Dad's Status - 1:45 am - 6/24/2015

Well today is Dad's 84th birthday!! Happy Birthday Buddy!!! 

They just barely took him to get his CT-Scan. They had to wait awhile, because dad's blood pressure dropped to 80/40 and stayed there for several hours. They started to ween him down from the sedation medicine in order to help with the blood pressure. It worked and it popped up to 116/50. They immediately ran him down to get the scans. He was moving around more, as in feet and legs and hands, which was comforting. 

We'll have the results from that come in and that will help us know even more of what we are dealing with. 

Dad's Status - 6:47 pm

Dad is doing better as far as his vitals being regulated. Heart Rate = 93, Blood Pressure = 121/68. His eco-cardiogram came back positive. The Dr. said that his heart looked, "great." and that the arrhythmia could be indicative of electrical issues rather than physical damage, which was ruled out by the eco-cardiogram. He could have suffered a mild heart attack from the respiratory crash. They are going to keep watching that part of it.

They are going to give him in a few hours a CT-Scan of his head and stomach. The head to see if there is anything head related to his incoherency and unresponsiveness, ie. stroke. The stomach to see why he still has stuff being sucked out and to see if there is any other reason for infections. 

The next 24 will be revealing as to where all this is going. I was able to administer a blessing to Dad with the help of Elder Bingham, who is serving a S&I mission here from Idaho. 

Dad's Status - 3:15 pm

They took Dad off the Propofol that they had him on from the ER and introduce some others. He went through a little difficult period, because of the effect of the Propofol. His heartrate and blood pressure skyrockted and you could tell he was very uncomfortable. He started to throw up some more. They were able to get him stable somewhat with the new pain/sedation drugs, his heart rate is 106 and blood pressure 196/97.

His urine sample came back positive for infection and his blood sample indicates sepsis. They have an anti-biotic running through the iv, but that will take some time to have an effect. They are not yet sure if his arrhythmia is from the infection or the respiratory crash. The eco-cardiagram results have not come back yet to help make that determination. 

Dad´s status - 11:28 am - 6/23/2015

Hey everyone I will resurrect this blog site again to give regular updates as to Dad's situation. I want to say thank you to Tim and Bart who took on the task to get the word out to all family members.

Dad is in a more stabilzed condition as of right now. He is sedated and not coherent, but moves and twitches so that you know that he is still here. Tests are still be run and results will be coming back throughout today and the next several days to try and determine the underlying reason for what happened this morning.

There are two things that are being closely monitored right now as I write this: 1) respiration = He is still not able to breath completely on his own, although that is getting better. He is on a respirator and it is doing about 30% of the work right now. It was doing almost 90% once they first intubated him; 2) He is having ventricle arrhythmia, which is an irregular heartbeat that it is in a concerning place.

He attending physician is, Dr. O'Reilly who has been looking in continually so far and seems very competent. He is in room #1044 at Martha Jefferson Hospital.

This morning around 6 am we were awakened with screams from mom. She had found Dad throwing up in bed, incoherent, and shaking. As soon as I got down to their bedroom, I was able to access Dad's condition while Lucy consoled and calmed mother. Dad was awake but very unresponsive. He was soaking wet and had throw up all over him. I got him to sit up and tried to get him cleaned up, all the while trying to talk to him and get him to respond. After not recognizing me or mother or even able to give me his name, we called 911 and got the ambulance over to take him in.

While they were loading him into the ambulance, Dad went into respiratory failure and heart beat irregularity. His blood pressure was 255/80. They quickly got him over to the ER near our home, where they determined to intubate him. They determined that it was best to admit him into ICU and they started to prepare him for transportation to the main hospital, where we are now.

I know Mom and Dad would appreciate all the prayers and reflections that you can give at this time. I post any updates as I get them.