We need your prayers....

I'm here in Pennsylvania. Seeing my Pappy like this is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

On Friday, Mom, Grammy and I were at the hospital all day. We got here at 8 am and he was up trying to get cleaned up. He was complaining about the hospital, he was used to them answering his every need at the other hospital and here they are much bigger, and much busier. Around 9 they took him down for a procedure where they go up through the groin and look at his heart. They wanted to make sure he didn't need bypass surgery while they we're doing the mitral valve replacement. He didn't actually get to go back for that procedure until 11 am because they had 2 emergencies come in while he was waiting. He got out at 1 pm, and we got to see him for a little bit before they took him back to the OR waiting room at 1:30. He had 18 teeth pulled. He has a gum disease where his gums are receding. He was planning to have all his teeth pulled before this happened. Since he had one loose, the doctor was afraid that it could get bacteria in it and it would get infected, they ultimately feared the infection would go to the heart. He didn't actually go back to get his surgery until 2:30 and they didn't come get us from the waiting room until 5:30. His surgery went great, but the anesthesia kicked his butt. They had a hard time waking him up and when they got him awake his oxygen counts dropped dramatically. They put the breathing tube through his nose and down his throat. They had to strap his hands so he couldn't pull the breathing tube stuff out because he kept pulling at it. Now he's in the SICU (Surgical Intensive Care Unit). I didn't go back and see him yesterday because they had him so sedated he didn't really know you were in the room or not. On Friday, they put a tube down his throat and crushed his pills to give to him. When they put the tube down, blood came up.

On Saturday, Grammy was awake at 4 am and called the hospital to see how his night went. They said it was an uneventful night and he did real well. Her and Mom headed here around 9 am, but they couldn't get back into see him until 11. At 8 they had taken him to get a colonoscapy and an endoscopy. They didn't find anything that alarmed them, so he's in the clear again. He was pretty much sedated all day. I went back to see him for a little bit while they had him awake and it was hard seeing him hooked to all those machines.

Grammy called last night before we went to bed to check on him, and they said they took the breathing tubes out and he was breathing on his own. Of course, we can't get back to the ICU to see him until 11 am, as they have strict visiting hours. We're hopeful that today will be a better day for him.

Hopefully we will find out the exact time of surgery tomorrow. I know it's going to be a long day.

Thank you all for your support.
Ashley