He's had a really hard 4 days. On Wednesday morning (Sarah's birthday), he got up, said he was feeling better, and while Mom made the coffee he headed for the bathroom. But Mom noticed he was in there too long. When she went to check on him, she found that he was barely breathing and he was not responding to her. She called the ambulance, and they got him out in the driveway and intubated him there.
We found at the hospital he had a full blown case of pneumonia in his left lung, and the xray showed what they kept calling a 'total white-out'. The E.R. doctor was pretty blunt in saying he didn't know if they could help dad or not. He was that bad.
They put him in intensive care, where he still is tonight, and started aggresive antibiotics, heart meds, all sorts of iv's. The next day he seemed better, so the doctor decided to take him off of the vent, to our relief.. and so they started a really fast weaning.. lasting only 15 or so minutes. Dad was responsive, talking to us, and suddenly he crashed. He managed to stay off the vent for roughly an hour before he went into full arrest. They did cpr.. got his heart going again - put him back on the vent, then decided to clear his pneumonia as much as possible before trying to wean him again, and so that day was today. They are taking this slow, instead of so fast as they tried the first time, they don't want him going into full arrest again. Today though, they tried again to wean him, and at first it went okay, but then he started going into distress again at about 5 this evening, so they just put the vent back on. They'll try again tomorrow.
We found out today, he's septic - which, the respiratory therapist says, means that he's had an infection that went untreated until it finally got into his bloodstream.
No wonder he's felt so bad for so long, and no wonder he's looked so bad. He's so stubborn though, absolutely refused to see any doc but his own, who was in Florida until this past Tuesday... by the time she got back, he was just so sick. What I don't understand is why she didn't put him in the hospital when he saw her Tuesday.. she said today that she hadn't heard any breath sounds when she saw him Tuesday morning - so I don't understand that. She'd suggested then, that if he felt worse, to go to the E.R., but it just seems like to me she should have insisted that he go straight from her office. I don't think I'll ever understand that one.
I know I sound choppy, and out of focus, I haven't slept much.. I've been pretty much staying at the hospital. I feel like I'm in a bad dream and can't wake up. I feel like I'm walking on cotton.. the ground isn't firm beneath my feet anymore. Too, the pain of watching him go through this, is much like I think it would feel to have little slivers of glass all over your body that you can't get out.
Thank you to those of you who have called to check on him, who have come to the hospital to see him, and to all of you who are praying for him. We really appreciate it, please, keep it up.. this isn't a hopeless case, he can be weaned from that vent, but not until his body is healed and ready.
Tomorrow (July 23) will be Mom and Dad's 46th Wedding Anniversary.
I'll post more when I can.
Posted by juel at July 22, 2007 08:27 PM