Road To Recovery

He lives!Late in the afternoon yesterday, as the sedation started wearing off, Dad opened his eyes and looked at me, showing the first signs of truly waking up. You probably could have lifted me off the ground with a fingertip. I was floating on a cloud of glee. Best news we've had yet and even though I wanted to stay in the room and talk to him all night long, I knew he needed much more rest and let him be. Checking-in to my room here at the hospital (they have courtesy rooms for out-of-town families!) I sacked out early, slightly exhausted from the events of the day but elated and eager to face the next.Then, a small feat of victory occurred....I woke up and rushed over to the ICU as fast as possible this morning to check on his status and everyone in the nurses station was smiling at me as I entered the room. Dad's condition had obviously improved and their once sad glances were now huge grins. This is the moment we'd all been waiting for. Assembled like a team of loving angles, the doctors and nurses entered room #9 to look over his vitals once more to make sure he was ready for what was next in his treatment and I made my way to the waiting area in order to give them some space to do what they do best. And without any difficulty, they successfully pulled the ventilator tube out of Dad's throat only minutes later and he instantly responded in the positive, inhaling a huge deep breath.Whew!Our man has come back to us and he's now breathing on his own...100% stable. It's a glorious day!Of course, as much as we are celebrating having him back among us, the reality of his situation is very much in our minds. He is extremely weak right now and will no doubt be spending a couple of months in a rehab, learning to walk and move around all over again. Of course, he's about as strong as an ox, as we've seen proof of these past two weeks and I have no doubt he'll be doing all the things he loves before too long. The good news too was that as soon as he woke he knew exactly who I was and immediately started joking with me..."Gramma, what's for supper?"Three cheers for Big George!Much love to my Memphis pal and brilliant photographer, Lisa Bertagna for loaning me this gorgeous image. As soon as I saw it, I felt it captured this moment in time perfectly. Thank you Lisa, you rock!We press on.