HOLY SHIT!!

Dad weighs 313 pounds. FROM FLUID!!!! When we got to Rush originally I think he was 260. Martha says you can really tell in his hands and face. They gave him lasix today though and it seems to be helping a bit. They also chnaged his feeding to a more concentrated amount, less fluid input.

We are headed out tomorrow. I'll keep you updated.

Update

Just talked to Debbie. Dad is still been really sleepy all day. He woke up about an hour ago. Debbie says he seems to be having trouble tracking with his eyes, but thinks its because he is so tired maybe. His blood count is really low again so they had to give him 2 units of blood.

The bone scan results came back from his wound, there is no osteomyelitis, which is good. But they found lesions on his spinal cord around his right hip and knee area. The doctor thinks its Aspergillus. So, the aspergillus is pretty invasive.

He still is FULL of fluid, they couldn't give him lasix because of his blood pressure. But since that is okay now, they finally gave him some lasix today.

Monday

Dad has yet another bacteria in his lungs. BIG SHOCKER. Its growing in a petri dish, but they said they thought they knew what it was. So, now he is on 2 anti-fungals and 3 antibiotics.

Saturday he was very alert all day long, he even wanted Debbie to rent him a comedy and a drama. But, he slept all day yesterday and didn't watch any of them. She tried to put one on for him today and he couldn't stay awake.

They took him off his blood pressure medicine and he seemed to be doing really well off of it.

Jordan had her prom on Saturday. She had a really good time. Scott and I went down and took the Grand March pictures. That was a ton of fun and the kids all were great. I feel sorry for them, it was POURING by the time we were done and they all had to go outside in it. Jordan won a radar detector at the after prom party.

Here is a link to the pictures: http://public.fotki.com/scottssister/carlisle-jr-sr-prom/

Thursday

Dad didn't want Martha to leave today. He was much more alert. They wanted to do a bronchoscopy today. His chest Xray showed a significant change from yesterday so they wanted to culture it and see whats up. He has been having issues with his feeding tube the past 3 days getting clogged. I can't help but think that maybe some of the feeding is getting aspirated?

Thats all I got for today.

Hello

Dad is doing really well today. There doesn't seem to be any deficits from this surgery. We are still awaiting the results of the brain cultures. They checked his thyroid and it has little to no function right now, which can affect his respiratory function, so they started him on meds for that.

The wound nurse was in when I was there, they gave him a new bed. They are also doing a bone scan because apparently his bone is showing. I know due to his diabetes amongst all his millions of other issues, that kind of wound is hard to treat. But, bone showing is UNACCEPTABLE! Thanks RML! I hope Rush can fix it.

We have also recently found out that our aunt Joan has lung cancer. It is very small and a slow moving type. I think they are just going to do radiation. She is doing great in her new retirement community, so I think she will get through this just fine with all of her new friends.

Prom is this weekend, Scott and I will be in Carlisle shooting all the prom kids. (with our cameras.) Debbie is going to Rush to spend the weekend with dad.

BUSTED!!

Haha!! Dr. Lopes came in and said he had been reading my blog. How embarrassing. HI DR. LOPES!!! :)

Oh well, I never said anything bad about him, he is awesome.

They are taking him to surgery now here soon. Supposed to be 130. It was first 4:20, then 6:00, now 1:30. He is sleepy today. He wakes up on command and responds appropriately. He is going through the same incision. He has some fluid between the bone flap and dura, they will test that first. They will then go in and get to one of the abscesses and test that. He does think its an infection and he hopes that there is still infection in it and not just the residual skin left over so they can get a treatment plan going. Plus he has faith that his right side will come back. Yay!

Anyway, I will update more after surgery. :)

Surgery

They are opening dad back up tomorrow to dig around and figure out what is causing the abcesses. I hope it goes well. I am here with Scott. I got in last night about 8. Scott said he had been pretty lathargic and sleeping all day, so I called up to check to see if he was awake and he wasn't, so we just stayed at the motel.

Today when we got here I came in and said hi and he opened his eyes really big and looked at me and mouthed hi. That was nice. He has been sleeping most of today though too. They took him for a stealth CT scan. It slices the brain into like 60 pieces so they can get a better view of where they are going tomorrow.

They of course have zero idea what time they are taking him to surgery. I will keep everyone updated. Fingers crossed!

Going back to Rush

Dad is going back to Rush today. Back to ICU. Clinically he is doing wonderful. But, there is a new lesion. I spoke with Jeff Brock, Scott's friend. He said that if it was Aspergillous, treatment in the brain could take up to a YEAR.

I feel great that he is clinically doing better, I just wish we could get rid of whatever is in his brain. I am grateful that Dr, Lopes wants him back. I think when he sees dad, he will be shocked how much he has improved, but we still have a long road ahead.

Scott is going today at noon, I'm am leaving tomorrow after the Mayors Ride.

My Great Aunt Joan is in the hospital also. She has an infection in her leg. Dads moms sister. I will go up tonight after work and visit her. She went in to the hospital to have a biopsy done on some lung tissue and Debbie noticed her leg when they were in radiology. So, they cancelled that and took her to the ER.

I think if you looked "Shoning" up in the dictionary, there would be a picture of a hospital.

Tax Day

Dad has pretty consistantly been off the ventilator for the most part until this morning. His 02 sats went way down, he developed some mucous plugs in his lungs and one of the nurses who used to be a respiratory therapist got them out. I guess it was a bit scary there for awhile. He is on the vent now and they are looking into hooking him up to a machine that helps you cough while you are off the ventilator to avoid the mucous plug issues. Yummy.

They are doing a chest XRay and the results of his CAT Scan came back. The lesions in his brain show no change and he has developed a new one. I guess the doctors will be in contact with Lopes so we can figure out the next plan. I hope they do an MRI. If they don't, I might possibly throw a huge fit. :)

He is doing FANTASTIC though. He is very much alert and is communicating. He told Martha he did not want to go to Omaha, but would rather go to Waterloo. With this new brain lesion, who knows where he is going.

I am going up either Saturday afternoon and staying through Monday. I can't wait to see him, it seems like it has been forever!

Saturday the 11th

Dad had lots of tears today with Jordan, Debbie and Judy. He weaned for 22 hours yesterday and they put him back on at 630 AM. But, he is off now and has been for 2 hours. He has also been up in the chair for two hours.

Today marks the one year anniversey of my grandmas death. I put flowers on her grave today and last night, (I know here comes the WHATS!!??) I got her initials tattooed on my foot. IN SCRABBLE TILES!!! Yes I did. And it rocks and I don't care what anyone thinks.!! :)

Waterloo or Omaha

Scott and I went to Fleur Heights today. They DO NOT wean people from vents. So, the closest we have found is a place called Harmony House in Waterloo, and another place which is kind of a chain specialty place in Omaha. I talked to Harmony House and Scott talked to Omaha. they both sound very promising and dads case manager has been in contact with both facilities. We should know which one he is going to early next week.

I was talking to Martha when she walked into the room today and as she talked to him he was responding to her completely and did all day. He became very emotional when she read some cards to him.

Judy, Jordan and Debbie Williams are there to see him and dad said he was very excited to see them.

I will update more tomorrow.

MAN!

We found out yesterday that insurance has screwed him YET AGAIN!! here is the scenerio:

Dad was no longer, according to the insurance company, needed in ICU. Although he had that brain infection that no one wanted to persue, he was admitted to RML. He was so sick at RML it took a good few weeks to get whatever it was growing in his brain to get under control, to where he could start really being weaned from the ventilator. Well, guess what?? RML is an ACUTE long term facility, which we were never told, so he had an insurance goal of 35 days. Because he is medically stable now, his wound is healing, he no longer meets the requirements to be at RML. So, basically, because he was kicked out of Rush, not yet ready to go to RML, we wasted most of his 35 days there trying to get him well enough to be weaned and didn't make that goal. So, out we go.

We are now in search of a SUBACUTE, long term care facility that will wean and still provide great care/wound care. The only place we have found so far is Fleur Heights in Des Moines. Scott and I are going to check it out tomorrow.

It will be nice to get him back to Des Moines where we ALL can better watch over him. Even just for his mental state it will be better. He is very depressed.

I will have more information tomorrow.

Today

I just spoke with Debbie. Dad has been off the vent since 830 this morning. He is very much alert and his right hand strength is much stronger. She said that he is very much aware of his surroundings and is respoding appropriately to all questions. He seems to know exactly what is going on and is also quite depressed. Now that he is alert, that is understandable. They worked on his wound a bit today, he is a bit tired from that so she didn't think they would get him up in a chair at all today.

I hope that within the next month or two we can get him back to Des Moines. Maybe in the next week or two we can wheel him outside to sit in the fresh air for awhile. Maybe Ill drive the vette up so he can stare at it for awhile, give him the will to get better and drive it!!

It seems to be that all the brain issues are now gone, we just now have to clean up the respiratory mess and figure out how much damage was done to his brain involving his extremities.

Now that he is AWAKE, email me some more stories that we can read to him!!!

SORRY SORRY SORRY!!

I have no excuse other than complete laziness for not updating the blog. I was waiting for Martha to get there today to see if there were any new updates, but when I called her I found out she is in Omaha with Jordan at Creighton. So she didn't have any updates.

Scott was there all weekend. He said that he really seems to be coming out of it when he is awake. There were a few times that he tried to talk and he is being much more expressive with his face. He was off the venitlator yesterday when Scott left and when I called his nurse this morning, they had to put him back on it around 10. So, he was off for 48 hours!!!!

They put him on a talking vent valve and because he was off the ventilator for so long, he couldn't tolerate it. So, they put him back on the vent to let him rest. The talking vent valve is to block off the air so he can talk. Its a process putting it on, and thats what got him. She said he is doing fine though!

They debrided his wound on Friday. I asked how it looked and she said she hadn't had a chance to look yet today, but when she changed the dressing yesterday it was bleeding. I sort of gave her hell that it took them almost a month to have it debrided when it was clearly obvious to me and everyone upon his arrival that it was necrotic. She agreed and apologized. I told her that he better not get septic because of that wound after all he had been through. She said they are on it now, so, THEY BETTER BE!!!!

Martha, Jordan, Judy, and Debbie are going up there for Easter. Im staying home for a baby shower and to host Easter dinner at our house for Colemans family. Prom is coming up, Im doing the Grand March pictures at the school. I am pretty stoked about that, plus whoever is coming to the get pictures done before prom. Im sure Jordan will have a gaggle of friends over.

Anyway, that is all I have for now. I promise I won't wait so long between blogs. Bad Liza! Bad!

Boo!

Well, they called Martha last night. They put him back on the vent about 1030. His oxygen saturation starting going to low. They are letting him rest today. I completely never thought that he would just be off of it forever. But a whole day and a half is fantastic!! I am sure they will take him off tomorrow once he has gained some energy back.

He has been asleep the whole time she has been there today. They are having a surgeon come look at this sore, they mentioned to Martha yesterday that they thought it needed debrided. I said that a month ago. They are apprently pretty slow there.

Who wants to send me to medical school. Anyone?? :)