Thursday, February 2, 2012
Very Bad Night for Dad
Please pray. Procedure went badly and they are struggling to keep him stable. This is the worst he has been thus far. He's hanging on, but not well.
New Day, New Mercies
I thought about it as I drove to the hospital today. And that the verse is true whether Dad's circumstances improve or not. Whether Dad comes through this or doesn't. I have new mercies to deal with the situation.
When I first got to the hospital this morning, things seemed about the same, if not a little worse. They were having trouble finding his pulse, the daily chest xray was worse, his fluid output wasn't great, etc.
He is more stable today for them to move him to do some xrays. They will be looking to see if he has a blood clot in his lung as well some other things I can't remember. They have confirmed that he has some clots in other parts of the body; a clot in the lung would explain why he still has a lot of fluid in his lungs and why he is not recovering well. They are confident that he has some form of a lung injury in addition to the pneumonia. They just need to figure out more details on that injury.
Also, Brandon set up a Nook tablet so that mom and I could use it at the hospital. Mom is thrilled to be able to play solitaire (and the like) games on it. I think it helped break up the boredom and monotony for her. It's pretty much impossible to focus enough to read, but solitaire is a perfect time waster.
Many friends and family members have been offering to help me with the kids and meals. Many also have expressed that they are praying and are faithful to check in on us. I am so thankful for that. So very thankful.
I truly believe that any improvements he had today are because of God's mercy and answered prayers. Prayers said from friends and family. From you. Thank you. (and please keep them coming!)
I'll keep you posted.
Testing to go ok today. That the physical test does not upset Dad's fragile state. Mom had to sign a consent form in order for them to proceed to do testing.
For answers from the tests and a plan to help him improve.
For the infectious disease doctor to not find anything alarming.
For quality rest for both mom and myself.
For kind nurses. We have had pretty much nothing but kind nurses. I pray that continues.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
One of My Less Favorite Days
Today is day 7 of dad being in ICU, on a respirator, with pneumonia and not much better than he was a week ago.
There seemed to be a lot of set backs today. I'll try to list what I remember.
His oxygen had previously been reduced to 50% (this is good). However, today they had to up it to 90% (this is not so good).
His chest xray and bronchioscopy (sp?) showed that there is still a good bit of fluid and congestion in his lungs. This should have been cleared up some by now.
They checked for blood clots in legs. He has some. This is not so good.
They upped his medicine helping with blood clots.
While they were doing the ultrasound to check for blood clots, he starting shaking. A lot. Almost like he was having a seizure. It very visibly scared the nurse doing the ultrasound. It's never good seeing a nurse noticeably bothered.
They had to replace his catheter because his old one had issues.
They had to replace an iv line. They had trouble doing so and had to retry 2 times.
They can't move him to do further testing/xrays/etc that they would like to do because he is in too fragile of a state.
When I bluntly asked the doctor how discouraged we should be, he evaded my question. Previously, they have been fairly direct with my questions.
He did indicate that he suspects the lung to have some damage (not just the pneumonia) that would be the source of some of these set backs. I am not sure if we want that to be the case or not.
Prayers are greatly appreciated, friends.
Specific prayers would be:
for a good day tomorrow
for encouraging news
for lungs to heal
for reduced congestion and fluid on lungs
for positive news
for improvement
for reduce required oxygen
for rest and encouragement for both myself and my mom
Thank you so much.
There seemed to be a lot of set backs today. I'll try to list what I remember.
His oxygen had previously been reduced to 50% (this is good). However, today they had to up it to 90% (this is not so good).
His chest xray and bronchioscopy (sp?) showed that there is still a good bit of fluid and congestion in his lungs. This should have been cleared up some by now.
They checked for blood clots in legs. He has some. This is not so good.
They upped his medicine helping with blood clots.
While they were doing the ultrasound to check for blood clots, he starting shaking. A lot. Almost like he was having a seizure. It very visibly scared the nurse doing the ultrasound. It's never good seeing a nurse noticeably bothered.
They had to replace his catheter because his old one had issues.
They had to replace an iv line. They had trouble doing so and had to retry 2 times.
They can't move him to do further testing/xrays/etc that they would like to do because he is in too fragile of a state.
When I bluntly asked the doctor how discouraged we should be, he evaded my question. Previously, they have been fairly direct with my questions.
He did indicate that he suspects the lung to have some damage (not just the pneumonia) that would be the source of some of these set backs. I am not sure if we want that to be the case or not.
Prayers are greatly appreciated, friends.
Specific prayers would be:
for a good day tomorrow
for encouraging news
for lungs to heal
for reduced congestion and fluid on lungs
for positive news
for improvement
for reduce required oxygen
for rest and encouragement for both myself and my mom
Thank you so much.
We Interrupt The (Ir)regularly Scheduled Nonsense
For something a bit more serious. Ok, a lot more serious.
I normally post about the mundane daily ins and outs around here, but my dad has been very ill and I am having trouble consistently communicating with sweet friends and family via email and texts, so I am going to post updates here until he (hopefully and prayerfully) is better.
To catch everyone up, here's a brief rundown of what has happened:
Last Wednesday (Jan 25), my dad was throwing up in the early morning. He blacked out while throwing up, fell and hit his head on the tile floor and got some pretty serious gashes on his noggin. Apparently this happened at least two times, but my mom only heard that last one. She encouraged him to go to the ER to get stitches. He was resistant because he had a 7am dental appointment he didn't want to miss.
Around 5 am (2 hours after the fall), he finally decided that he did, indeed, need stitches.
They went to the ER and he got 24 staples in his head.
They did some xrays and ran some tests to make sure he had no internal bleeding. While he had no internal bleeding, they found that he had a blocked intestine caused by a hernia. This explains the vomiting. At first it sounded like he may or may not need surgery but after further tests, they got him into surgery rather quickly.
The surgery ended up being more extensive than they initially thought it would need to be.
Because this was unexpected surgery and because his intestine was blocked, he had some food in his system that had not yet been digested. They need to siphon out the stomach. They had difficulty doing this.
Because of this difficulty, that stuff aspirated into his lungs. This is bad.
Because of that, he was placed on a respirator. This aspiration of the fluid in the lungs caused pneumonia.
Because of the respirator and the discomfort it causes, he was heavily sedated. He is in ICU.
He has been heavily sedated since then (we are on day 7 of this). They have been trying to gradually reduce his oxygen levels on the respirator. They are trying to get him off of the respirator but his healing is taking much longer than expected.
He still has an usually large amount of congestion and fluids in his lungs.
The consistent status we get from the medical staff is "he is still the same and not making as much progress as we had hoped" and "we are going to let him rest today and try X tomorrow".
Today was the first day when he is not the same and seems to be getting worse. I will update on that in another blog post. I am hoping today was just an isolated "bad" day and that tomorrow will be better. I would be lying, though, if I said I wasn't pretty discouraged.
Your prayers are greatly appreciated.
I normally post about the mundane daily ins and outs around here, but my dad has been very ill and I am having trouble consistently communicating with sweet friends and family via email and texts, so I am going to post updates here until he (hopefully and prayerfully) is better.
To catch everyone up, here's a brief rundown of what has happened:
Last Wednesday (Jan 25), my dad was throwing up in the early morning. He blacked out while throwing up, fell and hit his head on the tile floor and got some pretty serious gashes on his noggin. Apparently this happened at least two times, but my mom only heard that last one. She encouraged him to go to the ER to get stitches. He was resistant because he had a 7am dental appointment he didn't want to miss.
Around 5 am (2 hours after the fall), he finally decided that he did, indeed, need stitches.
They went to the ER and he got 24 staples in his head.
They did some xrays and ran some tests to make sure he had no internal bleeding. While he had no internal bleeding, they found that he had a blocked intestine caused by a hernia. This explains the vomiting. At first it sounded like he may or may not need surgery but after further tests, they got him into surgery rather quickly.
The surgery ended up being more extensive than they initially thought it would need to be.
Because this was unexpected surgery and because his intestine was blocked, he had some food in his system that had not yet been digested. They need to siphon out the stomach. They had difficulty doing this.
Because of this difficulty, that stuff aspirated into his lungs. This is bad.
Because of that, he was placed on a respirator. This aspiration of the fluid in the lungs caused pneumonia.
Because of the respirator and the discomfort it causes, he was heavily sedated. He is in ICU.
He has been heavily sedated since then (we are on day 7 of this). They have been trying to gradually reduce his oxygen levels on the respirator. They are trying to get him off of the respirator but his healing is taking much longer than expected.
He still has an usually large amount of congestion and fluids in his lungs.
The consistent status we get from the medical staff is "he is still the same and not making as much progress as we had hoped" and "we are going to let him rest today and try X tomorrow".
Today was the first day when he is not the same and seems to be getting worse. I will update on that in another blog post. I am hoping today was just an isolated "bad" day and that tomorrow will be better. I would be lying, though, if I said I wasn't pretty discouraged.
Your prayers are greatly appreciated.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Fess Up Friday-Not for the Faint of Heart
Happy has the stomach bug.
The stomach bug is no stranger to our lovely household. We seemed to be unusually gifted in acquiring it and having embarrassing episodes involving it.
I am absolutely, totally, and irrationally afraid of all things barfy. I get panicky and hot and nervous and anxious and I freeze up and on and on... I even start to think I am going to get sick.
There has to be a name for this condition.
Oh, wait! I just googled it and there is a name! Does that mean I can get some meds to cope? :) Because I could use some right about now.
Anyways, I suck as a caretaker, family member, spouse, mom, and fellow human for those who are ill, especially if they have stomach issues.
In light of this and Fess Up Friday, I will recall a few of my many, many times I suck at being a fellow human. You can laugh at my ridiculousness; I definitely do. And, yes, you should pity those who were sick and needed my help.
1. When I was 13, my grandmother came and stayed with us a lot. She was very sick with Lupus. We were near a hospital with many specialists in the field of auto-immune disorders. My mom had taken her to one of the specialists and gotten her some new pain medicine.
My mom took my grandmother home and then had to drive an hour away to attend a grad school class she was taking.
Long story short, my grandmother had a HORRIBLE reaction to the medicine, there was a horrible thunderstorm, no cell phones (before there were cell phones), and no one but me and my very sick grandmother home. I threw her a bucket and a roll of paper towels (after massive begging on her part) and hid in my bedroom closet. And cried. For hours.
2. My friend, Adrienne, spent the night at my house when we were in about 5th grade. The next morning, we went to Burger King on the way to my soccer practice. She threw up in our car and I pretty much plastered myself against the window on the other side of the car. I didn't invite her over for many months after that. Not because she wasn't a good friend and not because I didn't enjoy hanging out with her, but because of my irrational fear of all things barf.
3. My precious college roommate, Katie, got very sick our freshman year of college. To make a long story short, I hid from her for a few days, which is kind of a hard thing to do since we shared a small room. Poor thing. I think I may have even spent the night (or two) in another friend's, Amy, room to further avoid the barf.
4. The first time Hubs got sick once we were married, after freezing and pretending I was asleep in our bed, I relocated to the couch downstairs and had little to no compassion for him. He wanted assistance. I gave him none. Not because I didnt adore him, but again, because of this insane fear.
5. It doesn't even matter if it is me that is sick. I cannot cope. When I was pregnant with Lil Miss, I was (briefly) hospitalized for excessive/extreme morning sickness. I wanted to momentarily exit my physical body, not particularly because of the misery of not feeling well, but mainly because I could not handle the actual barf part.
Bottom line? If you are sick, I love you. But, PLEASE, do not call on me for help.
It's better that way. For all involved.
Be sure to check out Kira's blog. I think she may be taking a Fessing Up break, but there is still good stuff on there!
The stomach bug is no stranger to our lovely household. We seemed to be unusually gifted in acquiring it and having embarrassing episodes involving it.
I am absolutely, totally, and irrationally afraid of all things barfy. I get panicky and hot and nervous and anxious and I freeze up and on and on... I even start to think I am going to get sick.
There has to be a name for this condition.
Oh, wait! I just googled it and there is a name! Does that mean I can get some meds to cope? :) Because I could use some right about now.
Anyways, I suck as a caretaker, family member, spouse, mom, and fellow human for those who are ill, especially if they have stomach issues.
In light of this and Fess Up Friday, I will recall a few of my many, many times I suck at being a fellow human. You can laugh at my ridiculousness; I definitely do. And, yes, you should pity those who were sick and needed my help.
1. When I was 13, my grandmother came and stayed with us a lot. She was very sick with Lupus. We were near a hospital with many specialists in the field of auto-immune disorders. My mom had taken her to one of the specialists and gotten her some new pain medicine.
My mom took my grandmother home and then had to drive an hour away to attend a grad school class she was taking.
Long story short, my grandmother had a HORRIBLE reaction to the medicine, there was a horrible thunderstorm, no cell phones (before there were cell phones), and no one but me and my very sick grandmother home. I threw her a bucket and a roll of paper towels (after massive begging on her part) and hid in my bedroom closet. And cried. For hours.
2. My friend, Adrienne, spent the night at my house when we were in about 5th grade. The next morning, we went to Burger King on the way to my soccer practice. She threw up in our car and I pretty much plastered myself against the window on the other side of the car. I didn't invite her over for many months after that. Not because she wasn't a good friend and not because I didn't enjoy hanging out with her, but because of my irrational fear of all things barf.
3. My precious college roommate, Katie, got very sick our freshman year of college. To make a long story short, I hid from her for a few days, which is kind of a hard thing to do since we shared a small room. Poor thing. I think I may have even spent the night (or two) in another friend's, Amy, room to further avoid the barf.
4. The first time Hubs got sick once we were married, after freezing and pretending I was asleep in our bed, I relocated to the couch downstairs and had little to no compassion for him. He wanted assistance. I gave him none. Not because I didnt adore him, but again, because of this insane fear.
5. It doesn't even matter if it is me that is sick. I cannot cope. When I was pregnant with Lil Miss, I was (briefly) hospitalized for excessive/extreme morning sickness. I wanted to momentarily exit my physical body, not particularly because of the misery of not feeling well, but mainly because I could not handle the actual barf part.
Bottom line? If you are sick, I love you. But, PLEASE, do not call on me for help.
It's better that way. For all involved.
Be sure to check out Kira's blog. I think she may be taking a Fessing Up break, but there is still good stuff on there!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Seeing Visions in the Early Morn'
Here at our lovely abode, we've had a few challenging nights. The kids were not so much into sleeping.
Two nights ago, Lil Miss was up at 12am, 2am, and 6am. Happy was up at 3:45 am and NEVER fell back asleep.
When I fed them breakfast, I was bleary eyed. And quite hungry.
I am in the process of weaning Lil Miss. Apparently she has yet to get the memo on that one as she needed to nurse all night long. And when you nurse a baby all night long? You are very hungry soon after.
Anyways, after getting the kids some food, I made myself a very normal breakfast of a vegetarian corn dog, a diet coke, and dark chocolate peanut m&m's. (We've already established my weird eating habits numerous times.)
Happy wanted some of my veggie corn dog. Knowing he probably wouldn't eat any, I cut him a very small piece.
He took one look at it and said, "Baby Jesus!" with great authority.
I tried to correct him, but he wouldn't hear of it.
Plus, he kind of had a point. It did kind of look like our nativity Baby Jesus.
I have been praying that we would be able to incorporate Christ into the rote things of life.
I guess that would be considered a mission accomplished (?).
Two nights ago, Lil Miss was up at 12am, 2am, and 6am. Happy was up at 3:45 am and NEVER fell back asleep.
When I fed them breakfast, I was bleary eyed. And quite hungry.
I am in the process of weaning Lil Miss. Apparently she has yet to get the memo on that one as she needed to nurse all night long. And when you nurse a baby all night long? You are very hungry soon after.
Anyways, after getting the kids some food, I made myself a very normal breakfast of a vegetarian corn dog, a diet coke, and dark chocolate peanut m&m's. (We've already established my weird eating habits numerous times.)
Happy wanted some of my veggie corn dog. Knowing he probably wouldn't eat any, I cut him a very small piece.
 |
| (The black thing in the center is the hole where the veggie dog stick was. Just wanted to clear that one up!) |
He took one look at it and said, "Baby Jesus!" with great authority.
I tried to correct him, but he wouldn't hear of it.
Plus, he kind of had a point. It did kind of look like our nativity Baby Jesus.
I have been praying that we would be able to incorporate Christ into the rote things of life.
I guess that would be considered a mission accomplished (?).
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
New Year, Same Nonsense
Well, it's 2012. And I've got nothing.
Which is not much different from 2011.
Happy had a terrific meltdown in Target today. And by terrific, I mean a horrendous, where-can-I-hide-so-people-will-stop-staring-and-judging-me and is-there-a-mute-button kind of temper tantrum.
I would like to apologize to all the customers at my local Target, as well as all patrons of any store within a 5 mile radius.
That boy? He has some lungs. And passion.
I love him. He's lucky that he's got that going for him.
Little Miss alternated between total oblivion and uncontrollable laughter. I long for that bliss.
Moving on....
Hubs recently got some deal with our localweasels internet provider where he upgraded our internet service and somehow got us free basic cable all for $3 more a month.
I was excited because our rabbit ear channels were quite limited. We were able to get PBS, CBS, 2 or 3 Spanish channels and 4 Korean channels.
The Spanish and Korean channels are a total score, you know?
Anyways, I had a point....?
Yes, basic cable upgrade.
Well,those little devils that sneaky little company gave us more than basic cable for approximately 36 hours. (Though I didn't know our precious time together was limited.) I was ecstatic because we had Bravo and TLC, my two favorite channels. I was all geared up to catch up on all things Real Housewives, Rachel Zoe, 19 Kids and Counting, Extreme Couponers, and the list goes on...
I was giddy. Overjoyed, even.
We must have misunderstood what "basic" cable meant, I assumed.
(Do you pity me yet?)
(You should)
But, then today, I turned on the tv during the kids' supposed "nap" time and my beloved channels were gone! They gave me that extra cable long enough for me to realize the gaping void in my life filled by only those channels.
(As if I wasn't already aware of that void.)
Sigh.
Isn't that a dirty little trick?
Which is not much different from 2011.
Happy had a terrific meltdown in Target today. And by terrific, I mean a horrendous, where-can-I-hide-so-people-will-stop-staring-and-judging-me and is-there-a-mute-button kind of temper tantrum.
I would like to apologize to all the customers at my local Target, as well as all patrons of any store within a 5 mile radius.
That boy? He has some lungs. And passion.
I love him. He's lucky that he's got that going for him.
Little Miss alternated between total oblivion and uncontrollable laughter. I long for that bliss.
Moving on....
Hubs recently got some deal with our local
I was excited because our rabbit ear channels were quite limited. We were able to get PBS, CBS, 2 or 3 Spanish channels and 4 Korean channels.
The Spanish and Korean channels are a total score, you know?
Anyways, I had a point....?
Yes, basic cable upgrade.
Well,
I was giddy. Overjoyed, even.
We must have misunderstood what "basic" cable meant, I assumed.
(Do you pity me yet?)
(You should)
But, then today, I turned on the tv during the kids' supposed "nap" time and my beloved channels were gone! They gave me that extra cable long enough for me to realize the gaping void in my life filled by only those channels.
(As if I wasn't already aware of that void.)
Sigh.
Isn't that a dirty little trick?
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