Dad is back in the hospital.

Dad is back in the hospital.

Dad had been falling some but I have been able to "break" his fall. But Wednesday dad took a fall in front of a store while I was parking the car. He didn't seem hurt, it was a few hours before he felt any pain. Thursday morning I called his doctor and got him in for an X-Ray just in case something was broken because he was in a lot of pain.

So, when they were taking the chest X-Ray (at the doctor's office) dad evidently passed out and fell, and hit the floor hard. A huge knot came up on dad's head and his side/chest area was killing him (same side he had fallen on the day before). The doctor's office called 911 and dad was off to the ER.

In the ER they ran all kinds of tests and even took chest X_rays twice. Nothing is broken. And they were going to let dad come home, but then his blood pressure starting doing crazy stuff. When his blood pressure was taken while laying down it was really high, then when he set up and they took it it fell like 80 points. No wonder he had dizzy spells. There is a word for it but I can't remember. Anyways they admitted dad.

Today dad has still been in a lot of pain, and they have gotten his blood pressure down. HOWEVER dad started talking crazy and was freaking me out. The doctor thinks it is coming from all the morphine they have dad on so they are changing from morphine to vicodin. It is also a narcotic that can cause delirium but since it isn't as strong the hope is that it won't mess up dad's thinking as bad.

They still have to work on dad's blood pressure. They need to take it with him laying, sitting, then standing. Right now they can't take it standing because he is too weak to stand. Also the medicine that got his blood pressure down goes against his kidneys (which is why the kidney doctor took him off it). So it may come down to the lesser of two evils.

Prays for daddy and me are greatly appreciated. 

Tuesday April 28

Dad started out really great today. When I got to the hospital today they had dad's hospital bed made into a sort of chair. I had no idea they could get the bed in such a shape (I found this drawing connected with a patent, couldn't find a real photo). They also had dad off the vent and onto just oxygen. Nurse P said that dad was asking about me and some other stuff that Nurse P couldn't figure out what dad was trying to say.

After I was there for a little bit dad started trying to tell me something. I could not figure out what he was trying to say. Several nurses tried to help me but we just couldn't figure out what he wanted. As time went on the more agitated he became. Long story short......I left because I thought maybe me being there and not able to understand him was upsetting to him. I called a few hours later and Nurse P said they got him calmed down but then he got agitated again and it kind of cycled like that for a bit so they finally decided to put him back on the ventilator and that helped him to calm down.

Dad's blood pressure went really high sometime this afternoon so they had to give him something for that. Oh and they gave him some Xanax earlier today which helped to calm him down (this was before I got to the hospital). So they are trying different drugs and amounts of them to try to keep dad calm without sedating him too much.

Keep those prayers going up for dad and me.
Aunt Betty is home from the hospital, but keep those prayers going up for her also.

Kathy