?

Brendan and I were in with Dad tonight and things are stable...we'll take stable and take boring! I came up to write the blog and keep people updated. We are not out of the woods but at least we are in the sun. Please keep praying and sending positive thoughts. I am pretty sure Dad can feel all the prayers and Love that are surrounding him! I can't wait to tell him about all of the people that were pulling for him and praying for him.

Special Thanks to both The Assumption College Assumptionist Community who ramped up their praying when I mentioned that Dad was going in for surgery also to Fr. Terry Dougherty and Fr. Charlie Monroe from Our Lady of the Angels Parish who have continued their prayers. and to all the people of St. Anne's Parish in Shrewsbury, both parishioners and clergy alike have been a HUGE source of support throughout our journey and continue to be amazing.

To all of our family and friends. People who have traveled far and wide and continue to offer support and anything else we need. You are our strength, our crutches when we need to lean on you and we could NEVER do this without you.

Please, please keep praying for our Miracle Dad and his recovery so he can recover and continue on his AMAZING Journey!

Until Tomorrow,

Laurie