Our Week at Mckay Dee :(

War Wounds

Sunday March 13th, 2011
After a very long week my dad came home Today! He is improving every day. I know that our family has been very blessed! Thank you everyone for your prayers and for checking in on us daily. I am so happy that my dad made it through this and it has really made me more grateful for the relationships that I have and the wonderful people in my life. I love you dad!!

One of our new Fire belly Frogs...isn't he cute :)

Annie and I comfortably sharing a chair

Mom getting some much needed sleep

Poor little Leopard

Thursday March 10th, 2011
Well today was a better day for dad. Miraculously his heart fixed itself this morning around 9:00. What a blessing!!!
But the day started out a little rough in the Uboldi home. Diego's pet tadpole Leopard died. It was the craziest thing. He was fine one minute and belly up the next. He was like 3 days away from being a full blown frog. It has been fun to watch him transform. Well Diego took it hard. It was the saddest I think I have ever seen him. I didn't have a whole lot in me to console him so I told him I would spend the day finding a new frog. Great! That's the last thing I wanted. Whatever would make him feel better. That boy breaks my heart. When he is sad he is SO sad. So I went to the hospital for a few hours and then went on a frog hunt. After $100.00 we had two new fire bellied frogs and one happy little boy!

Gabi at her fifth grade program

Mercedes in the Hospital

March 9th 2011
Today was a hard day for dad...and us. He was doing well in the morning so Annie and Mom both took their first break and went home. Gabi had her fifth grade program today so I was at that videoing and wrestling Kylie when I got a text that Mercedes was in the hospital with symptoms of a heart attack. WHAT!!?!? This could not happen twice in the same week. So I got the kids taken care of and headed down to Lakeview. Seriously, if we are going to have two parents in the hospital can't they at least get in the same one? :) After lots of tests they think that she had reflux which can feel very much like a heart attack I have heard and then she had an anxiety attack probably thinking of what had happened to my dad and her blood pressure went super high. Good news was that she was discharged quickly.
Well, while all of us were out, my dad got sick and threw up a few times and then aspirated. That was very scary. He said he felt like that was the end. He was able to cough some out of his lungs, but it was very difficult for him to breathe well after that. Then his heart went out of rhythm and was just fluttering basically. His heart rate was between 145-150. His blood pressure was very low. When I got there he had nurses all around him. After a few hours of 150 heart rate the doctor came and decided their best bet was to restart his heart with the zapping paddles. That made my heart hurt. We watched the moniters at the nurses station. We watched his heart rate flatline and then start up at about 80 and climb right back to 150. It was very hard to watch. They did this six times with no results. The doctor said they needed to let his heart relax before they took the next step which would be to open him back up and shock the actual ventricle. Seriously...what a night. If our family makes it through this it will be a miracle in itself!

March 8th Gabi's 11th Birthday!

Cutest Husband made me a Candy Bar Bouquet of Flowers when I got home today.

Dad in ICU after Surgery

"Somewhere My Love"

Long Wait

Sleeping in ICU waiting room

Family in the Waiting Room during Surgery

Chelsey Asleep in the Cafeteria

Matt Sleeping in the cafeteria :) No one wanted to wake him so he woke up alone and pretty upset bout it.

Gabi opening presents before school

Our family all came up this morning at 5:30am so we could see my dad off. They had sterilized him once last night and again this morning so we were not allowed to get close to him. They took him to prepare at 6:00am. The surgery began at around 9:00. They came and updated us a few times throughout always telling us that he was doing great. They first had to harvest an artery from his leg and one from his chest to replace the four valves to his heart. It was obviously a very difficult four hours but we could feel all the prayers being sent our way. Thank you to all our wonderful friends and family! The surgery took about 4 hours and went well. We were moved to ICU for recovery. They were very strict in there about visitors so dad could rest. We were allowed 2 visitors an hour for a couple minutes. When he first woke up and was stabilized they let our whole group back to see him. It was very difficult. He was hooked to so many machines and had so many wires, the worst being his breathing tube. He was in restraints so he wouldn't try to pull it out. He woke up and saw us in there and immediately tried to tell us something. He was very frustrated and seemed quite panicked. After a couple of minutes we were told to leave and he seemed so sad that we were leaving him when he obviously needed something so badly. It was SO hard. We all left very frustrated and feeling horrible. Tammy left a few minutes later and as she was coming out of the elevator the lady in the lobby was playing my Grandpa's song. She ran back to the room to let us know. I went down and videoed it to let my dad know later that he had support coming from all sides. It gave me a lot of comfort too. It seemed like it was his dads way of letting us know he was there.
Anyways, so much for short blogging. I am breaking all of my own rules. They had to wait longer than normal to remove his breathing tube because of swelling in his esophogus from neck surgery my dad just had. Once they did get it out he was doing much better.
Today is Gabi's 11th Birthday. She opened her presents this morning with me on the phone, we went out to eat last night because we knew today would be crazy, my cute husband took the day off to take care of things and he took her shopping at the mall for pants and shoes. Once dad was doing well I took off to to grab a cake and some decorations. I arrived at the same time They did so we blew up balloons together. It wasn't the typical birthday but it was great considering our circumstances. Happy Birthday Sweet Gabi! I can't believe you are 11!
Esteban and I went up to see my dad later that night. It was another hard one. We walked as my mom was leaving. He had gotten sick, dry heaved and had a vagal nerve response and passed out. His heart rate dropped quickly and within seconds the room was filled nurses. They called for a crash cart and after about a minute being out he came to on his own. He looked around and said "Sorry about that, I fell asleep on you" :) My poor mom. She has seen too much, felt too much and had too little sleep in one day. She was holding up like a champ though. We saw my dad for a minute. He was sopping wet from the episode. He was happy to see us, but the nurse didn't want him to get excited because he was so sensitive so we had to leave after one minute. What a long crazy day for EVERYONE!

Mom and Dad the night before surgery


Monday March 7, 2011
Well, I have already written this week in my journal in detail. (13 pages) So I am sticking to the short story for everyone's sake. My dad had not been feeling good all weekend so he went in to Mckay Dee this morning to have his heart checked. They called my mom from the E.R. to let her know that he was having a heart attack. The whole family headed up. I waited for Esteban to go up with me. We were told that his arteries were all dangerously blocked and his best option was quadruple bypass surgery. Not fun news to hear. It was great to know that he would hopefully be done with heart problems after this after suffering for years. That night the boys gave him a blessing before heading home. The surgery was set for 8:00am the next morning.