Last Night's Scare

I was going about my day. Errands to run, cupcakes to bake, kids to entertain. It was just another day in paradise when I received a text from April: dad is in the ICU.

I started calling everyone immediately and no one was picking up. Suddenly Hawaii was feeling further away than ever. I finally reached Mike. He said Dad had gotten up to use the restroom and when he returned he was white as a ghost and sweating and nauseous.

Mom called the nurse who called a doctor who sent them immediately to ICU. That was all he knew.

A few hours later, Conway had gone to the pool with the kids and he left me alone to get some things done without being interrupted when I suddenly realized I didn't have my phone on me.

I ran downstairs to get my phone to see that I had just missed two calls. One from April and one from Mike. I tried to call them back and went straight to voicemail. My heart immediately starting pounding and I checked my voicemail. Both were messages from a sobbing April and Amy, each just telling me to call them back right away.

I finally got through to April. She had received word from the oncologist that Dad's spleen had lacerated and he was suffering internal bleeding. He would need to undergo a difficult surgery. The doctor prepared her to expect the worst because the outlook did not look good.

They let them bring in the computer so I could talk to dad via skype. I told him how much I love him and pleaded with him to fight hard. I told him to send in the troops. I said he needed the strongest so that he needed the Marines to go into his body to help to fight this battle. He told me he loved me and said, "Semper fi."

The following hours were extremely stressful and hard. I stayed in front of my computer screen looking in on the waiting room where Mom, Grandma, aunts, uncles and all my sweet brothers and sisters sat waiting for news. We said a lot of prayers and I longed more than ever to be home.

The doctor reappeared a couple hours later and miraculously informed us that the surgery was successful. He said, "So far so good, but he is still in critical condition; let's keep our fingers crossed."

We all cried and rejoiced. And I got on the next flight to Utah.

After a sleepless night transporting a toddler and an infant from Hawaii to LA to SLC, (it would have been impossible without the helpful assistance of countless stewardesses, ticket agents and friendly strangers) I arrived at St. Marks Hospital just this morning.

I just gave my dad the biggest hug he could handle and am ready to give him more.

We truly witnessed a miracle last night and I'm so grateful.

Just got off the red-eye and my first order of business was a visit to my daddy's room

This is mom after the doctor said that dad made it.