Dad - Day 7

Well, here we are a week later!

I never would have guessed last week when dad was admitted that I would be watching him get intubated, life lined to Methodist and have heart surgery! Definitely overwhelming but everything has been also very amazing. Dad has received amazing care both here and at North and has done well with every challenge that he has been presented with.

At this moment, his is still on the breathing machine. They are planning to removed that at some point today, but are waiting for the doctors to come do their rounds. He is still on continuous sedation and pain medication, but has built a bit of a tolerance and is more alert that he was previously. He is still on a small dose of Dopamine, but they are trying to wean that off slowly. The Amiodarone drip for his funky heart rhythm has been turned off without any problems. They also had him on a Nitroglycerin drip, which I forgot to mention, and that is off now, too. He is getting some maintenance IV fluid and antibiotics intermittently. They will remove his Swan Ganz cath today (internal measuring device) and I am hoping also his a-line. He will be left with his 3 chest tubes, central line, PICC line and catheter. Although that still sounds like a lot, it will be a lot less and a lot easier on him.

Mom and I were visiting in his room and I was helping the nurse turn him, and he opened his eyes and was moving about with stimulation. After he had calmed back down for a few minutes, he randomly opened his eyes and squeezed my hand to command. A few minutes later, his sister Carol came in and started talking to him. She asked if he could hear her and he shook his head yes. Mom then started talking more to him and he was also nodding. Mom had mentioned something about surgery and he furrowed his eyebrows. I asked if he remembered anything about needing or having surgery and he nodded no. I briefly told him about the heart surgery and explained that he may also be feeling pain in his leg from the graft site. I also caught him up to speed on his lung. I told him that he would probably forget this again, and that we would keep reminding him. We then told him that we would let him get some rest, and have left him alone for a bit. I will go back in there shortly and may or may not need to do another update later today.

He still looks good, from a nurses perspective, though, it is hard to see him in this state.

If things follow the plan and the information stays the same, I may not put another update, but if anything changes, I will let you all know.

As, always, big thank yous to everyone!