2/19: My Dad is home (update...he's actually at Stanford now, but will hopefully be home again soon!).

Let me tell you about this guy.

This guy is our miracle. Times 4 or 5.

My dad is home, and playing music again.

On January 12th, my dad ran 8 miles in the morning, then came to Santa Barbara and we spent the day hiking. That evening his chest hurt, and at 1:30 am on January 13th, he went into surgery for a dissected aorta. And he lived through that, against all odds. 

Then he didn't wake for 30 hours after surgery, and that was terrifying. And then he woke up. Slowly.

Then we were told he'd thrown clots in his brain during surgery and we didn't know what that meant for his genius mind. And then he was awake, and today he is still as weird and awesome and kind and brilliant as he always was. He said "thank you" to every nurse, doctor, visitor, family member, hospital and staff member who came into his room. I think that a true sign of character is how you treat strangers when you're drugged out of your mind and getting poked and prodded with needles all day. He was sweet to all of them, and that makes me really proud.

When he was still waking up and we didn't know how his brain would recover he had a few "Rain Man" moments and started spewing trivia, and it was totally amazing. Like when he woke up in the middle of the night a few days after his dissection surgery (when he still wasn't talking much) and started describing the intricacies and controversies of the TV show "I Spy" with Bill Cosby. 

Dad in beast mode, a few days after his initial surgery.

Then he had a clot in his heart due to complications from surgery, and had a couple of heart attacks about it. Really. 

And then he coded in the hospital and was revived with CPR and shocks after four and a half minutes. And he lived through all of that, and was the bravest person I've ever seen when he was taken into the cath lab to get a stent placed and he told us all it would be okay. We were terrified, but he was right, and he doesn't lie to us. 

Dad with Anni and Sid before his trip to the cath lab.

Then we spent a while at UCLA Medical Center, and learned that only several weeks after an aortic dissection, two heart attacks, God knows how many blood clots, and an arrhythmia, my dad's heart function is already back to normal. Which makes me wonder what his heart function was like before all of this happened. He is superhuman. I guess that is his reward for running 8 - 11 miles every day for as long as I can remember.

This week, we came home, and we hope this time it's for good. Today, Yeti and Dad went on a walk around the neighborhood, and that's a really big deal. 

Yeti and Dad taking a walk. My favorite love story.

These are great bonus days with Dad.

Over the past 5 weeks, we have had the love, support, and encouragement of our entire family and a really incredible group of friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, coworkers, colleagues, and random kind people who have helped us all as we tried to keep it together. And when we couldn't keep it together, they were there to take care of whatever we couldn't, and to take care of us.

To everyone who has done anything for us, there aren't words big enough to say thank you. You brought us food, sent cards, called and texted all the time to share your love and good vibes, mailed flowers, sat with us during really bad days, said prayers and chanted mantras, gave us a million hugs, provided coffee and tea, made pies, sent emails, set up extra beds in the house for visitors, cleaned the pantry and refrigerator, cleaned the yard, took care of sweet Mattie Dog, made us get out of the hospital for walks and food, watched Sid and Anni, gave us hope when we didn't have much, helped us with medical advice, distracted us when we could be distracted, drove all over the place to get cars where they needed to go, and made sure that the only thing we had to worry about was getting my dad better. We can't express our gratitude to each and every one of you.

So five weeks later, my Dad is home. We had many lows, always followed by the miracle we needed.

Right now he is sitting on the couch with Yeti eating apple pie, playing his guitar and watching the Olympics.

He just told Yeti, "I think we made it."

2/25 UPDATE: Dad is at Stanford Hospital. They are wonderful. They're just figuring some things out, and we hope he'll be back home soon!