Well, Dad had his surgery this morning, and thus far all's well. He's due home in three to five days, and it looks like everything's benign so far. Keep your fingers crossed...
On an unrelated side note, it snowed more today. Judging by what's left when we got home, we had to have at least half an inch of accumulation of icy snow. My sister and I threw snowballs on the way into the house, just because it had snowed enough to allow for snowballs on April 20.
Wonder what the weather for summer will be like, if things are this screwed up in April...
MONDAY UPDATE - Saw Dad this morning, and he's doing much better; he might be home as early as tomorrow. And the doctor apparently told him that everything has officially come back negative, so he's in the clear. (Still not sure what they intend to do about the screwy meds, but at this point it's a secondary consideration.)
TUESDAY UPDATE - Well, this afternoon his lower intestines woke up... which brought a bit of blood. The doctor seemed to think this is normal post-op stuff, and I do, too; his colon was cut into, and it's just now starting to come back online, so there's bound to be a little "clearing" to deal with. They did do a blood draw to be sure his blood levels are normal, and he's still having nausea issues, but I still feel that this will resolve positively. Good energy is still appreciated, if you have any to spare...
WEDNESDAY UPDATE - Today, after finally getting a night's sleep without being woken for this or that procedure, Dad felt much better. He still doesn't have too much of an appetite, and he's still passing a little blood when his lower intestines do their thing, but he's keeping food down and he's been disconnected from his various tubes and IVs and such. So, barring unforeseen complications, he looks to be home tomorrow or Friday.
And next time I update, I probably ought to open a new post instead of editing this one.
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Yet another pointless blog by another pointless blogger...
Quote of the Moment
"It's never wrong to hope, Byx," said my mother. "Unless the truth says otherwise."
- from Endling #1: The Last, by Katherine Applegate
- from Endling #1: The Last, by Katherine Applegate
About Me
- Brightdreamer
- I am a beast in her 40s, passably resembling a human being, with no clue what I'm supposed to be doing with my life and no money to do it with even if I knew. In the meantime, I review books, daydream too much, write and draw too little, and generally waste space by existing.
Links of Interest
- Brightdreamer's Book Reviews - My Other Blog
- Comic - Brewster Rockit
- Comic - Buttersafe
- Comic - Candorville
- Comic - Cornered
- Comic - F-Minus
- Comic - Fowl Language
- Comic - Loose Parts
- Comic - Maximumble
- Comic - Off the Mark
- Comic - Pearls Before Swine
- Comic - Poorly Drawn Lines
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- Comic - Rip Haywire
- Comic - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
- Comic - The Argyle Sweater
- Comic - xkcd
- Education - W3 Schools (HTML, CSS, etc.)
- Free RPG - Kingdom of Loathing
- Humor - Rifftrax.com
- Music - Ambient Mixer (soothing ambient noise soundtracks)
- The Animal Rescue Site - Click To Give
- Writing - Absolute Write
- Writing - NaNoWriMo
10 comments:
Glad to hear he made it through the surgery so far. (Sorry I didn't comment earlier, I've been away from the computer over the weekend here)
And I agree with him on the previous comment - telling him to eat more leafy greens but don't change his eating habits is conflicting. Like I said, with the people we dealt with (a blood checking clinic across the freeway from the hospital) they insisted he eat his normal diet and they would adjust the meds accordingly.
He just called a bit ago. He's still rather groggy from the meds, but doing better than he was. And from what the surgeon said, he'd be very surprised if the thing they removed was metastatic from the looks of it, but they cut it out in the same way they would remove it if it was to cover all bases. They also took his appendix because it looked inflamed.
I think - not sure - that they've decided to make one doctor keep track of his medications, instead of the random assortment of doctors who have been prescribing things. Hopefully that'll help. At this point, the medicine imbalance is the sideshow; considering the location, size, and growth potential of the thing they removed, the thing they wouldn't have even thought to look for save the bleeding, it's entirely possible that the Coumadin OD saved Dad's life.
It would be nice if they'd just work around Dad's normal diet, but I suppose doctors always think they know such things better than the people they treat...
Ahh... that's the difference, I think. The doctors in the hospital put Dan on his meds, but afterwards he worked with the clinic, where the people were pharmacists... they are the ones that seemed to have the best advice (wanted a list of vitamin supplements etc... and worked around his regular diet) Having it all under one doctor should hopefully help. Perhaps the realization that it's all on his shoulders (the doc) will give him some incentive to take a close look at everything.
That's good info from the surgeon, they usually don't give out anything positive unless they are pretty darned sure.
That's great about the tests being negative! Let's hope he keeps going in this positive direction.
This morning, he was feeling really nauseated, and he still is off (last I heard at noon), but he's been up walking and doing fine with that, so that's good. He's easing off on the pain meds on the theory that that's what hit his gut so bad. (Could also be the antibiotics - those'll do a number on your gut even when you haven't been sliced open...) I think it's a delayed reaction; they told him he'd be really nauseated yesterday and he wasn't, so it's just hitting late. May also mean his intestines are waking up and are cranky... My theory is that the place is swarming with nurses who see post-op patients every day and with doctors, and if the former were especially concerned they'd have called in one of the latter.
Anyway, I still think he'll be home Thursday, maybe Friday.
Yes, the nurses there in particular are very good and bringing in docs whenever they see anything to worry about (or even if the patient himself has freaked himself out to the point where he needs a person in a white coat to tell him - again - that everything is going swimmingly) :) Sending positive energy your way.
The fact that he slept in a hospital is amazing... those places are bright as daylight all night long. Even with the room light off, it never seems to be totally night time - way too much activity in the hallways.
And attempting not to cross platforms too much here, but I went through the thread and I see what you mean... I've noticed similar things myself now and again. Just so you are aware... when I posted the announcement thread it was without having read the previous thread - I only logged in at all because K2 called & asked me to plug the announcement in due to being unable to get to her computer.
But as to that being a place to find people to talk to - it does seem that over time we've lost a lot of members, and it's just not as active of place as it used to be. For me, it used to be my first stop online, but lately I've been sidetracked by e-mail first then the day gets away from me. Just know that if you need to talk to someone, you know where I am. :)
Well, it's Thursday, and Dad's finally home, so it looks like things are working out. I haven't heard what they're doing about the meds, except he's off Coumadin for a week (obviously... not something you need to take when you're trying to heal...)
And on the other thing, it was more the elaborate nonresponsive reply that did it - I totally get that the other thread was special circumstances. But replying to a thread implies that one has at least skimmed said thread... eh, well. (On another board I'm on, they're dealing with the murder of a longtime board member... puts things in perspective a bit.) And the drop-off has indeed been going on for some time. 'Tis the nature of things. I expect a short-term revival when the second XF movie comes out, the ol' nostalgia bug and all that, but that's about it.
Ok, so what's happened since then? Is your dad home yet? I can't say I really understand the medical stuff because, honestly, I've done my best all my life to ignore it (I know, I know - not in my best interests) but it sounds scary and uncertain.
How are *you* holding up? Feel free to drop an email if you need someone to talk to. I'm not allowed to sit in a chair much (increases the swelling in my feet, etc.) but I'm trying to check it at least once a day.
Hang in there. I'm sending positive energy your way.
PPG - Dad came home on Thursday with a clean bill of health; nothing malignant, surgery successful. So all that remains is to work out a balance in his medications so his blood thinner levels stay in the 2-3 range where they belong; they were roughly 4.7 when he was checked at the start of this whole fiasco. Not easy when he's on both Coumadin (to thin blood) and vitamin K (which promotes clotting, prescribed here for bone thinning), among other medicine conflicts which made the pharmacists rather concerned but which his various doctors seemed okay with.
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