My brother Mike and I have decided to set up this Caring Bridge site to make it easier to keep friends and family updated on dad. On Thursday Nov 10 dad went in for surgery to remove 12" of his lower intestines that had develop a blockage. They took out the blockage and sewed the intestine back together. He did well the first night but the second night, Sat Nov 12, I got a call early in the morning that his heart had gone into an irregular rhythm called Aflutter, similar to AFib. The cardiologist was called in and got him on some medicine to help him. On day 3 when I arrived in the morning, he had an oxygen mask over his nose/ mouth and was not very coherent. The cardiologist came in and was surprised at his decline, he quickly got involved ordering some attention Stat! Needless to say he was quickly taken back in for emergency surgery, turns out where they the put the intestine back together was leaking so they had to do a colostomy! Since then, dad has been in ICU, between his heart, elevated breathing and all the fluid that had leaked into his stomach he needed serious attention! It's been slow going in ICU but he has made some good progress the past couple days, being able to sit in a chair, needing very little oxygen assistance, all of the tubes in his nose and throat have been removed and the bloating & swelling has gone down significantly. Unfortunately, with all the tubes and such he had down his throat he is not able to eat and drink regularly so is getting fed intravenously and will have to have physical therapy to learn to swallow so it goes down the right way. He is on some blood thinner for his heart so that seems to be under control. Because of the conditions in ICU he has not been getting very much or good sleep and suffers from ICU delirium, yep that is actually a condition! The condition we're told is temporary and will go away once he is out of ICU and can get some good sleep. In the mean-time conversations can be rather interesting! Dad has a long way to go, after he is finally able to be discharged from the hospital, he will have to go to a rehab facility so that he can work on getting stronger. walking and getting around. When that will be and for how long is yet to be determined. We very much appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers, for strength, comfort and wisdom for the doctors. Please check back here for daily updates.
It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I write this to let everyone know my dad passed away this afternoon. We were fortunate enough to spend time with him this morning, my entire family in person joined by Mikes family on Skype. We opened a few gifts with him and then shaved his beard that he had proclaimed weeks ago that he wanted to keep until Christmas! We knew that this was inevitable but just didn't think it would be today or quite this soon. We take comfort knowing that he is in a better place with the Lord!
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