Tuesday, September 21, 2010

First, thanks to Aunt Janet for posting the update on Saturday and sorry it has taken me so long to add to it!

As previously stated, the weekend was very stressful. It was clear on Friday my dad wasn't looking or acting good and by evening his blood pressure was very low. He had gone through a tough physical therapy session earlier in the day and the thought was he just overdid it. By Saturday morning it was obvious that was not the case. He was rushed to St. Luke's & right away the nurse could tell he was losing blood, likely site, upper GI. Throughout the day he was given 3 untis of blood, numerous boluses of fluid & multiple meds to keep him stable. Plan was to admit to ICU and consult the GI docs. The OR's were full as were the ICU beds, so the wonderful ER nurse (who has 5 years experience in ICU) tracked down the GI doc, explained my dad's situation/history & asked if was possible to perform the endoscopy right in the ER room. Doc agreed (thank you God!) so around 4:30 p.m. they moved the equipment into the room & did their job. An hour later the door opened & we got the good news they found the bleed site, it was cauterized & bleeding stopped. Horray!! Kim & I were able to go right in with him at that time & he looked better immediately. His comment "it felt like the kitchen sink went down his throat!!" Ahhh... the procedure was done with very little pain meds as to not lower his BP any further. It was either that or back on the vent and NOBODY wanted that. Another hurdle he passed.

Still no available ICU beds so it was off to St. V's via ground Life Flight. I had the pleasure following the unit and could see the male nurse & my dad chatting the whole way. Such a nice sight!! Since then he as been poked at least 50 times for blood since they are closely monitoring his hemoglobin, potassium and other things. He has required 1 additional unit of blood, but the nurse said that was not unusual given the amount he lost. He had probably been bleeding sporadically for a week or longer. No wonder he wasn't hungry!!

My dad has advanced from ice chips to a liquid diet & cleaned his tray entire this morning! Small blessings:) He's still in the ICU, but has been cleared for transfer to a step-down room. Just waiting for a bed to become available... Hmmm we seem to be hearing this a lot lately! The ortho docs were in this morning and said his surgery sites were looking good, wound care nurse agreed.

Kristie arrives this afternoon and my dad is looking forward to seeing her. As you can imagine by now, there are many complications that could arrive, uninvited, at any given time. Thank God each one has had a happy ending to date. We pray for my dad to continue moving forward with his recovery. We have been blessed thus far in this long road to recovery. Praise God!