Tuesday Nov. 9, 2010

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A COUPLE OF DAYS MAKES! November 8, 2010

~Yes, his "nasal" cannula is in his mouth. He is a "mouth breather so they finally gave up and let him keep it in his mouth instead of his nose :0) He is actually smiling though~

November 6th, 2010

~Yeah, not looking (or feeling) his "best"~ Papa's breathing is still "wheezy and wet", the physical therapist is coming today to evaluate him to start getting him up and moving around. He needs to cough more often but doesn't want too because of the huge incision in his abdomen. I taught him the "holding the pillow on it trick" (as anyone that has ever had surgery on their tummy knows). I'm not sure that he believes me because he won't do it... still stubborn as ever :0), that's good! When I left last night at 11:00 pm he asked if he could get up and use the restroom and they were helping him do that. He is still attached to so many IVs and his O2 line that it takes a team of people just to move :0). The great news is... are you ready for it... he "pooped"! I realize that may be TMI for some of you but too jolly bad, we are ecstatic! :0) After having 1/3 of your colon removed, it is a REALLY big deal when things start "moving" again (wow, the things we take for granted :0) They are going to do a "Swallow Study" today to make sure that there is no blockage in the surgical site from the top down (now that we know that there isn't from the bottom-out). After that, he will be able to start taking liquids then move on to actual food.

Monday November 8, 2010

Papa is still stable. All of the tests came back from the surgery; All of the tissue removed was Benign, no cancerous or "suspicious" cells at all (yeah!). He is having a hard time talking because he had the tube down his throat for so long but he managed to call home this morning anyway to say "hi" :0). The physical therapist is going to come in this afternoon to evaluate him then get him sitting up and maybe walking a little tomorrow. Things are looking pretty good :0)

Papa

I will try to keep posts on my dad's condition so that everyone can just check the blog when you want an update.

October 19th - Papa had part of the mass removed from his back that is beside his lung on the right side. This is the same mass that the Dr.'s keep doing biopsies on, which keep coming back negative. No surgeon is happy with another surgeons results so they keep wanting their own "specimen", The tissue was not still not malignant.

October 25th - Blood sugar was WAY too low (33) they managed to get it up to 57 and his potassium was WAY to high. They were able to stabilize the levels after dialysis.

October 26th - They took his chest tube out, after that he was a lot more comfortable. He is still really weak and having trouble walking around (which, of course makes his breathing worse). The hospital discharged him anyway this afternoon, but after being home for a few days, he was having some severe bleeding and it got so bad that he needed to be admitted to the hospital again. (different hospital)

Update #1

Papa had to have numerous blood transfusions, approximately 10 units of blood. He went back and forth and up and down with his blood levels. He had an Endoscopy and they found that he had severe Esophogitis but that wasn't the cause of the bleeding. On Nov. 1st, the Gastroenterologist said that he would need to do an Exploratory Laparotomy and depending on what he found, he may have to do a bowel resection to remove part of the colon and that Papa may end up with an Ostemy bag. As it turned out, the bleeding stopped temporarily and they were able to put off the surgery. Nov. 3rd - The surgeon performed the Laparotomy, it took about 4 hours and he had to remove about 1/3 of the colon. At the end of the surgery he didn't end up needing to have the ostemy bag (whew). He needed another 4 units of blood, he was intubated so they kept him heavily sedated until they were closer to removing the tube since patients get very combative and try to pull the tube out. He was on continuous dialysis until the surgery. Nov. 5th - He was down to 3 hours a day for dialysis, still heavily sedated, needed more blood in the morning. Potassium and Glucose levels were good, they are going to try to wean him off of the sedation so that they can take the breathing tube out. My brother and my cousin Franco have been here a few days, I flew into Las Vegas this afternoon. They are starting to reduce the amount of sedation so Papa feels really miserable with the breathing tube in. He had to have his hands restrained so that he wouldn't pull on it. At 10:30 pm his hemoglobin was low so they gave him some iron through his IV, he was pretty agitated so they also gave him morphine and ativan to keep the incision pain under control and calm him down.

Update #2

Nov 6th - A.M. Papa still has the breathing tube but it is set to CPAP so he is doing the breathing on his own, the ventilator isn't doing any of the work anymore. His blood pressure has been high off and on, after dialysis they will draw a blood gas to check his respiratory function then extubate him today or tomorrow. P.M. - The Dr. is concerned that there are no "bowel sounds" yet and they may have to leave the breathing tube in a while longer until he is more stable. After dialysis his blood pressure was better and there were some bowel sounds, yeah! He had a fever of 103 so they gave him some more antibiotics. In the evening, he was a lot stronger moving his arms and legs around, his blood sugar was good. I stayed at the hospital until 2:00 am then I noticed that I was starting to get a sore throat so I came back to my dad's house to get some sleep. Nov 7th - I woke up at 3:00 PM after sleeping for 12 hours straight! It was pretty obvious when I got up that I was very sick with strep throat. Obviously I couldn't go to the hospital. While I was sleeping, they were able to remove the breathing tube YEAH!!! Later in the evening, they removed the gastric tube as well. Now, he just has oxygen through a nasal cannula, like at home. He is still very weak and his incision is sore but he is so much more comfortable with the breathing tube removed. He will be in the hospital for a while longer, they aren't sure exactly how long. He will start physical therapy either tomorrow or Tuesday, since he has been down for so long they want him to be pretty careful getting up and around. Compared to a few days ago he has made a TREMENDOUS improvement! Whew! Side note: I went to "Insta-care" and got a prescription, I have tonsillitis (of course). They said that I can go back to the hospital tomorrow, after I have been on the antibiotic for 24 hours.

Happy Birthday Joshy!!

Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet little man! I can't believe how time flies... We love you soooo much "Mr. Squash"!!!!