PaPa is gonna pull through

This has been my home since Thursday afternoon. My family and I have been spending every waking hour at Northwest Medical Center in Bentonville where my PaPa (grandpa) is in ICU. He went in for a fairly low risk surgery on Tuesday afternoon, to get his pace maker adjusted, and he came out of surgery doing well. Then he started to show signs of major distress soon after. His kidney's were failing and his liver and lungs were in bad shape.

See, if you ever knew my PaPa, you would be here every waking moment also. He has emphazema from years of smoking and running his cabinet shop (Latham Cabinets) and inhaling all of the fumes. In the last couple of months he has had a hard time getting around because he gets so winded. He had to get a walker and then to a wheelchair. I had a really hard time with this b/c my PaPa was never one to act like and "old man". He spent years of his life playing the guitar in a band and I have so many good memories of listening to him play and thinking he was the biggest best musician I had ever seen.

Yesterday he started to produce more urine, which indicated that his kidneys were functioning, and his blood pressure is doing well, but we are still not out of the weeds.

So until we know if we can take him home, we will all be right here waiting for his every move and every improvement. In the mean time, we have managed to have a little bit of fun. There is something about coming together in a time of crisis and trauma, that brings you closer together and gives you quality time that you could never have otherwise.

We had about 35 people in the waiting room last night and the nurses came out and said how they had never seen anything like it. We are a big family and we always are there for one another b/c in the long run, we are all that we have, and we are all that matters in life.

Papa always jokes when we are at family gatherings about how 'I started all this'. So when I went into his room today to see him, I made sure he knew the waiting room was full to the brim, so full the other families couldnt even get a place to sit! I said PaPa, its all your fault...."you started all this"!

I love you papa....I am praying every second of the day that we will get you home safe for the holidays!

ciao

moni