Saturday Evening Post

Sorry this is late tonight.

He acted a little better this evening. The breathing is still our big concern. They are leaning more towards the lungs causing the change in the white blood cell count. The pancreas numbers have maintained a normal level today. They did take off two liters of fluid during dialysis today. The Dr said that when that happened his heart rate and blood pressure dropped closer to normal. We are hoping that they will get him up and moving some tomorrow. He told my mom and I that he was getting up when we were visiting him.

Our pray concerns for now are
1) Rest for him and the family
2) Clearing of the lungs and improved ability to breath
3) Wisdom and Patience for the dr and nurses
4) Safe travel for Dan

The time in ICU started one week ago. He has become very disoriented and agitated. We think that he will possibly be moved out of ICU as soon as Monday. While this will help his mental state this opens a whole new set of concerns for my mother and family. She will have a harder time resting because she will feel the need to stay up there overnight. Please pray that she gets rest now and has peace about this situation later.

I feel like I am rambling at this point. I am going to go to sleep and will possible get an update from the night nurse early in the morning. Hopefully we will have encouraging news!

Thanks for the prayers!!!

Link

I found this link this morning. It tells what all is going on. When you read it anytime it sounds like it is worst case scenrio then that is what he is dealing with. But God is in control.

http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec09/ch124/ch124b.html

Please let me know if you have any questions or anything you would like to know.

I will try to do a happy post this afternoon of what his three grandkids have been up to.

lauren says thanks for the prayers for papa!!!

She typed that herself with a little help!

Saturday Morning update

He had another rough night last night. They had to restrain his arms again. He was going to put on the mask last night in hopes that would help him rest. I am not sure why they restrained him because the mask was not required. The night nurse told us that he kept taking his legs out of the bed.

The white blood cell count is up today. They did a culture yesterday and another today to find out what they are looking at. The dr indicated they will do a ct scan either tomorrow or Monday.

We have lots of concerns that we want you to pray for.
1) The white blood cell count and the infection.
2) Overall rest and peace for him and my mother
3) The nurses and Dr. That they will know what to do and that we will be a good testimony to them.
4) Daniel has a safe trip home tomorrow and has peace as he goes to work next week.

We were telling him last night about all the people praying for him and he said that he is thankful.

Thank you for all the prayers!

Friday Afternoon Update

Hi Everyone!

We have a couple of specific request this afternoon. The white blood cell count is elevated and his breathing is more shallow then they would like. We have gotten positive reports today. They are not seeming as encouraged as they were yesterday, but they are still positive.

Thanks for all the prayers!!!

Friday Morning Update

He had a very rough night last night. The nurse said that he slept maybe a total of 10 minutes. They are trying to take him off the sedative and that is causeing his unsettled behaviour. All numbers are still looking good. We will probably not be able to see him much this morning because they are trying to get him to rest.

Thanks for the prayers!!

Thursday Evening Update

Dad has a good day today. He has been completely off the oxygen mask today. They also took him off all of his blood pressure medicine. He did a round of dialysis ealier today. The pancreas numbers have stablized. Everyone involved is encouraged by his progress. We hoped that we would see his progress to recovery happen as fat as he went down hill. We were told not to expect that. Turns out that he is making much faster progress then they expected! God is so very good!!!

We do have a couple of prayer request for tomorrow. The first is that we will continue to see progress with the kidneys without a dialysis treatment. The other is that the pancreas numbers maintain their current level. There is still a chance that they could start to go back up. We are not out of the woods but we are closer then we ever thought we would be.

Thanks for the prayers!

Thursday Morning Update

He had a good night last night. The Drs are seeing steady progress. We should see slight improvements from now on. Hopefully we will not have any more set backs. There is some confusions on dialysis today. We are not sure if he will have it. Right now he is having a hard time making sense of what is going on. We are being told this is completely normal for someone in his condition. I will let you what we find out as the day progresses!

Thanks for the prayers!

Wed. Afternoon Update

I have been up to the hospital to see him. He looks much better now then the last time I saw him Monday. He had just gotten back from dialysis and everyone I spoke with was encouraged. They were trying to get him off the oxygen mask again. His level should be above 92. It was running between 95 and 99. But remember he has been on 100% oxygen for the last few days. The lung Dr was very encouraging this morning. He told my mom that we are making steady progress.

I will have hopefully have more news to report later.

Thanks for the prayers!

Wed Morning Update

Morning Everyone!

Everyone got some sleep last night!!!  My dad rested well.  They took the restraints off last evening.  The nurse called to tell my mom that he slept all night and did not take his mask off once.  He does think that everyone is trying to kill him.  

I am about to load up my car and get on the road.  I will update once I am there and hear more!  

Have a good morning!

Thanks for the prayers!

Tuesday Night Update

Ok... We made it through Tuesday!!!  Overall we had a good day.  His dialysis was during the two morning visitation times.  He thought that my mom was not coming back to see him.  They took the oxygen mask off for about an hour and a half this afternoon.  The level dropped so it went back on.  There is still a chance for the ventilator because the Dr would like to try to start lowering the level of oxygen they are putting in.  We did not get much other information then that.  I am headed back up in the morning.  Updates on here may be sporadic tomorrow because of travel and getting Grant settled.  

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Surgery Update

The surgeon who will perform the gallbladder surgery was encouraging today.  He was willing to talk about doing the surgery.  Yesterday he was discussing other surgeries we may have to do before that one.  He said that they may do the surgery next week.

Thanks for your prayers!

Tuesday Morning Update on Frank

He went to dialysis this morning at 8:30 so we have had a slow morning with news.  My mom spoke to the lung Dr this morning and he saw some slight improvements today!  He said they were going to take the oxygen mask off for just a bit today.  It will go back on but we are going to see what happens.

My oldest brother Daniel and his wife and two young daughters are now in town from Chicago.  I have returned home to Austin for today to pick up Grant.  I will head back up probably tomorrow.  

Please keep us all in your prayers!

Thanks!  

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!