Apparently we're not out of miracles yet

I swear, my dad must have a horseshoe or rabbit's foot hidden on him somewhere, because he continues to amaze us.

Yesterday morning, the neurologist came by to run an EEG on Dad, saw him sitting up in bed and eating oatmeal and cancelled the test. Neurologically, there is nothing wrong with him. No stroke, knock on wood.

The surgeon came by and said he was going to do a chest tube on Dad instead of the horrible needle thingy, and after the fluid was drained that Dad would get some relief. Know how much bloody fluid they pumped out of his chest?

The equivalent of a 2-liter bottle of soda and maybe almost a 12-oz. soda can.

He immediately started breathing better and said to me, "I feel so much better now!" He perked right up, ate some fried chicken and potatoes, and then took a nap.

And his coma that he had on Tuesday? Apparently he had a hyperreaction to the Benedryl given to him before his blood transfusion. I think in 84 years he'd never had Benedryl, so he wouldn't have known. I know that I can take one and be so drowsy that I can barely function, two and I am in a coma. I teased the surgeon yesterday that the nurse must've given Dad enough to tranquilize an elephant and he just grinned.

Last night, they removed his oxygen mask (he still has one of those little tube-type oxygen things in his nose but this is a huge improvement), the blood pressure cuff that had been on his arm non-stop for days now, and told him that they were going to let him sleep.

My sister came creeping in around 1 AM this morning, leaving my brother and his wife at the hospital on the night shift. She said that she went to kiss Dad good night and he was sitting in bed wide awake. "I'm so excited," he said, "that I can't sleep."

His will to live and get better is so strong. Yesterday afternoon we parked my mom outside to waylay visitors and I crawled into the recliner in Dad's room to take a catnap. I leaned over to Dad and said, "Hey Dad, I'll make you a deal. I'll take a nap if you take a nap." Next thing I knew, I was watching him (he couldn't see me) and he was doing leg exercises in the bed trying to get his strength back instead of napping.

My sister's husband is a doctor, and was having lunch with some friends of his who are surgeons yesterday. They can't believe that Dad even survived the surgery, let alone all these complications.

I remain full of optimism, but I am trying to be realistic as well. Anything could happen. But I think he really wants to get better and come home. Chances are that he'll go to a rehab place first to get his strength back, because my mom can't do it all by herself and at this point I've been away from my family for almost two weeks and will need to go home soon. It's just so hard knowing what the right thing is to do, know what I mean?

Thanks for all of your continued prayers and thoughts for my dad. We're hoping that the drama is ending.