Today my dad called me at work and told me that he was parked just outside my office and wondered if he could drop in. He had just finished a good pulmonary rehab appointment and was on his way to have lunch with his Uncle Ernie so he couldn't stay long. He's done this many times over the past couple years since I've worked on campus, but today was different.
Before, after he would leave, I would have to go hide in the restroom for a few minutes until the tears subsided. I remember feeling so helpless and sad at the thought of loosing him soon if we couldn't get him on the transplant list. Now, after he left today, I again had to slip into the restroom and have a little cry (as I'm sure one of my sweet co-workers did too since she's been following his story.) But these tears were happy tears. There were so many, many days when I would come into work after having just seen my dad or talked with his nurses or docs and just felt to down and discouraged. But not today. Today my dad has a little bit of his life back, and slowly but surely he'll get the rest of it back too. He's gained five pounds in the past two weeks and he looks better every day. He doesn't carry oxygen around with him anymore like he used to right after he got home because he's so much more confident now. He still is short of breath a lot of the time and has to take his time on the stairs and such, but he gets stronger every day. Today he told me he even went downstairs yesterday for the first time in a very long time! He's doing everything he's supposed to do and is not taking one minute of this "second wind" for granted. I'm seriously so proud of him and inspired by him.
Last Sunday at dinner he started telling me about a funny video he'd seen on tv and started laughing as he was talking. I had to stop him in the middle of the story and say "Dad? How cool is this? Do you know how long its been since I've heard you be able to just sit here and laugh and talk at the same time with no oxygen?" He smiled and said "you know what? You're right. It feels great!" and then continued on with his funny story.
It's the little things. :)
