Ernest Sensenig

First post: Aug 10, 2016 Latest post: Aug 22, 2016
    Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.    Dad's health has been declining for a while.  He's had a continual cough that started in May of  2015.  His doctor gave him several rounds of antibiotics, changed his meds, ran a battery of tests, and still the cough hung on.  Dad lost his appetite and quite a bit of weight and in October started spitting up blood.  We notified the doctors and there were more tests and more antibiotics, but now the doctors started focusing on his heart and lung health.  The was an Echocardiogram, Stress Test,  X-Rays, and various other tests.  The verdict was that Dad's heart was in poor shape and he had a spot on his lower right lung lobe.  The doctors would continue to work toward his health.    June of 2016- Dad's cough was getting better.  He could lay down in bed to sleep and only woke up coughing a few times a night.  He seemed to be finally on the mend, but the spot on his lung was still there and the doctor decided to do a bronchoscopy to see if there was a blockage that prevented the bronchioles from draining and healing.  There wasn't a blockage.      July 2016 - The pulmonologist ordered a breathing machine to help Dad sleep better at night.  Maybe a better night's sleep would help his body heal.  Dad came down with a cold.  The doctor gave him a Z-pack.  On Sunday, July 24th, Mom took Dad to the ER with chest pains on his right side.  They admitted him and after scans and testing, they said that he had pneumonia and ordered IV antibiotics.  The scan of his lungs showed that although the original spot on the lower, right lobe of his lung had started to fade a little bit, a new spot had developed above it.   There was not really any treatment given for the spots, other than to treat the pneumonia and wait for them to go away.  The antibiotics kicked in quickly and by Tuesday, the cough was 90% gone.  Dad was discharged Tuesday afternoon.    August 4,2016 - Mom brought Dad into the ER with chest pains on his upper right side.  They gave him pain killers and the pain went away.  They put him an observation room and talked about letting him go home on Friday.  Dad had a dull continual pressure, though, so they decided to keep him through the weekend.  The lab work gave the hospital enough concern that they decided to do a heart catheterization on Monday, the 8th.  The catheterization showed one complete blockage and several partial blockages.  Since Chambersburg Hospital does not do open heart surgery, they sent him to Hershey that same day.   Once he got to Hershey, they ran their own set of tests.  They said they would do surgery as soon as the Plavex (blood thinner) was out of his system, and his platelets came up.  The last projection (8/10/16), the doctors said that they had surgery penciled in for him on Friday the 12th, but expect it'll probably be Monday, the 15th. 

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