As many of you know Dad was scheduled to have a section of his colon removed surgically. His surgery was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yesterday he was feeling weak and fell in the kitchen. He did not have injuries from the fall, but was taken to the emergency room last night. They discovered his colon had ruptured in a different spot from where the original fistula was. We were not aware of this other bad spot in his colon. He underwent emergency surgery to repair the ruptured colon. They flushed out his abdominal cavity, which was filled with infection. They also detached the part of the original fistula that was attached to his bladder. Repairing the bladder was challenging due to the level of infection in the tissue. He will have a catheter in until a urologist will be able to determine in the future if the bladder is healing properly. They were unable to deal with the original fistula during surgery as he could not handle that right now. He currently has a catheter and a colostomy bag. What happens with those is yet to be determined.
He is in the intensive care unit today. He has been sedated and is on a ventilator currently. They have also tied him to the bed so he won't accidentally remove any tubing if he wakes up. I told the nurse it was probably a good thing too cause he wouldn't be happy about all that stuff!
This afternoon I received an update that his kidneys have shut down. This is a result of the infection and the fact that he has had low blood pressure, also a result of the severe infection. They put him on dialysis earlier. We do not know if the kidneys will resume normal activity when the infection starts to come under control or not. The hope is that the antibiotics will start working and then his kidneys will resume normal functioning.
It is basically a wait and see game right now. He is on some strong antibiotics and we are hoping they can start to combat the infection soon. It is likely the rupture happened a few days ago, but we don't know for sure. Dad never told me he wasn't feeling well, nor anyone else that I know of. He has been dealing with this colon issue for a while now so he was used to some discomfort and pain from it on a regular basis. I'm sure that complicated issues.
I know everyone wants to stay updated so I decided it would be easier to start this thread so I can do one update and you all can keep in the loop. I will make additional updates as I hear things from the doctors and nurses. They have been fantastic in keeping the family updated throughout all of this. It is extremely difficult to not be able to be with him. I am told that the ICU nurses will let us facetime him later on when he is up and talking. Praying we will be able to do that.
The future is unknown. Step one is trying to overcome the infection. We are just taking one day at a time.
Thanks to all for the continued prayers! (
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kaywinparis/journal/view/id/5e8e6c163c4e7b59248b4a26)
