They are removing Dad off of the pronate bed as they are "not seeing the results they were hoping for."
This is a little alarming for a few reasons. One, because the doctors told us he would be on it through the weekend. Second, because we understood the bed to be one of the last 2 or so options they had for him. And, thirdly, because moving him in any way is risky. Additionally, the doctor had told us they had seen a very little bit of improvement in his lungs when they did the daily chest xray. That seemed like good news to us but I guess to the doctor it was not really. He said the faster they moved him off of the special bed, the better chance they have at another therapy helping him to recover.
It was all so strange as we left for lunch thinking he was staying on the bed for a while and then come back from lunch to find them moving him.
They keep stressing that he "is very, very sick."
Please pray.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
Space Age Bed
Can you believe this contraption? It's so unique. It is rotating constantly. And you can't see his face. You can see just a little bit of his feet and his ears.
It is supposed to help the lungs drain. Praying it helps him improve.
Thankful they were able to transition him to this without any hiccups.
Midday Update on Dad
Last night, Dad had a very hard time with the xrays and tests they ran. They had trouble stabilizing him. It was very scary. They used the term destat.
This morning, I got to the hospital around 8am. The critical care doctor spoke to me (Mom had gone home to shower as she had spent the night here) and he really scared me. He made it sound like it was not super likely that Dad would overcome this since they can't quit figure out why he is having the challenges he is.
Fortunately someone from Mom's church was here and heard what the doctor told me. She helped me remember what all the doctor said. He said, "He's very sick and could die. It's not hopeless but there is a good chance he could die. It's not totally non-reversible." Although it was upsetting news, I did press the doctor for information and do appreciate his honesty.
Basically, the xray showed lots of inflammation, no blood clots (which is good but doesn't help them understand what is wrong), intestine is fine (a little inflamed), and gall bladder is a little inflamed.
The top front half of lungs look ok. The back part of the lungs have collapsed. They are saying his lungs are badly damaged.
They are currently changing him to some sort of rotating bed that will hopefully relieve some of the pressure on his lungs. I guess it is pretty rare and I overheard the nurse saying she has only done it once and it was 2 or 3 years ago. The bed came with its own team of technicians.
If that doesn't help they are going to try a different ventalator or something like that.
It's a risky procedure. Any time they move him in anyway, he seems to have major trouble.
I'll update more later. Thank you for prayers!
This morning, I got to the hospital around 8am. The critical care doctor spoke to me (Mom had gone home to shower as she had spent the night here) and he really scared me. He made it sound like it was not super likely that Dad would overcome this since they can't quit figure out why he is having the challenges he is.
Fortunately someone from Mom's church was here and heard what the doctor told me. She helped me remember what all the doctor said. He said, "He's very sick and could die. It's not hopeless but there is a good chance he could die. It's not totally non-reversible." Although it was upsetting news, I did press the doctor for information and do appreciate his honesty.
The top front half of lungs look ok. The back part of the lungs have collapsed. They are saying his lungs are badly damaged.
They are currently changing him to some sort of rotating bed that will hopefully relieve some of the pressure on his lungs. I guess it is pretty rare and I overheard the nurse saying she has only done it once and it was 2 or 3 years ago. The bed came with its own team of technicians.
If that doesn't help they are going to try a different ventalator or something like that.
It's a risky procedure. Any time they move him in anyway, he seems to have major trouble.
I'll update more later. Thank you for prayers!
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.
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