My dad-fight fight fight!

Ok, I know I've been quiet on the blog. Quite frankly, I wasn't sure what to say. My father has been on life support machines in California since last Monday. There, I said it.

He was having a hard time breathing over that weekend and went to the Long Beach VA hospital Monday morning. He has one of the worst cases of pneumonia they've ever seen. And I'm pretty sure those docs have seen some shit.

They had to give him sedation so he wouldn't fight the tubes and he's been unconscious ever since.

So, we've been praying and hoping that he would come out of this and I gotta tell ya, that man is a strong son of a gun.

Tuesday night his heart stopped for about 2 minutes. They had to pound his chest or do things very movie like to get it going again. But it did.

Wednesday night was the hardest. The doctors only gave him a 25% chance of making it. Then the doctors called his wife, Julie, later in the night and told her to come back to the hospital. He would not make it through the night.

But he did it make it through the night. And the next night. And the next night. Here we are one week and a day after he was admitted and he is hanging in there. Damn. Awesome.

His lungs have failed. His kidneys have failed. He has had 4 days straight of dialysis. Perhaps today will be the 5th? I don't know much about dialysis, but I hear it has something to do with getting the toxins out of your system. Well, dad's led quite a hard life and had a lot of fun so keep doing that dialysis people! There are lots more toxins to go, I'm sure.

Blood pressure has been absolutely normal for a few days-a miracle after they had to restart his heart. There are miracles around us every day.

My dad was doing rehab from a pretty bad car accident six months ago, so I'm sure his defenses and abilities are down. We were comparing notes about both of us fighting our way to health.

Fight fight fight, daddy! You can do it! What a bad ass story when you are on the other side of this!

My oldest brother, Dave, is there this week, so that is great. Julie needs sleep and rest, obviously upset, but whenever I call her she says, "Don't worry, Laura, I'm taking care of your dad." and I know that she is in ways better than any of us could. We are all praying and hoping that there is a happy ending to this story.

For me, I've been dreading every single phone call. Every time my phone rings, I get an enormous knot in my stomach. But this is not about me. He makes a little bit of progress every day.

Keep praying an hoping everyone. Pray for us both please, as we pray for you. It is definitely working!