Open Hearts, All

It's been a stressful week.

I've been a bit out of commission recently due to a family emergency. My father, who turned 76 this past Saturday, underwent open heart surgery on Monday to replace some heart valves that have cratered on him. Poor guy....only about 30% of his heart was working, and he was getting so little circulation he could hardly function. I have no doubts that without the surgery, he wouldn't be with us much longer, and I mean days and weeks, not even months. He was in some really bad shape.

Thankfully, he's come through the surgery well, but recovery and rehab are proving difficult. He's feeling so poorly, he doesn't seem to want to try to recover, and we're battling a bad attitude, which can't be fixed by even the best surgeons.

So we work with him daily, try to encourage him, try to find ways to motivate him to do his breathing exercises, his walking rehab and to just be positive in general, as this is what will bring him back home.

With patience, many prayers and fingers crossed, he will get stronger each day, and maybe we can bring him back home sometime late next week.

It's so difficult to watch a parent age and go through illness and pain. When that surgeon opened my dad's heart on Monday, sitting in the waiting room, my heart hurt as well. Life is so not easy.