OK fellas its me, whew what a roller coaster ride over the past 36 hours. Mom called me Sun morning and asked me to come over, she said that dad wasnt feeling well and wanted me to check him out. Being an ex paramedic I agreed and when I saw my dad I new something was wrong, I talked him into going to the ER and we have been absolutely blessed since we got in the car to go. We walked right in the ER, his was in a room within 10 minutes, a cardiac specalist just happenned to be in the room next door, they ran a few quick test on him and then ran off with him to the heart cath lab. I told my dad I would see him in a little while when they were wheeling him off. I was hoping for something easy like a stint or something and after just a few minutes the cardiologist ran in the room and told us to follow him, we went to the cath lab and we saw dad lying on the table, the doc told us a machine was keeping him alive right then and that if we had not brought him in exactly when we did he never would have made it through the night. The Doc said that he had already called the emergency on call surgery team and they would be there within an hour to start the surgery. I was devistated, I live about 100 yards from my pop and hes the best... He was sedated and the doc told us it was looking grim for his outcome, dad is 63 works out in the gym every morning, has run 5 miles a day for the past 20 years, rides a bike at least 20 miles a week and works like a horse, no smoking, no drinking. The surgery team was there and prepping him in 30 minutes, they took him off and came out 4 hours later and said the surgery went well and that the next week would be tough. They reiterated that he was a miracle in the fact that he was even there. This morning he started to wake up and was a little groggy, through the day we have seen incredible things, they took the ventilator off, he was breathing on his own, he was writing on a pad to communicate with us and he had color in his skin in the first time in a LONG time. Dad had lost his appetite over the period of the past month or so and he had not eaten in six days because it made him queasy. Tonight they gave him ice chips and water, then he got a popcicle, then another, then ice cream and he was wanting more because he had an appetite. When I left the hospital a few minutes ago I was blessed with one of the greatest gifts and that was hearing my dad tell me that he loved me. We are looking for some more answered prayers tommorrow and in the days to come. Let me tell you all this again, God is good and if you look you will see his work all around you. My dad means the world to me and I am thankful to say that today was a good day in his recovery....
Thank you for the kind words and the prayers (keep them up God is listening)
Your friend
Doug King
aka captain
