My Dad........

His Story...........
Last Sunday morning August 17th at 12:30 in the morning my Dad had his 3rd massive heart attack. He got up to go to the bathroom or get a drink or something and passed out. My mom heard something and yelled out his name. He didn't answer. She went into the bathroom and she said that he looked dead. She started slapping his face. He awoke and she asked what he was doing. He said that he was taking a nap. She said "on the bathroom floor!." My mom got him back to bed and he said that she should call 911 because he felt like he was having another heart attack. The ambulance arrived and he was not doing good. While the paramedics distracted my mom, the others started CPR on my dad. My dad was "gone" for 17 minutes. He remembers them saying "this one is not going to make it." Then he remembers leaving his body. He remembers praying to the Lord that he could stay on this earth a little bit longer but thy will be done. He doesn't remember anything after that.
My Story..................
At about 1:40 Sunday morning I heard the phone ringing. I didn't answer it. For some reason it was going a long with my dream. Then it started ringing again. I looked at the caller ID and it was my sister Stef. I answered saying "please tell me nothing is wrong." She said that dad had had another heart attack and was being taken to Davis Hospital. I woke Ricky up who didn't hear anything. We called our amazing friend Rachel who came over to sleep with the kids at 2:00am. We drove to the hospital. I was telling Ricky on the way, "nothing can happen to him, nothing can happen to him." When we got to the ER I asked about him and the lady said to go to the chapel. My heart dropped. We walked into the chapel. He was still alive but we didn't know much more. They were getting him ready to do an angiogram. We saw him get wheeled right by us to the cath lab. He looked horrible. He was totally out and he looked bad. The doctors didn't give us much hope. He recieved his 5th stint in the cath lab, then they moved him up to ICU. While we were waiting the doctor came in and told us that he was very critical, that he could have brain damage because they couldn't get his oxygen levels up, that they were wondering wether to do anything because his heart is already so bad. She didn't instill a whole lot of confidence in us. They moved him to the ICU. We got to look at him before they asked us to let him rest. He was still out when we saw him then and he really looked dead. He was completely white with a tube coming out of his throat. And a million other wires all over him. It was really hard to see him like that. We stayed until about 6:30 in the morning and then came to let Rachel go back home. The first few days he was so sick. Throwing up, massive headaches. It was really hard to see him so sick. He didn't have any brain damage though. He switched medication on Tuesday and instantly felt so much better. He recieved a difibulator in his chest on Wednesday morning. This will shock him if his heart stops again. He came home from the hospital on Saturday and is doing so great. He can't drive for six weeks which means he will be really bored.
My thoughts........
My dad is the greatest guy. I love him so much. He means so much to me. He has always been such a great support for me. Growing up my friends loved to come over and talk to my dad. He has always been there for me in everything that I do. He drove 12 hours straight to make it to the hospital when Sage was born. I am so grateful for my dads advice and counsel. He is such a stalwart in the gospel and such an example to me. I am so glad that he asked the Lord to stay. I don't know what I would do without him. My kids love him so much. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday that he let my dad stay on this earth. There are so many people that need him. He is here for a reason! I am so grateful for the gospel and the peace that it brings me.