Surprises that are difficult

I am sitting in the surgical waiting room at a hospital in Greenville, SC. Right now my dad is undergoing quintuple bypass surgery. If you read one of my earlier posts, you saw that my parents were coming out to visit us. They did, and we had a wonderful time with them. They left last Tues., and Thurs. night into Fri. morning, life changed dramatically!

To give some background: My dad had an incident at the beginning of the year where he was making a delivery at a plant, a chemical vapor was released into the air right at my dad's level, and he was knocked to his knees. He was taken by ambulance to the ER, but he was told that the effects of the chemicals shouldn't be long-term. That has turned out to be not so. He has just been diagnosed with RADS. Over the last many months he has had episodes of pain, breathing issues, etc. when cutting the grass, walking around the neighborhood and other various things. He saw a pulmonary specialist who thought he may also need to see a heart specialist to be sure that not more was going on. He had a stress test about a month ago, had trouble finishing it (but did at the prodding of the techs and/or dr.). His heart rate/vitals were good, and they wanted him to press on through the "episode" he was having. They felt it was from his lungs, not his heart. The test result turned out to be "inconclusive," and the dr. suggested a heart cath. to be done just to be definitive that nothing was going on with the heart. Well, Dad told the dr. about his big trip coming up the next month, which included CA :-), and decided to hold off since the dr. was not thinking there was an urgency.

This past Thurs., Dad saw another pulmonary specialist for another opinion on the lungs. That dr. told him that he had reviewed my dad's records and said, "Let's cut to the chase, Mr. Johnson, you don't have a heart problem. I believe you have a specific lung disorder from the work-related incident." The dr. did a test that proved this and my dad was told to take 5 days off of work, take some meds., and come back on Tues. to discuss the future with work and stuff. Well, Thurs. night Dad had a terrible episode that came on so suddenly and intensely that he felt like he was maybe having a heart attack. He thankfully was not (it was most likely a reaction to Advair), but the ER drs. wanted him to have a heart cath. after hearing about all that he's been going through. My parents told them that just less than 24 hrs. before, they were told he had RADS and no heart problems. They did not dispute the positive diagnosis of RADS but believed the heart could still be involved. Praise the Lord for their convincing my parents to have the heart cath. There was obviously a heart problem! One artery was dead, which means my dad did have a heart attack sometime in the past. The other four arteries were blocked too badly to have stints put in--2 were over 80% blocked and 2 over 90%. Now, my dad has been all about nutrition and good health for years, so this just didn't make sense. The drs. agreed and said his cholesterol, blood pressure, heart muscle and vitals, weight all are good and this just must be genetic or something.

Obviously our great God has not been taken by surprise. He is sovereignly working in every part of this situation. What a blessing in disguise that Dad had this episode on Thurs. night to be forced to see he has advanced heart disease! God is always good and has a bigger and better plan than we ever could. As I sit here knowing what is going on in the OR, I am not without emotion, but I have a wonderful peace that only comes from my Savior. His grace IS sufficient and I rest in Him. I am so thankful that I found a ticket for a decent price yesterday morning and got here by 2 AM to Greenville this morning. I am sleep-deprived but do not care. I had a very special time with my dad before he went back today. That was priceless! Thank you for your prayers for my dad and our family.