I have filled a few people in from here what is going on with my Dad but I want to extend the prayer requests to here because our family needs EVERY SINGLE prayer we can get. My Dad is not good and has been non responsive since around 4:20pm Wednesday. He went down at my house and I had to perform CPR while waiting for the ambulance. He is in critical condition and is in an induced coma to help him heal. I won't be posting a bunch of updates on here because I don't have the patience to post on here from my phone and will be on the go a lot for awhile trying to find sitters for my kids so I can go sit by his side. I will update when I know some solid information though. Right now all we know is heart attack, he went into cardiac arrest.. they say I saved his life but not sure how much of it since it is too early to tell if his brain will recover from this trauma and if he will also be able to sustain a blood pressure. Please just pray, send good thoughts/vibes.. whatever you do. We need them and will take them. 

You poor thing. It seems like you just can't catch a break! Sending positive thoughts- I hope he recovers quickly! 

You know I'm thinking about you and your family. Please let me know if you need anything. I'm always here. 

You got it 

Of course Red. Anytime! 

RM,

Please call me if you need anything. I'll do whatever I can from this distance.

{{{Gentle Hugs}}} 

Prayers for your dad. 

:( Hugs 

mini update: Was able to get a sitter today and have sitters lined up for tomorrow and Sunday so feel a little relieved about that. They took him off the hypothermia protocol this morning at 7am and he was back to normal body temp while I was there visiting and they are slowly weaning him off some of the blood pressure meds and the sedative but it's a lot of trial and error to make sure he can tolerate what they do so sometimes they take some off and then have to put a little bit back on. It's been a really long day and we still have a long road ahead of us but he does have a gag reflux and that made the nurse smile so hoping this means something good. Please keep praying for him and our family.

I told him that I was stealing all of his tools and holding them hostage until he was well enough to come steal them back. He started breathing different when I said that so I hope that meant he heard me and he was ready to put up a fight. 

Hugs Red! I will def be praying for your dad and for strength for your family. 

Positive and warm thoughts going to you and your father. 

My goodness. Thankfully you were right there to save him!! Hope you keep giving positive updates. Sending healing thoughts and comfort to your dad, you, and your family. 

This morning the hospital staff tried to put him on holiday (which is what they call taking him off pain meds and sedation) and seeing how he responds and it didn't go well and they had to put him back under and even up the propofol because he was just so agitated that his heart rate went up to 150 and was climbing and blood pressure dropped to dangerous levels and oxygen levels were very bad too. They have him him almost completely weaned off of dopamine which is good because that one is tough on the heart and will be nice to have him only relying on one blood pressure medication.. So step in the right direction.

Still no idea though on brain function and what not. The doctor is also concerned about possible lung damage and various other things so even if he does wake up tomorrow he has a lot he will need to work through. Please pray that if he is healthy enough to wake up tomorrow that he does but if he needs more time to rest and heal up that the doctors continue to have patience with him and let him heal as long as he needs to (despite us all wanting him awake.. RIGHT NOW)..

Today is my first day actually staying the night at home since before this happened and it is hard. I keep expecting to be able to pick up the phone and call him over random things the kids say or do. My Dad and I while we got on each others nerves plenty had a very close relationship and talked at least 3-4 times a day.. even if he was here at some point. I keep looking at my front door expecting him to walk in and shake me awake and tell me it was all a bad dream. 

Red, I love you. Just wanted you to know. If you need anything, you know how to reach me. 

Good news.. he is completely off of the dopamine and they will start gradually reducing the other bp med (levophed). They just did an echo around 1pm.. Still waiting on those results and they are monitoring him closely. His propofol is down to 46mcg and was 50mcg yesterday. 60% oxygen on vent and breathing about 30-36 breaths a minute (because he was agitated from something they were doing). He was started on tube feeding and he appears to be tolerating it. His heart rate is 75 and oxygen level is 94%. They have to do everything so slowly because with every little change his heart rate shoots up to over 110 and his oxygen levels drops into the 70s and they have to give him time to stabilize each time they change the propofol.

When he gets stable enough they will be doing more scans but not too much is going to be happening today. Praying that tomorrow is better but trusting that he is taking the time that he needs to have the best outcome possible. We miss him so much though.

4:19pm will be 4 days since my worst nightmare began that I am stuck in and it seriously feels like it's been months. 

Bummed.. still haven't been able to get up there today. My Aunt who is taking the kids today is still in the process of moving. So trying to keep busy by ordering collage pictures of my Dad and the kids for each of my kids and one to put up in his ICU room and catching up on laundry.

Anyways. His propofol is back up to 50mcg because he was getting really agitated again and his breaths were going up to 40 breaths a minute. They did a chest xray and turns out he has a lung infection so now they are treating him with antibiotics. I don't know much else yet. Still waiting on echo results. I wish I was a much more patient person. 

Alright.. latest update.. still haven't been up there yet but they decided to up his pain meds (fentanyl) from 50mcg to 200mcg and are now able to bring his propofol back down to 44mcg and his levophed is down to 15mcg (yay almost off that one!) and his oxygen intake is 22 breaths per minute with oxygen level of 98% on 50% oxygen on vent... so some good improvements.. Not happy about such high pain meds but he obviously needed it and this will help them bring the sedation down and give him comfort while he is dealing with the infection in his lungs. 

Praying for you guys Red. Love you! 

My Dad is so stubborn.. Just went we start feeling a little bit better at some of the vitals he takes a turn in the wrong direction. Tonight was very hard and scary once I finally got to go up there. His oxygen levels were diving down between 70 and 80% and he was having serious respiratory distress. The doctor basically prepared my Mom for a bad outcome but we are not ready to go there right now. They will not be lowering any more of his sedation tonight. They moved him from 50% oxygen on vent back up to 100% oxygen on vent and they changed it from no pressure to with pressure (not sure of the term for that.. but they have him pretty high and that is very damaging to his already damaged lungs). They have diagnosed him with Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).. which has a death rate of 50%.. so on top of everything else going on that we are unsure of (still no answers for what triggered the massive heart attack on Wednesday since it wasn't really any different than any other day) we have this to worry about. 

This picture of my Dad was taken June 11th. 

nvm.. having trouble remembering how to use the photobucket links.. oops 

I hope you get some good news soon! 

My Mom just called.. they said that they lowered his propofol down to 35mcg today and he seems to be tolerating it so far. They are watching for signs of kidney damage etc because the ARDS can come right before your system fully starts shutting down. Right now he still has really good urine output so we are hopeful because of that and he is still tolerating the tube feeding as well. Just more watching and waiting. I won't be able to be up there until after 3pm today so he better behave! 

My goodness! So sorry RM. Do they have a conselor avail for family members? How are you physically/mentally doing? 

Mentally I am not doing so great. I have moments that are fine but then I have a flashback and it almost knocks the wind out of me. Physically not so great either.. My entire body aches and my stomach has been feeling like I have a million knives being stabbed into it repeatedly like all day long. My insurance just changed from straight medicaid to a health plan today so I can't go to my old doctor which really upsets me because he is also my Dad's Doctor and I have never met my new doctor yet so not feeling up to going to them and seeking a counseling referral.. Thinking about going through Catholic Charities. I had already contacted them to seek counseling for Madison because since my Grandparents she has been talking about death all the time so going to leave them a new message about counseling for the entire family.

Madison is not doing too good.. she still has her happy being a child moments but she gets very pale in the face a lot and distant and I think it is her having flashbacks of seeing my dad like that. I also catch her talking to her toys a lot about him and she tells random people that her papa was blue and she doesn't know what is going to happen to him. Last night we saw an ambulance and she said "oh no, another dead person".. so she thinks ambulance means death. :-(

My son doesn't talk about it too much. He isn't as vocal about his feelings but he certainly has been acting out more and I think that is how he is coping so counseling will do him some good too and help me deal with both of their emotions in the way they need me to deal with them and help them through this too. 

Madison also told me the other day that her papa was dead and I told her no.. he wasn't dead and she replied "well, almost because he smokes".

She also asked me last night if her Daddy was dead and I had to explain to her that he was in Afghanistan. I did email him to tell him that she is asking to speak to him but he still hasn't bothered to get a calling card. 

Very sorry RM. Will pray for your dad. 

How terrible. :(

How old are your children? It sounds like counseling as a family would help.

More healing thoughts your way! 

Is your dad being rolled at the hospital by nurses? A light back rub may help him feel better... 

Yes.. he gets rolled all the time.. They are constantly in his room doing one thing or another.. He has lots and lots of attention.

I just got back from the hospital a little bit ago.

He is doing much better today but they have to keep his fentanyl at 200mcg but have his propofol down to 25mcg and the resp pressure down to 12 (from 15) and his oxygen through vent is back down to 40% (which is great news from the 100%) and his oxygen levels were between 92% and 97% while I was there with a heart rate of 87. Tonight they are not going to do any more weaning and just let him rest rest rest. With the ARDS he has to be on vent for 8-10 days so they can't bring his sedation too low because he doesn't react well to the vent when they bring him out of sedation so the main focus is getting his lungs stronger before completely taking him off of propofol. We are hoping in the next few days that have him stable enough to transfer him (he isn't at the hospital that my Mom works at because they had to take him to closest hospital to my house) so my Mom will feel comfortable enough to go back to work. After last nights scare when we really thought we were going to lose him she doesn't feel comfortable being so far away from him while he is on the vent. Thankfully she has an amazing family of coworkers there and they all volunteered to donate some of their PTO hours to her so she can afford to take time off to be with him until he is more stable or gets to transfer.

It's the little things that at least help warm the heart while we are hurting so much.