A Little Piece of My Heart

Well, it's been an eventful week. Guest #4, Donna, arrived direct from the Great White North and has been enjoying our humid and mild temperatures here in Chicago...minus the rain. I had to work with some students for a week long orientation course prior to the beginning of the semester, so I gave our guest her own set of keys and set her free. :) I did manage to squeeze in an evening at the Theatre on Thursday courtesy of Donna who is a fan of musicals. I have to say as a not-so-excited fan, I was impressed by the Lion King. William is now home too and the three of us have been taking it easy this weekend. Rain kept us indoors yesterday, but we managed an outing to Millenium Park today and to the lake.

With all that goes on in Chicago, life also continues in dramatic ways back home. Dad had bypass surgery this past Friday. No this wasn't entirely planned but should have been expected with all the butter that my dear Dad eats. He checked in with heart pains last week and was promptly shipped off to a bigger hospital for more tests. An angiogram showed more mayo and ice cream in his arteries than you can shake a stick at. (I joke about it now as he is fine, but it was actually very upsetting. :( ) After waiting almost a week for a bed to open up in Vancouver at the hospital that does most of the bypass surgeries for the province, Dad was transferred by plane on Wednesday. Amazingly, Dad had 'beating heart' bypass surgery. (If I was Mark, I'd include a link to this but you'll just have to look up this fascinating procedure for yourself.) It is performed with high risk patients like my Dad who was at risk of stroke and damage to his one kidney during a tradtional bypass operation that necessitates the use of the heart and lung machine. Well, he's out of ICU now and despite one or two hallucinations and the hospital food, he is doing well. He's strong as a ox that man. Having had open heart surgery myself, I know how the recovery process will proceed but now I am viewing it from the perspective of a family member instead of as a patient. I think it's less nerve racking to be the patient! You get the drugs and you sleep most of the time. Everyone else is awake and worrying! So, that's this Canuck's update on life here in the US. Hopefully, next week will be less dramatic.