Inhale, Exhale, Heart, Humor, Life

You know that our breathing is the inhaling and exhaling of air.  

The organ that serves for this is the lungs that lie round the heart, 

so that the air passing through them thereby envelops the heart.  

Thus breathing is a natural way to the heart.  

And so, having collected your mind within you, lead it into the channel of breathing through which air reaches the heart and, together with this inhaled air, 

force your mind to descend into the heart and to remain there.  

~Nicephorus the Solitary

Heart testing - Echo-cardiogram - happened this morning before we arrived. Technician told dad it's only his job to complete the exam - can't read results, but didn't see anything blatantly wrong. Still waiting for "official" results from those whose job it is to read results.

Lung testing - Bronchoscopy - originally scheduled for 1:00 pm, finally transpired round about 3:15 ("hospital time"). Dad was amazingly patient, considering they have had him fasting since lunchtime on Thursday so that he would be ready and able to complete this miserable test.

All trying, mysterious, uncertain... yet here are some priceless sound-bytes in recovery room thanks to Dad under-semi-anesthesia...

"So, they took me back there and poured this tylenol numbing stuff down my throat, made me swallow it - and I said, 'First thing I get to consume in 15 hours and it tastes like shit!"

We all genuinely laugh on cue. He waits for lull, then....

"So.... they gave me some more."

More laughing behind our face masks, amidst knowing above the mask loving eye contact....

Then, can't you mix it with Scotch?"

Haha! Funny man!

Goes on to tell us, "Then they all put on these yellow outfits...."

Cough, splutter, kinda scary intense coughing fit that goes on a long while...

".... and I told 'em they look like a bunch of crazy yellow canaries."

Ba hahahaha....

So what do we know?

Know that his oxygen and blood pressure have been improving today, if ever so slightly. Know that he made it through lots of trying tests today in pretty heroic ways that will hopefully provide the info to make best decisions going forward.

Know that we are all in this together - heart to lung, lung to heart, breath to heart, heart to heart.

Breath by breath,
Robin