Update on Dad

Hi Everyone!

First off I would like to tell everyone thank you from my family for the prayers and thoughts as my dad goes through this.  We know that the God we serve is good.  We are amazed once again at how much my dad and mom mean to so many people.  Thank you!!!

I know that there are many people wanting to know what is going on so I thought that this may be the best way to get the information out.  Please understand I am not an english major and I am tired.  These two things combined to make it look like I should still be in junior high english.  So please forgive me for my typing.

On Thursday December 4th, my dad started having a gallbladder attack.  My mother took him to the ER around 2 in the morning.  The Dr told him that he would need to have his gallbladder removed soon but they were not going to do that then and the schedule was full.  So he returned home at around 9 on Friday morning.  At about 2 Saturday morning he was in an incredible amount of pain.  My mother returned him to the ER.  They diagnosed it as pancreatitis and admitted him to the hospital.  After twelve hours in the ER they finally had a room for him.  They were told the pancreas would have to heal before they could do anything on the gallbladder.  Around 10 that evening my mom noticed the urine output was dropping.  The nurses also noticed that.  They worked with him for a bit and found out that he was having kidney failure.  The nurses moved him immediately to ICU.  This was pleasing to us because he would get much more attention there.  That is the history of how we got to where we are.

So since we have arrived we have seen many things happen.  We were quickly told that this is not good.  We were also told that he would get much more sick before we would see any progress in the other direction.  By Sunday night you could visually see the swelling caused by the liquids going in and not coming out.  All the blood work were getting back showed that the kidneys were getting worse.  The Dr said that the chance of survival decreases 20 to 25% for every organ we lose.  We were at a 70% survival rate then.  Yesterday morning we learned that liver was starting to go bad.  But we were encouraged because the lungs were still working well.  They have put him on an oxygen mask and have him sedated for comfort.  But the Dr. were telling us that he was not as puffed up as they thought he would be.  Around 2:30 yesterday he started his first dialysis treatment.  He made it through but was having trouble with low blood pressure and heart rate.  But the Dr. was encouraged because they had gotten off 5 lbs of liquid. My mom and I were able to go back and see him at 8:30 last night.  He was fast asleep but looked a little better.  We talked to the nurse and she told us that they had gotten both his blood pressure and heart rate more stable and were able to take him off some of the blood pressure medicine.  They had gotten the results of the post dialysis blood work.  The liver was still a little off.  But the kidney had finally started to drop!!!  My mom and brother David were allowed to go back and visit at about midnight last night.  They told me that they were very encouraged because he was more alert then he had been since Saturday.  We went home last night very encouraged by our baby steps.  

We are not out of the woods but we are seeing some progress.  Please continue to pray!