Prayers for Grandpa

I had a hard time writing this when it was actually happening, so I am writing it now that it is over. I was on my way to do a little vacation shopping for our trip to Mexico when I received a worried phone call from mom. Grandpa was very ill and in the ICU. He had suffered from a GI bleed and as a result of the amount of blood he lost his heart went into a devastating rhythm called Complete Heart block. My grandma summonsed paramedics only after my grandpa admitted he was too sick to walk to the car. When the paramedics got to him, his heart was barely beating with a rate of 32. He was dying.
Once in the ER he was given an external pacemaker, several units of blood and many other medications to get his heart to beat more effectively. It was a miracle he made it through the night. They learned the next day that he had suffered a heart attack that night and was lucky to be alive.
The next fews days proved to be just as critical and if there was complication to be had, it seemed like he had it! He was taken to surgery to have a permanent pacemaker put in place and he came through that just fine! But then he took a turn for the worse. His heart and lungs became innundated with all the fluids/blood products he had received and it threw him into Congestive Heart Failure. He required a lot of oxygen and had to wear a mask all the time. He was very anxious and could not maintain a healthy oxygen level without aggressive intervention. From there he went back into an unhealthy heart rhythm, only this time, his heart was going way too fast. The doctors were afraid that due to his recent heart attack his heart would give out and he would die, and despite medications, his heart would not slow. Their only option at that time was to cardiovert (which in laymens terms is... to shock him). It was a huge risk, but one we had no choice in. He converted with one shock. But after the shock, he went into pulmonary hypertension. Geesh! A lot of big medical terms here, I know! Grandpa had to be placed on a bipap machine to help him breathe and there was discussion on intubating him. The doctors told us if they put him on the ventilator, he would likely not come back off of it. He was not willing to do that, so Bipap it was! It WORKED!
My mom spent a very tiring and very emotional 10 days in Iowa at his side and helping my grandma in any way that she could. We postponed our trip to Mexico. It was all worth it in the end because Grandpa beat all the odds! He is home now, NOT on oxygen and recooperating well! This was an outcome that none of the doctors saw coming! Thank you THANK YOU to all of the tremendous support and prayers that we received from each of you! My grandpa is so very dear to me, I am not ready to say goodbye! (PS - refer back to the 2nd blog entry I ever wrote... it was about him!)