I took this picture of my dad several years ago. He got a little ill with me for trying to take pictures of him while he was working in his garden. Maybe he really wanted me to grab a hoe and help him rather than just stand there taking his picture!
My dad has always been a hard worker. He grew up during/after the depression on his grandparent's farm. He and momma eloped when he was 19 and she was 17. They have been married for over 60 years. Dad developed diabetes a few years ago, but has been able to manage it pretty well. Since mom has been getting worse, though, he has been sliding on his own care. He has been sick a lot and just not feeling well for a while. We have been on to him about getting to the doctor, but he just nods and tells us that he will get to it.
He gave us quite a scare this week. My sister, Krist, called me on Thursday afternoon, and I knew immediately that something was wrong. I excpected it to be something with my mom. She is slipping into the final stages of alzheimers, and things have been touch and go with her lately. The day before Christmas she fell and broke her wrist... 3 or 4 weeks ago she fell and broke her pelvis. It's just been one thing after another. But, when she managed to say, "it's daddy", my heart fell to my knees.
She then told me they were in the ER with him in Tullahoma, Tn, which is about 25 minutes from where they live. He had called and asked my oldest sister, Carol, to come get him and take him to the hospital because something was wrong. She called Kristi and asked what was going on, because Kristi lives on the farm, right next to my parents. She didn't know that anything was wrong, but she grabbed her blood pressure cuff and went over to check on him. His blood pressure was 220/115, and got Carol to come sit with mom, and took daddy to the ER. By the time they got him there, he had lost use of all his limbs, and he was mumbling incoherently. Once inside, he went from being nonresponsive to combative, and the nurses had to give him several rounds of sedatives. His blood sugar was 1131! He was headed towards a diabetic coma quickly, and we were lucky that he got to the hospital when we did.
I was in the middle of grocery shopping when she called, so I quickly finished up, came home and packed a few things, then headed up there. She called me about 30 minutes later to tell me they were going to have to transport him to another hospital, but they weren't sure which one yet. He needed urgent, critical care, but they were full and couldn't take him. By the time I got there, they had found another hospital to take him, Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, Tn. They decided to med flight him there so he wouldn't have to spend so long in an ambulance. We decided that I would head to Chattanooga to be with him, Kris would head home to be with mom, and Carol needed to get to her house to take care of herself (she has diabetes and congestive heart failure, and making an emergency trip was not something she was capable of doing).
Before they could leave with him, they noticed that he was having some very labored breathing, and his pulse ox was very low. They decided to intubate him before the flight so that he would be stable during the flight. That was hard. We left the room because we couldn't stand the thoughts of seeing that. We watched them load him on the gurney, strap him in, and head out the door.
I had Megan with me, and the two of us watched the med flight take off, then we hit the road. It was about 6:30 or 7:00 by this time, and it took us a little over an hour to get there. Of course, there is an hour time difference between Tullahoma and Chattanooga, so it was after 9:00 when we got there. We found out way to the hospital, got parked, then wandered the hospital trying to find him. The guard at the info desk was sure he had been taken to the ER, but he wasn't there. They helped me locate him, and we had to go back through the hospital and wind our way to the 4th floor to the cardiac care unit. They let us come in for a few minutes to see him, then sent us down to the waiting room until the doctor could see him and come talk to us. Finally, around midnight I was able to talk to someone. Of course they didn't have a lot of info at that time of night, but it was reassuring to talk to someone. We wandered back down to the waiting room to try and sleep for a while, but that was impossible. All the reclining chairs had been taken, there was a tv blaring, and lots of folks snoring. I texted Kayti and asked her if she could get online and try to find some place for us to stay that night, but by then she couldn't find anything with a vacancy. Being exhausted, we decided to try and sleep in the van. We had pillows and a blanket, so off we headed on our little adventure! We dozed, but we were both freezing, and I was starting to wonder if I would ever feel my feet again! We headed back to the waiting room around 6-ish and got warmed up. We couldn't go up to see dad until 10:00, so we just hung out for a while, and played games on my kindle.
They had hoped to be able to take his tube out that morning, but when they did a test run of it, his oxygen levels went down again. They also hoped to take him off the sedative, but when they stopped that, he got combative again and tried to take the tubes out. He wasn't waking up enough to be cooperative and really understand what was going on... he just would wake up enough to know something was there that shouldn't be, and he would fight to get it out. They had to restrain his hands and feet, which was hard to see.
After we saw daddy that morning, we left to try and find something to eat and a hotel room for the night. The sweet nurse that was taking care of dad gave me a list of hotels that offered a discounted rate to patient's families. We went to one hotel, but they only had one room left for the night, and it was a smoking room. We thought we could handle it, but quickly found out we couldn't. We returned the keys and left to go find something else. We finally did, but they were not going to have our rooms ready for a few hours. We found a Wal-Mart, grabbed some lunch, got a few things to warm up for dinner as well, then finally were able to check in. We got back to the hospital in time to see dad for the afternoon visitation. He had been really restless while we were gone, and looked like he might be trying to wake up. He would open his eyes occassionally, but he couldn't really focus on anything or anyone.
Meg and I decided to go on back to the hotel and crash. We missed the evening visitation, but one of my nephews came down to see him. He told me that daddy had pulled his IV out, and they had to put it back in. They got some more sedative in him and he had finally calmed down.
We slept really well on Friday night! It was hard to wake up!! But once we did, we had a yummy breakfast in the hotel, packed up and headed back to the hospital. They had said they were going to try again to take the tubes out, but when we went in to see him, they were still there. He had started to develop a lot of fluid in his lungs, and the tubes were not only providing extra oxygen, but they were also draining off a lot of the fluid and congestion. We opened his eyes a lot more during that visit. I held his hand and would squeeze it. He would squeeze back every once in a while. At one point I had to let go of him to sign some paperwork, but he wouldn't let go of me! He grabbed my hand tighter and I couldn't get it free. The nurse laughed and told me not to worry about it, she would hold the clipboard for me so I didn't need that hand! We teased that at one point he opened his eyes briefly after I said something, and it looked like he was rolling his eyes at us!
I had planned on coming home after that visit. I had already been told that there were no hotel rooms in the city that night, and I knew we couldn't stay in the car again. The waiting room was still full, and short of fighting someone for a recliner, I wasn't sure what else to do. I decided, though, that I didn't want to leave him just yet. I had hoped he would be awake and alert... that would have been easier to leave than intubated and sedated. I decided to stay until I could see him again during the afternoon session. Barry was concerned about me driving home too late last night since it was New Year's Eve and the crazies seem to come out in droves. I figured, though, that if I left there by 5:00 (their time), I could get home by 6:00 (our time). When I went back in to see him, he was resting very well. They had put a bite-stopper in his mouth, and that kept him from gagging so much on the tubes. He looked peaceful, and I felt a little better about leaving him. I also knew that Kristi planned on going to be with him today, and those two things together made it easier to leave.
Meg and I got home safe and sound, and totally exhausted! I crawled in bed and didn't leave it again! I raised my head from my pillow at midnight, then fell back asleep. I missed two very important texts from my sisters... even though my phone was right by me head!
Daddy woke up around 1:00 this morning!! He woke up, was totally alert, and was able to have the tubes pulled! He couldn't believe where he was, or how he had gotten there. He asked for a phone and called Carol. She sent a text to us after she talked to him, but I didn't see it until almost 8:00 this morning. By then, Kris had texted too, and I had missed hers as well! As soon as I read both of them, I called the hospital and asked to speak to dad. He was very hoarse and hard to understand, but he's never sounded so good! I broke down and cried. I wanted to jump back in the car and drive right back down there!
We got even better news this afternoon... his lungs are really clearing up nicely, his kidneys are greatly improving, and they will probably move him to a regular room tomorrow! We are so thrilled by this news. We were really beginning to wonder yesterday if he was ever going to wake up. We have also worried about how he will have to treat his diabetes now, but they are going to start him back on the meds he was taking (they've had in on an insulin drip) tomorrow and see how that goes. They hope that will do and he will not have to start giving himself shots, or have to have a pump.
Tonight I am in the dog-house with him. He doesn't remember that I was there for two days... he just knows that I wasn't there today and he's not happy with me because of it. Kris reassured him that I had been there, but I'm not sure he believes her. Hopefully I will see him in a few days and I'll hand him a bill for gas, hotel, food, parking, etc... maybe then he will believe that I was there!
I've been saying "thank-you" prayers all day long. I'm so grateful that he is improving so much. I can't wait to get him home where he belongs! Now that he is awake, he has been worried about mom, and is missing her. She has been missing him, too. Hopefully we can take her up to see him once he is in a regular room. Visiting hours won't be so strict, and she can visit with him longer.
I guess I had better go try to call him. Maybe that will get me out of hot water!
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