Update on my Dad

On Sunday morning he went into cardiac arrest. He has been on a respirator since then. His body is dealing with a lot of things - heart failure, kidney failure, diabetes, and he is fighting an infection - we found out yesterday it is staph. He has been in a coma, and on Sunday was non-responsive.

We made the choice on Sunday to not do dialysis - the specialist who came in was afraid it would be too much for his body to handle. So we made a family decision to just wait it out another 24 hours.

Yesterday morning, his body temperature had come down and he was more responsive. His feet are twitching more and his face seems to respond occasionally to voices. But we still can't fully communicate with him. He had two minor surgeries yesterday. One was to insert this thing that allowed all of the different tubes that were going into him to go in through one place on his arm. Consolidate and it goes straight to his heart - so it is more efficient. Then he had this thing inserted in his arm a few weeks/months ago for a therapy he was doing - they're afraid that was actually where the infection started - so last night they removed that.

The family is meeting at the hospital around noon again today to see how much he has improved and see what the doctors say. On Sunday, we were all prepared to lose him. But now we're not sure how much he has really improved. He always used to say he never wanted to be kept alive on machines, so it is finding that point where we know he will actually improve and be able to live off of them.

As you can imagine, it has been a really difficult couple of days. I'm afraid I might be coming down with something (woke up with a scratchy throat) and my Mom said the same thing this morning when I talked to her. I'm sure sitting around in a hospital for the last two days hasn't helped. I'm worried about my Mom - she actually went home to sleep last night, but had been staying at the hospital straight through prior to that. I know she needs us there for her through this. Thankfully, the entire family has been able to take time off work - my brothers who are pilots canceled their trips. My oldest brother, Rick, was able to stay overnight at the hospital last night.