Dad - Day 4

Well, this day has been chaotic....to put it lightly.

I called the ICU for an update this morning and all was pretty much the same. I got myself ready and was on the way to take Delainey to school when I got a phone call from the Cardiology NP saying that they wanted to take dad down for a heart cath within the next hour. I was a bit upset because over the weekend they had stated that this could wait until dad's lung situation had improved a bit. The way he is now, he is not going to tolerate laying flat. The NP stated that dad's lung wasn't improving/getting worse and there was concern that he was going to need lung surgery. With his heart status the way it is, they wanted to get heart clearance before putting him under for lung surgery. I understood the rationale but was very concerned about how dad would tolerate laying flat for prolonged periods at time. We agreed to go thru with it, and they took dad down for the procedure and discovered that he has extensive heart damage and needs open heart surgery. I was afraid of this happening and tried to talk to dad about this exact situation yesterday, but as expected, he wouldn't talk to me about and just kept saying we'll see when that happens.

Today, when mom and I were faced with the decision, neither of us thought that dad would listen to what needs to be done and didn't think that it would be a good option for him. The doctors wanted a decision right then, and I said we needed to try to talk to dad. They took him back up to ICU and I tried to talk to him about it. He was still very drowsy but was able to tell us that he wanted to try the surgery. I made him repeat it to me a few times and I told him he needed to decide now, because if so, we needed to transfer him to another hospital quickly. He said "then lets move". So the scramble began....
The hospital arranged for his transfer downtown to a bigger hospital. As they were getting ready to move him, his breathing became more difficult and they decided to intubate him. They also put him on heavy sedation, and by the time we got downtown, they were able to wean off the two cardiac drips they had him on. His heart rate and blood pressure were much better and he breathing is much more relaxed now that he is sedated and the machine is doing most of the work for him.
We have family coming in to be here with us and we just learned that the plan is for open heart surgery on Wednesday. They delay is because the cardiothoracic surgeon is ill today. They will most likely fix his lung as well, during the surgery, if he tolerates it.
Right now we are pretty much in a wait and see position. I will keep the updates coming and appreciate everything from all of you. Please know that we are getting all of the well wishes but just haven't had a chance or the clarity to respond.
Thank you again to everyone!