It's Been A While-Dad Update

Hi Friends!

I apologize in my lack of updating about Dad.  The good news is that there hasn't been too much to update you guys on.  I'll try to recap the more important/crucial items.  Overall, he is doing pretty well.  He is still in the long term acute care hospital. He has had a few setbacks  in the last few weeks that are discouraging, but not life-threatening or non-reversible at this point.  We are thankful for that.

Dad has been fully weaned off of both the respirator and any supplemental oxygen!  What a miracle!

He is still getting dialysis 3 times a week and I understand that to be the plan indefinitely at this point.  He did have a pretty severe infection and they located the source of his infection to the port where he gets the dialysis.  So they operated (or maybe it was just a procedure, I am not sure as to the correct term) on him today to replace that. 

He was making progress in eating a few weeks ago, but aspirated his food pretty severely several times.  If you recall, initially aspiration during emergency surgery was what got him into this mess.  Because of the recent aspiration, he had to go back to a feeding tube and nothing by mouth.  They tried him with some applesauce this week and he aspirated that.

Mentally, he is mostly totally coherent, but he does still have moments of confusion and paranoia.  But, really, who doesn't?

He has days when he is discouraged and bored, days when he is grumpy, and days when he is in a good mood and has everyone laughing.  He's enjoyed the visitors that he has had as it is a break from the monotony. Thank you if you have visited him.  It really has encouraged him.

Last week, he said to me, "I have a long way to go. I could really use some prayer."  I told him that everyone had been praying for him and that those prayers, I truly believe, are a big part of why he has made such great progress. 

He does make an unintentional point, though, that though he is no longer fighting for his life, he is now aware of everything that is going on and it can be overwhelming.  In some ways, this is harder for him.

Please continue to pray for him to improve and for him to be encouraged.

Also, in this facility, they have roommates.  Dad's roommate, Fred, came into the hospital about the time that Dad did.  We have gotten to know Fred, his wife, and some of their family.  It appears that Fred will not recover from his lung and breathing challenges.  Please pray for Fred to recover and, if he does not recover, for comfort and wisdom for his family.  It is such a hard situation that he, his family, and his doctors are in.

Thank you, all, so much for your prayers and support.

I'm Behind on the Updating!

Many of you have asked for Dad updates.  I am sorry for not being as frequent with them as of late. 

Thankfully, he is not in such a critical state.  He is in a recuperating/recovering phase which is slow and a bit painful to watch (Well, it all is painful to watch...but this is a different kind of painful for the observer, I guess).  But he is making good progress, nonetheless.

They have him off of the respirator machine for 16 hours a day, with just supplemental oxygen.  He has been able to tolerate ice chips in the last few days and today they gave him some applesauce that he was also able to tolerate.

He is still getting dialysis 3 times a week. He is getting daily speech, occupational, and physical therapy.

He has been able to tolerate the speaking valve for a few hours each day (with a trachea, you can't speak unless you have a valve inserted).

He is (understandably) very confused, tired, and listless.  The term the staff use is "delusional," which I understand to be expected considering how sick he was and how much medicine he was (and still is) on.

Please pray for him to be encouraged and to be content within this challenging and frustrating situation.  Thank you for your support, prayers, and encouragement.

Dad's New Digs

Dad is doing fairly well this week at the acute care hospital.  He is awake some (though still quite sleepy) and is looking more and more like himself.

He is still getting dialysis, though it is now every other day.

They are also letting him try periods of time with just oxygen and no machine breathing for him.

They have started physical, occupational, and speech therapy as well.  He is very confused.  Though he knows his name, he does not know the year or month among other things.  I understand this to be very normal with someone who has been on so many medications and been so sedated for so long.

He is really wanting to try and get off of the bed a lot.  He has managed to pull loose his oxygen tube and his feeding tube.  Because of his confusion, you cannot simply tell him not to do such things.  Plus, even if he wasn't confused, he is not the type to necessarily abide by rules placed on him by others.  :)

Please pray for Dad to regain strength and for mental clarity.  Please pray for his oxygen needs and dialysis needs to continue to decrease.
Throughout this whole process, he has had trouble with white blood cell counts going up, which is often an indicator of infection.  They have had trouble diagnosing/locating the source of this.  They are still trying to get the white cell counts to go down.  Please pray that they will.

Truly, Dad has had astonishing improvements. They are nothing short of miraculous.  I am so thankful for prayers of friends and strangers alike.  We see your prayers coming to life, literally.  Oftentimes, prayers are not necessarily answered in the ways we would like them to be.  And that is ok. But, at this point in Dad's journey, we are blessed to see specific prayers answered.  Words fail me to adequately express this.

Words also fail me to express my gratefulness to everyone. For prayers, meals, childcare, texts, emails, hugs, hospital visits, words of concern, silent support.  For it all. Thank you so very much.  Please keep praying.

Blessed beyond measure,
Zoe

He's Awake!

Hi Friends! I apologize for my delay in updating this blog regarding Dad.  It's been a busy few days and a lot of progress has been made. 

And I want to apologize if the following update is not succinct and clear.  I am one tired gal.  And a lot has happened that is challenging to recall.

Dad is doing a lot better.  He is awake (!!) and comfortable.  I guess he just needed a good solid month of sleep?  :)  He is responding with nods and smiles now.  What a sweet answer to prayer!

Because he was improving, the staff at the hospital were able to transfer him to a long term acute care hospital (LTACH) specializing in pulmonary rehabilitation.  On Wednesday, the doctors talked to us again about the LTACH and said it would be weeks away.  (They had talked to us about it previously; however, that was before he had some of his more major set backs.  They had not mentioned it lately as he was so critical and they were more concerned about short term stabilization than the long term recovery).  On Thursday, they said he would likely be transferred Friday.  And he was!  What a great, positive improvement.

He is still getting daily dialysis.  Before he left the first hospital, he was seen by a cardiologist regarding his irregular heart beat.  The cardiologist indicated that is normal for someone who has been so ill for so long.  The body is under a great deal of stress (to say the least!) and the heart has to work extra hard.  They gave him some (more) medicine to help with that.

They are going to start trying to do dialysis every other day now, so our prayer would be that he would be able to handle that and that his kidney function would kick back in some.


We are thankful that he is calm and relaxed while awake.  We are praying that remains the same.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Midweek Dad Update

Not much has changed with Dad since I last posted.  The only fairly significant thing would be the fact that he heart rate tends to get really fast at times as well as beat irregularly. This has been happening already for some time; however, it seems to be occurring more frequently as the days pass. 

They called in a cardiologist and the cardiologist said that when the body is under that much stress being so ill, that sometimes will happen.  He added a medicine and Dad's heart rate went back to an acceptable rate.

He's been doing dialysis daily still. I think this is day 8 or 9 of it.

Today marks 4 weeks that Dad has been in this situation. 

We are praying for him to be able to handle reduced sedation and for him to improve.  One doctor, actually my friend Darlene's husband (small world!), encouraged us by saying that he has been so ill for so long that for him to remain the same is a positive.

Again, words cannot express our thanks for your prayers and support!

Many of you may not know my dad or know him well.  Here is a humorous post I did on him last year.  He is definitely a character. Hope you enjoy!

Short Dad Update

Our pic from a few years ago...

Well, things with Dad have been kind of the same for the last few days.  Honestly, that is a welcome relief after some of the ups and downs we have been having.

He is on Day 6, I believe, of dialysis.  It is working well to reduce the fluid in his body.  Initially they were only going to do 3 days, but they have extended it.

While it is good that he is doing well on the dialysis, we are praying for his kidney to start doing that work.

Also, Dad is not "mentally" responsive whenever they pull him off of the sedation.  This is a concern. Whenever they do reduce his sedation, his heart rate becomes erratic and other vitals kind of go askew.  But, he is not responding to commands to open his eyes or squeeze hands. 

Please pray for Dad's kidney function to improve.

Please also pray for him to be able to respond to the doctors' and nurses' commands.  I believe they are bringing in a neurologist for him tomorrow.  Neurologically speaking, there was something strange that appeared on his CT Scan the other day.  It may have been something that was already there before this hospitalization, but they want to be sure they have everything covered.  We hope it was nothing as his list of current physical challenges is already long!

Please pray for him to be able to handle reduced sedation.

Continue to pray for the doctors, nurses, and medical staff.

Thank you so much!

Dialysis and Such

Thank you for your prayers, specifically the prayers for the 4 liters of fluid to be removed on the first day of dialysis.  They were able to remove that much, which is exciting.  And a direct answer to prayer.

Dad is on day 3 of dialysis, with more planned for Friday and Saturday, assuming his body can tolerate it.

The doctors seem to think he is responding well to it and the pressure in his belly region has decreased.

In addition to Dad having fluid in his lungs, he has some fluid on the outside of the lungs as well.  There is a procedure to drain that fluid.  They did the procedure on one side of the lungs yesterday and are currently doing the other side as I type.  They seemed pleased with the amount of fluid they were able to pull out of his body.

While all of these are baby steps, they are greatly encouraging.  I am hesitant to get too excited as previously he has had some small steps forward only to take significant ones backward.  But, regardless, I am thankful for these tiny steps.

Please pray for him to be able to tolerate dialysis, for continuing to make progress forward, and for increased organ functionality.

Your prayers are keeping us afloat.  Thank you!