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Dad’s Hospital Time Line (some dates are estimates)
About 2 ½ years ago (after moving to Arizona) Dad was diagnosed with Valley Fever (an airborne lung disease specific only to the South West).
February 17 – Dad walked him self into the emergency room because he was coughing up blood.
February 20th – I (Kelly) flew out for “5 days” to see Dad through his surgery.
February 21st – Dad had his first surgery to remove the part of his lung that had a large amount of valley fever in it. Due to scar tissue from his 2002 surgery they had a very difficult time, what would have been a 3-4 hour surgery took 7 hours and they accidentally tore the esophagus because the lung was stuck to it – which caused a whole new set of problems.
February 25th – By this time I could see he was having lots of complications, including lots of really bad side effects to medications. At some point before this I had cancelled my flight and my sister, Adah flew on the 25th.
February 28th – Dad seemed to be on the road to recovery and ready to move out of the intensive care unit, so with that good news and my sister there, I flew home.
March 1st – Dad’s surgeon called me and said things were getting worse and I should come back immediately.
March 2nd – I flew back to Arizona
March 3rd – our brother, Ian flew out to Arizona
March 4th – Dad’s team of surgeons met with us and explained they had to go in for another surgery to try to repair the lung that wasn’t healing enough on its own (kept deflating) and to try again to repair the hole in the esophagus that hadn’t healed yet either. Due to the hole in the esophagus, he can’t eat or drink and wasn’t getting sufficient nutrition from the IV so they needed to put a feeding tube in his stomach while they had in him surgery.
For him to go through another surgery at that point was a huge risk but needed to be done. They told me to go to Office Max, get a Will, fill it in for him and they would get a Notary in there for dad to sign it. I did that and me, Dad, Ian and Adah went over everything and took care of it.
March 5th – Dad went in for his second surgery. He made it through and was on a ventilator and heavily sedated for several days after.
Several days later – he was able to come off of the ventilator and breathe on his own. Things were looking good but we had many set backs and bad days to follow. Some set backs include (in addition to the breathing problems) “afib” heart rate, sky high blood pressure, etc.
March 10th – Ian went back home to return to work.
March 17th – I had a flight scheduled to go home for a little while. I went to say good bye to Dad on my way to the airport real quick and found him trying to ask for help because he couldn’t breathe at all. I called in the doctors and nurses and they immediately put a tube down his throat and got him on the ventilator. I stepped out of the room while they did that and cancelled my flight.
March 18th – Adah went home to see her family and work for a little bit and returned 9 days later.
March 19th – Dad had a tracheotomy. This was to put a tube in his throat so that they can connect him to the ventilator through that (more comfortable for him than the tube in his mouth). Also they could do the “suction” easier through it so they could avoid the constant bronchoscopes (a much more invasive procedure) they were doing (to manually clear out his lungs). The trachea tube blocks the vocal cords and he has been unable to speak at all since then.
March 27th – By looking at fluids that were coming out of one of his three chest tubes, the doctors suspected his esophagus may still be leaking. They did a risky test to see and he got through the test ok but they found that it is still leaking. They decided to give it some time to see if it heals on its own but if not, they will have to do another surgery (he’s not strong enough to tolerate one now) to reconstruct his esophagus.
Somewhere around this time – Our tough, strong Dad’s spirits started to weaken. His strength and will to fight this is part of what has carried him through so far so we cannot have that now. Increased visits from friends seem to be helping a little. One of his nurses also suggested bringing in a CD player and his music. That was a great idea!! He was actually tapping his fingers and moving his toes to it – very exciting to see.
March 31st – With my sister there, I decided to fly home for 6 days to see my husband and our son (finally) and to take care of a few things. I will be returning to Arizona on Sunday April 6th.
In between this all – We have been trying to get him on a medical flight/air ambulance back East to recover. The challenge is to find a hospital to accept him, which is also qualified enough to take him in his condition and care for him properly. Even if/when we do find that, he has to be stable enough for the flight. Some days he is and others he is not. Today (April 1st) he was back up to 100% on his ventilator (which means the machine is doing all of the breathing for him). He would need to be back at about 50% in order to fly. If we don’t find a hospital then we have to wait until he is ready to move to an acute care facility, in which case, we will get him on the medical flight and get him in one back in Connecticut.
About 2 ½ years ago (after moving to Arizona) Dad was diagnosed with Valley Fever (an airborne lung disease specific only to the South West).
February 17 – Dad walked him self into the emergency room because he was coughing up blood.
February 20th – I (Kelly) flew out for “5 days” to see Dad through his surgery.
February 21st – Dad had his first surgery to remove the part of his lung that had a large amount of valley fever in it. Due to scar tissue from his 2002 surgery they had a very difficult time, what would have been a 3-4 hour surgery took 7 hours and they accidentally tore the esophagus because the lung was stuck to it – which caused a whole new set of problems.
February 25th – By this time I could see he was having lots of complications, including lots of really bad side effects to medications. At some point before this I had cancelled my flight and my sister, Adah flew on the 25th.
February 28th – Dad seemed to be on the road to recovery and ready to move out of the intensive care unit, so with that good news and my sister there, I flew home.
March 1st – Dad’s surgeon called me and said things were getting worse and I should come back immediately.
March 2nd – I flew back to Arizona
March 3rd – our brother, Ian flew out to Arizona
March 4th – Dad’s team of surgeons met with us and explained they had to go in for another surgery to try to repair the lung that wasn’t healing enough on its own (kept deflating) and to try again to repair the hole in the esophagus that hadn’t healed yet either. Due to the hole in the esophagus, he can’t eat or drink and wasn’t getting sufficient nutrition from the IV so they needed to put a feeding tube in his stomach while they had in him surgery.
For him to go through another surgery at that point was a huge risk but needed to be done. They told me to go to Office Max, get a Will, fill it in for him and they would get a Notary in there for dad to sign it. I did that and me, Dad, Ian and Adah went over everything and took care of it.
March 5th – Dad went in for his second surgery. He made it through and was on a ventilator and heavily sedated for several days after.
Several days later – he was able to come off of the ventilator and breathe on his own. Things were looking good but we had many set backs and bad days to follow. Some set backs include (in addition to the breathing problems) “afib” heart rate, sky high blood pressure, etc.
March 10th – Ian went back home to return to work.
March 17th – I had a flight scheduled to go home for a little while. I went to say good bye to Dad on my way to the airport real quick and found him trying to ask for help because he couldn’t breathe at all. I called in the doctors and nurses and they immediately put a tube down his throat and got him on the ventilator. I stepped out of the room while they did that and cancelled my flight.
March 18th – Adah went home to see her family and work for a little bit and returned 9 days later.
March 19th – Dad had a tracheotomy. This was to put a tube in his throat so that they can connect him to the ventilator through that (more comfortable for him than the tube in his mouth). Also they could do the “suction” easier through it so they could avoid the constant bronchoscopes (a much more invasive procedure) they were doing (to manually clear out his lungs). The trachea tube blocks the vocal cords and he has been unable to speak at all since then.
March 27th – By looking at fluids that were coming out of one of his three chest tubes, the doctors suspected his esophagus may still be leaking. They did a risky test to see and he got through the test ok but they found that it is still leaking. They decided to give it some time to see if it heals on its own but if not, they will have to do another surgery (he’s not strong enough to tolerate one now) to reconstruct his esophagus.
Somewhere around this time – Our tough, strong Dad’s spirits started to weaken. His strength and will to fight this is part of what has carried him through so far so we cannot have that now. Increased visits from friends seem to be helping a little. One of his nurses also suggested bringing in a CD player and his music. That was a great idea!! He was actually tapping his fingers and moving his toes to it – very exciting to see.
March 31st – With my sister there, I decided to fly home for 6 days to see my husband and our son (finally) and to take care of a few things. I will be returning to Arizona on Sunday April 6th.
In between this all – We have been trying to get him on a medical flight/air ambulance back East to recover. The challenge is to find a hospital to accept him, which is also qualified enough to take him in his condition and care for him properly. Even if/when we do find that, he has to be stable enough for the flight. Some days he is and others he is not. Today (April 1st) he was back up to 100% on his ventilator (which means the machine is doing all of the breathing for him). He would need to be back at about 50% in order to fly. If we don’t find a hospital then we have to wait until he is ready to move to an acute care facility, in which case, we will get him on the medical flight and get him in one back in Connecticut.
2 comments:
Brother Tom:
Hope you get better real soon. Also hope you recover enought to make it to OK in the fall. Hang in there, Brother, we are standing with you.
LRB
Graywolf
Mtn Chap, NC
Hi Mr. H!
Just so you know, you're not allowed to go anywhere yet. There's not enough handsome biker dads in the world today. So it looks like you'll have to stay a while longer! :D
Hope you're in good spirits today. We may be far away but our prayers are close with you!!
Rebecca
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