Its A Wonderful Life

Dad's doing much better today. Although it's hard for him to open his eyes and the breathing tube is still in, he responds to questions by nodding, wiggling his toes or squeezing your hand. He'll most likely have the tube in for a couple more days, which is really making him miserable, but until they can wean him off it it's better to keep it in longer than to have to re-intabate him later. Our worries about possible neuro damage from his heart being accidentally cut by a clamp during surgery and the subsequent blood loss that occurred were lessened today by his responses and the doctors evaluations. His urine output is good, which is a great sign as well. He was very swollen and pale when we saw him last night (who wouldn't be after an 11 hour surgery?) but he now looks much better. Carter and I were noticing that his color is even better now than it was before the surgery. Bryan and Janalyn are here now for a few days which makes all of us happy. I'm so grateful for my family and their wives - they are truly my best friends.

We're all exhausted at this point and yet so grateful for all of the wonderful friends and family who are calling us and the hospital for updates. We'll try to keep the blog updated on a more regular basis for sure. The nurses asked that only immediate family call their station - they can only provide updates to family anyway. My mom has struggled today and hopefully will be doing better tomorrow. Please keep her in your prayers as well.

And although my Dad facing his most difficult trial right now, I know that if he could talk right now, he'd tell you that It's (STILL) a Wonderful Life :)

Merry Christmas everyone - life is good!

Made it through the night

It's 7:55am Christmas morning and Dad made it through the night. The nurses said they'd call if there was a serious problem, and no phone call. We're not allowed to visit or call the SICU between 7-8:30am or pm so I'm laying here, waiting to call at exactly 8:30am - oh yes, and waiting for my kids to wake up to see what Santa gave them.

Grandma Osborn (Dads mom) is on her way up to see him right now. My heart goes out to her and wish I could be there with her when she sees him for the first time. Bryan and his family will be driving up from St. George again this morning and we'll have time to talk more with the doctors and see where we are. Thanks for all of the prayers - please keep them coming. Love you all.

2 families receive 'Christmas miracle' with new chance at life | ksl.com

We were able to see Dad for a minute around 9:45 in the ICU before heading home to try to get some sleep. He was still sedated then, but I just spoke with his nurse and she said that he had responded to questions by wiggling his toes and squeezing hands just now, which is great. He's still on the respirator and will be throughout the night and sedated as well. His blood pressure is still pretty low so they're watching that closely. This is all related to a complication that went wrong during the surgery that had nothing to do with the transplant. The doctors told us that the transplant recovery is secondary to him recovering from what went wrong with his heart during surgery.

Here's the story that ran on KSL TV tonight about the transplant:

2 families receive 'Christmas miracle' with new chance at life | ksl.com

KSL News Story

Watch or record the 10pm KSL News tonight - they're doing a story on the transplant

Going on 8 1/2 hours in surgery

Still waiting for word that the surgery's over. He had to be put in a bypass machine earlier and is now off. They're just waiting for the lung to work on its own before they can begin to close him up. Hang in there Dad.

Still waiting ...

The nurses just called and said things are going well, they're still sewing the lung in and that they'll give us another update in an hour and a half.

A new lung for Christmas!

Dads in surgery as we speak and getting a new lung. He got the call last night around 7pm and we didn't know for sure if it would actually happen until 9am this morning. We're all here waiting for him to come out of surgery - probably til at least 1-3pm. If all goes well, he'll be in the surgical ICU for a couple of days and then he'll be moved back up to the transplant floor for at least another 5-7 days after that. He's got quite a rough road ahead of him, even if everything goes perfectly. We're so very grateful for all of the love and support we feel from our family and friends. We love you all so much! Our hearts are also full with thoughts of the donor's family and what they must be going through right now. We hope and pray that they know how incredibly grateful we are for this amazing gift. Stay tuned!