A new heart for Christmas

A lot of you know my Dad had his third heart attack two days after Christmas last year.  He had his first heart attack soon after he and my mom got married over 27 years ago while water skiing with my mom and her brother.  He had his second heart attack 19 years ago, right after my mom had my youngest brother Daniel.  She had five kids under the age of seven.  Some of you might be thinking he is a 500 pound obese guy, who sits on the couch eating cheese puffs..but this is not the case.  He is very careful with what he eats, and monitors everything closely.  He hasn't eaten red meat in the last 19 years, has fish occasionally, and only has turkey on Thanksgiving and Christmas. My dad has horrible genetics.  He has heart disease on his mom and dad's side.  So, needless to say he and my mom have been through a lot the last thirty years.

The doctors informed us this last heart attack has done the most damage.  His heart was too weak, and there wasn't enough viable muscle to operate on.  Any surgery would surely fail, and he wouldn't make it.  He needed a new heart.  So in the meantime, they implanted a V.A.D., a Ventricular Assist Device, which essentially replaced the function of my dad's failing heart.  It's amazing the technology that is available now, he didn't even have a pulse!  Whenever he was at home he needed to be plugged in, the VAD could run on batteries for four hours at a time, which clearly made it difficult for him to practice dentistry, or be alone at all.  This changed my parents' marraige completely, my mom had to be at his side 24/7, if something did go wrong they only had a few minutes to react, or he wouldn't make it.

In order to even be considered to be put on the donor list, my Dad had to go through vigorous testing, a lot of emotional and psychological counseling, and mostly just waiting.  After a long nine months, my dad was finally put on the Heart Transplant List.  He's actually a pretty good candidate for a new heart.  He doesn't smoke, drink, and eats very healthy. The hospital informed my family that the first 30 days the patient is on the list is the only time when he would be top priority.  After that 30 days came and gone, we began to think he would never get a heart.  The VAD is only a temporary situation, used as a gateway into getting a transplant.

Then, this past Tuesday, December 7th (as my dad reminded us all "Pearl Harbor" day) around 11:30 a.m. my dad got the call. I was at work, oddly enough I had finished my patient 20 minutes early and was in the break room, eating all the Christmas goodies specialists bring us, when my little brother Dan texted me, "Dad got the call".  I instantly burst into tears.  I called him right away and he was crying too.  I'm still not sure if it was a happy/scared/excited cry, but I really was happy.  I talked to my Dad quickly not knowing if it would be the last time I would ever talk to him expressing to him how much I loved him, and how I wished I could be there to hold his hand with the rest of our family.  I wished him good luck and told him I would call him after I got out of work.  He said they were rushing to get out the house to get to Northwestern and would be in surgery by 6:00 that night.  Even though this surgery had a 97% success rate, I was still very nervous, people die all the time on the operating table.  He has been through five or six surgeries where he only had a 60-70% chance he would make it, so even though this was a wonderful thing that was happening, we all had so many mixed emotions.

As Sean as my witness, I was an emotional wreck (poor Sean). I was up all night texting, calling, and waiting for updates from my mom and brothers.  On my way to work the next morning I got the good news I had been praying so fervently for-the surgery went perfectly.  My dad has a young, healthy, new heart.  It will still be a long road to recovery, but he is doing very well I'm told.  I talked to him twice since the intubation tube has been removed.  He is very optimistic, and so are the rest of us.

I would like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for all the prayers, fasting, kind words, calls, texts, and support they have given me and my family over this past year.  This has truly been a long, hard year for my family and I know we couldn't have made it through with out our wonderful friends and family, but mostly we couldn't have done it without the gospel and the amazing promise of eternal families.

This is truly the best Christmas present my family and I could ever ask for.