Update on My Dad #2

So when I changed the name of my blog to Expect Miracles I never imagined just how that would ring true in so many facets of my life. Right now we have witnessed a miracle in my Father's life. Let me tell you just how amazing my God is...

My dad actually works in another city (about 2 hours away from me) even though my parents still have the house I grew up in which is about 20 minutes from Hammer and I. It's a long story but my dad works during the week and comes back home on weekends. My mom commutes between the two homes and the plan was to keep this up until he can retire (this year). Normally the ONLY day my dad is alone is on Thursday. So if this had been just any other week he would have been completely alone and the outcome would have been drastically different.

So my dad had planned a weekend get away for my mom this weekend. They had both come back home on Wednesday because my dad had a meeting Thursday morning here in town and wanted to take the rest of the day off. He asked my brother to go on a bike ride and they headed out at about 3:30 pm. It was a gorgeous day and the bike path was literally crawling with people.

Now my mom was actually extremely on edge all day because Wednesday night she had an awful dream that either my brother or my dad were in the ICU and all she kept saying was, "We have to save the brain, we have to save the brain" Being a former ICU RN she thought maybe that she just had one of those weird dreams but it haunted her all day. Yet she didn't want to say anything because she thought they would think her crazy for being all uptight about them biking. So she kept quite and my dad and brother headed out for their ride. When my brother's tire blew out my mom had talked with my dad and knew that she should expect him home in 30 minutes. When that didn't happen she had been watching the clock and immediately called him. She said she had a pit in her stomach because of her dream even before the EMT answered my dad's phone and told them the bad news.

What we have learned, after talking with the people who saved my dad's life, is the following and it's absolutely the hand of God. My dad was actually found upright, still on his bike, leaning against the support beams of a bridge. So he did not crash his bike and therefore avoided any additional trauma to his body which is absolutely amazing. The couple who found him initially thought that it was just a bike propped up against the bridge because he was slumped over. He did not respond to them but was having labored breathing. This is extremely important that he was at least breathing when they found him because that meant his time without oxygen was very, very short. The man called 911 and the woman knew CPR so they got my dad off of the bike and down onto the ground and had just started resuscitative care when another biker came along. It was a physician who works at the best trauma hospital here in our city. He took over the CPR and when we spoke to him he said that they were able to give great resuscitative care because he went from blue to pink and had a great pulse.

By the time the squad came they had reached the point with CPR where they needed to do a shock paddle to keep up the rhythm. So the EMT shocked him and he immediately returned to a normal rhythm. Now when they reached the hospital the emergency room staff some how didn't get all the info that he really didn't go that long without oxygen so they decided to do the hypothermic protocol. We believe this was also a blessing because when he was coming to in the trauma ER he was not focusing or making purposeful movements. It seems that the decision to do the hypothermic protocol reset my dad's system and allowed his body to rest and return to a stable state.

So while we are still not out of the woods yet we know that the hand of God has been over my father EVEN BEFORE all these events took place. It seems that God knew that my father was going to go through this but He set up everything perfectly so that the best possible situations would occur for the absolute best possible outcome.

He will not be taken off the ventilator until tomorrow because the Pulmonologist says his lungs are too "wet" meaning that he has too much fluid on board. This is an effect of the warming up process because when you are cold the body does not make fluids to keep your body hydrated but when you warm up it does. It's not a concern just that he's not quite ready yet. So they are keeping him mildly sedated so he does not wake up too much, panic and pull out the ventilator tubing that he needs to breathe. But we know that he is mentally OK for now and just needs a bit more rest. We are taking sleep rotations so that two of us are always here at a time and he is never alone.

Prayer requests are that he can get off the ventilator tomorrow and that he does not develop pneumonia which is a risk from being on a ventilator. I am so thankful for all of your prayers and just had to share how Great our God is with you all. He hears our prayers!!!

On a side note: While God was busy taking care of my father with ALL of these amazing little miracles, He still found time for me. On Friday morning we heard back from the lab. Hammer's results were 8.5% strict morphology. This is below normal (14%) which means we do require IVF intervention and it is likely the reason why we have not conceived on our own. But we do not require ICSI so we can try for natural fertilization. And not only that but Aunt Flow didn't show up until TODAY. So when I talked to the nurse she said that I can call and let her know what we want to do for this cycle as late as Sunday and she would call in BCP script for me if we decided to start cycling for IVF this month. Right now I just want to get my dad off of the ventilator. So I think I'm going to wait to make a decision based upon getting him extubated and then go from there.

It is so humbling to think that here I was fussing and worrying about labs and wondering why this would happen. Meanwhile my God was not only in control of my little "situation" and working everything out perfectly, but also intimately involved in my father's life and blatantly showing us His presence and Almighty Power. I had been reading Job on Wednesday evening
Job 31:35 "Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense - let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing" Job is saying, "what have I done to deserve this? Let him who knows my offenses come forth and prove it." And what follows a few chapters later is God's defense where He declares to Job that He is God and controls all things, knows all things, designed all things, and is above all things. That He is in control of the small things and the big things. One of the things God says repeatedly is, "Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer me." God questioned me on who is in control of my fertility, our IVF schedule (the small things) as well as who is in control when it comes to my father's life. And my answer:

"I know you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, "Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, "Listen now and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me. My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.

Job 42:1-5