Chest pains

Though I had a fantastic birth experience at Timpanogos, my breastfeeding initiation there was less than stellar. They don't have lactation consultants on the weekends because, you know, people don't give birth on the weekend. Instead, they hand you a thick stack of low-quality photocopies describing, among other things, correct latch-on. Let me just say that after one has experienced multiple hours of labor and is both physically and emotionally exhausted, one needs an actual human demonstrating how to baby feed. And I'm normally a visual learner. After about a week of almost dying every time I fed Zoë (due to "severe nipple trauma" caused by a lack of instruction in the first few post-birth hours), I spent the best $35 of my life and went to a lactation consultant. The consultant was shocked that I was breastfeeding through the pain--she said it was one of the worst cases she'd seen. In 20 minutes, she corrected my latch-on and gave me some topical treatments to clear up infection. The difference was amazing! To any of you yet-to-be or soon-to-be mothers, figure out how to see a lactation consultant as soon as possible after birth and don't just assume like I did that the hospital will have one.


But whatever my pain, it has paled in comparison to the chest pains Josh's grandpa has experienced this week. Josh's whole family on his mom's side came into town last week to spend time with his grandpa before he went in for open-heart surgery last Wednesday. Our friend Sharon was nice enough to take pictures of everyone together to commemorate the reunion in case it was the last one with Josh's grandpa, Stan. Stan had always been really healthy and active--playing golf and riding his bike every day up until about a year ago--but a new doctor found a tumor on his heart that could cause a stroke if left there. So, after much consideration he opted for the surgery, aware that it could cause other complications (including permanent dialysis or death). Everyone was worried. Josh's grandparents are very important to him, like second parents, because his mother was putting herself through college when he was growing up and his father was in Fiji, allowing ample opportunity for Stan and Sara to play a big role in his childhood. So, this surgery was a source of a lot of intense emotion for all of us.

The surgery went well at first, but then they realized that he was bleeding too much. Just as he came out of anesthesia, he was taken back to the operating room and his rib cage was opened up again. They were able to stop the bleeding and he was making a slow but steady recovery until last night, when due to an unnoticed complication he started bleeding too much again. The sack around his heart filled up with blood and his heart stopped. He was resuscitated with CPR before undergoing an emergency operation (third open-heart surgery in a week) in his ICU room that saved his life. He's stabilized now, but three surgeries are a lot for someone to handle, especially an 82-year-old. He seems to be on the road to recovery again. Stan is a real fighter; his heart is going strong despite all of these complications. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.