Thursday Closeout

Jamie III and I visited Dad tonight.

He is on track on all metrics with the exception of blood volume. Dad has had 2 units of blood since the surgery and was going to have another tonight. The drainage from the chest tubes has slowed significantly this evening and we are hopeful that this last unit of blood will be absorbed and will elevate and maintain the volume.

Dad was responsive to us and squeezed my hand when we had prayer together; I wished him happy birthday and he tried to smile; he motioned to us that he was cold and wanted a blanket; so we are grateful for his ability to engage after such an arduous invasive operation.

Emotionally we are pretty well spent and realize that we still have a long way to go in Dad's recovery. It is easy to think of bypass surgery as a routine operation in this day and age, and it is remarkable how far the technology and creativity has come in extending life, but routine or not, it is a high risk high reward proposition and we are aware that God's grace, faithfulness to us and His providence are the conventional keys that sustain us through all peril and accolade.

As I was driving home tonight I was thinking about the different ways we have communicated with each other during the past few days. Face to face, cell to cell, land line to land line, email, snail mail, IMs, texts, sign language, Blog, and even video phone via Skype, all have been extremely useful and efficient to one degree or another but the most effective and efficient form has been prayer.

Thanks be to God.