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[rivka]

Michael's father is doing extremely well. They were able to take him off the respirator last night. We saw him, briefly, and he was able to whisper a few words and suck on some chips of ice. This morning, he sat up in a chair for a while. He's still in the ICU, but the doctor told us he'll probably have his tubes removed and get sent upstairs to the regular floor tomorrow.

We went in this morning from 9 to 9:30. Papa kept drifting off to sleep, but in between he was lucid and glad to see us. (And cranky, like kalmn said he'd be.) His color was good. He was getting a transfusion, because his hematocrit dropped to 27, but otherwise the nurse said he was doing very well indeed.

There's another family in the waiting room whose father had bypass surgery a few days before Papa did. Their father isn't doing well - he didn't get off his respirator until last night, and then this morning he's back on it because he had a stroke. It's a sharp reminder of just how lucky we are.

I told Michael last night, when we went to sleep, that all day we'd had nothing but good luck. Good luck that Brian was able to get us plane tickets down here. Good luck that our flights went perfectly smoothly and on time. Good luck that we got to the hospital before he went into surgery, so that we could see him. Good luck that the surgery was successful. Good luck that his recovery is proceeding well, and that he hasn't gotten confused the way that many older people do in the hospital. Good luck that he's off the respirator and breathing well on his own. Good luck that his heart is functioning well. More good luck than anyone has any right to expect.

Thank heavens.

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[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

And the Good Thoughts continue from here, just on general principles.