- Joined
- Sep 10, 2006
- Messages
- 4,071
Well, I've been away from the forum for a week due to my father becoming critically ill. He is more stable now, but he still hasn't been transferred to a regular floor room.
It's been a rough week. After finding out he was life flighted to the hospital, I flew 900 miles to be with him and support family, etc. Every day I drove my stepmother 1 1/2 hours to the hospital, spent all day there, and then did the drive home again. I came back only b/c I can't expect work to tolerate me being gone indefinitely. Sure do wish we were FIRED already. It sure is tough being away from family during times like this.
He has so many things going on! First, they say his iron levels dropped extremely low (5.0, I think). He's been anemic a long time, and we couldn't get him to switch doctors so that we could get to the bottom of what was causing the anemia. On top of all this his blood was WAY too thin (he was on Coumadin, was "adjusting" the medicine himself, and was reluctant to go for the regular testing you are supposed to have). They assume he was bleeding out internally somewhere but haven't been able to do any gastrointestinal tests yet due to his pulmonary status (risk of having to be put on a ventilator).
He's been diagnosed with a heart attack, pulmonary hypertension, and developed heart failure after all the transfusions. He's still having a lot of trouble breathing (has to be on 10 liters of oxygen or Bipap), but it is getting better slowly. It's been so tough seeing him with all those IV's, etc. However, he definitely looks better every day and is now talking up a storm and back to joking with everyone. It's amazing what today's medicine can do. He's not out of the woods yet, but we certainly are hopeful that he has turned the corner!
Anyways, just a little note to explain why I haven't been around and also make up a good excuse (to the Wednesday weigh-in crowd) for however much weight I've gained via stress eating this past week!
It's been a rough week. After finding out he was life flighted to the hospital, I flew 900 miles to be with him and support family, etc. Every day I drove my stepmother 1 1/2 hours to the hospital, spent all day there, and then did the drive home again. I came back only b/c I can't expect work to tolerate me being gone indefinitely. Sure do wish we were FIRED already. It sure is tough being away from family during times like this.
He has so many things going on! First, they say his iron levels dropped extremely low (5.0, I think). He's been anemic a long time, and we couldn't get him to switch doctors so that we could get to the bottom of what was causing the anemia. On top of all this his blood was WAY too thin (he was on Coumadin, was "adjusting" the medicine himself, and was reluctant to go for the regular testing you are supposed to have). They assume he was bleeding out internally somewhere but haven't been able to do any gastrointestinal tests yet due to his pulmonary status (risk of having to be put on a ventilator).
He's been diagnosed with a heart attack, pulmonary hypertension, and developed heart failure after all the transfusions. He's still having a lot of trouble breathing (has to be on 10 liters of oxygen or Bipap), but it is getting better slowly. It's been so tough seeing him with all those IV's, etc. However, he definitely looks better every day and is now talking up a storm and back to joking with everyone. It's amazing what today's medicine can do. He's not out of the woods yet, but we certainly are hopeful that he has turned the corner!
Anyways, just a little note to explain why I haven't been around and also make up a good excuse (to the Wednesday weigh-in crowd) for however much weight I've gained via stress eating this past week!