The Marathon

Over the last few days, several of the doctors have been talking to my mom about what is going on with my dad, and how long we should expect his recovery to take. They have been using phrases like, "it's going to take a long time," or "we just try to make small, incremental improvements each day, and somedays there will be set backs." Dr. Bull was talking to my mom about trying to take care of herself, telling her she needs to eat and get plenty of sleep, etc. He said that this process is like a marathon, so she needs to pace herself and make sure she takes care of herself. So, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that Dad is going to be in the SICU for quite some time, and most days there probably won't be much significant change.

Friday there was a bit of a scare when the doctors found a large white mass on the right side of Dad's chest in an x-ray. They weren't sure whether it was fluid or air, but knew they needed to get it out of there by inserting a chest tube on that side. They were thinking of just doing the procedure right there in his room, but Dr. Bull said it would be too dangerous not to know exactly where it needed to go. They decided to do a CAT scan so they could get the tube precisely where it needed to go. It took six people to move Dad, his bed and all of the equipment that had to go with him. They were able to get the scan and insert the tube successfully, and as soon as they did there was a big whooshing sound, so it turned out to be air. However, the doctors have no idea where it came from, as there is no leak in his lung or any other obvious source. But, getting the air out made it easier for the respirator to function correctly and for Dad to breathe, so overall it was a positive development.

Saturday was fairly uneventful, with the doctors continuing to try and slowly wean Dad off of the ventilator and his medicines. Sunday they began to switch his sedation medication from Verced (spelling ?) to Propolol (or something like that, sorry) which is a more mild sedative and will make it easier for him to wake up. The only problem is that changing the medication also caused his blood pressure to go a little crazy and his heart rate to go back up into the high 100-teens, when it had been down around 100 prior to the change. They also took Dad off of the paralytic medication for about an hour-and-a-half yesterday, which he seemed to tolerate very well. After that time he began to fight against the respirator again so they had to restart it. But, my Mom said that during the time he was off it he did raise his eyebrows once while she was talking to him.

Several times over the last few days they have tried to set the dialysis machine to start removing the extra fluid which has been accumulating in Dad's body, but each time they try he doesn't react very well. So, the dialysis is currently only removing the amount of fluids they are putting into him. As a result of the extra fluid, he has a somewhat swollen appearance. Because of the high blood pressure (190/90) after changing the sedative yesterday, they wanted to make sure that Dad hadn't had an aneurism or anything, so they checked his aorta and it was the correct size, so everything looked alright.

As you can see, there hasn't been a whole lot of progress over the last few days, just a little bit here and there. This whole process really is like a marathon and is going to take a long time. As more changes occur or information becomes available we will keep you up to date. Thank you once again to everyone who has been praying and fasting for my Dad and our family, we can't thank you all enough or tell you how much it means to us. Thank you also to my dad's sisters Karyn and DeAnn, and my parents' friends from Texas, Richard & Kasey. They have all been spending quite a bit of time at the hospital with my Mom over the last few days when us kids couldn't be there, we really appreciate it.