Dad is out of ICU!!!

by Esmeralda 4 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Esmeralda

  Hi everyone!

  Just a quick update for those of you who have wondered how things are going with my Dad.

  He FINALLY got his ventricular drain out and came out of ICU yesterday....WOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!

  We are headed out to the hospital tonight to see him and I can't wait to see him sitting up! After three weeks that will be a welcome sight.

  My MIL is also steadily improving. She is supposed to have surgery today to close her leg (it got canceled yesterday, emergency room needed the O.R.) and will probably be in the hospital another week or so.

  So we have been very blessed. As many in Justin's family have said, they are glad that my father had the aneurysm and not the vascular bleed that my MIL had...or else I'd be visiting his grave instead of his hospital room. It was definitely the blood transfusion that saved her life.

  I have been jotting down notes and will be adding a lot about all of this to the website when we get Dad home and things settle down. The contrast between the way the two families reacted to crisis was astounding. For people who don't practice any particular religion, Justin's family handled the situation so much better than all of the people in my family who are supposed to have 'strength from Jehovah' backing them up.

  The things that went on...you guys will just not believe it when you hear it. Unreal.

  Have a great weekend everyone! And be sure to tell your friends and family how much you love em frequently...you never know what can happen tomorrow! Don't waste a single day!

  *hugs*
  Essie
• 

  Gopher

  Es,

  Glad to hear that your dad made it through. What a relief for you and your family! Thanks for giving us the update.

  This is so true:

  be sure to tell your friends and family how much you love em frequently...you never know what can happen tomorrow!

  Life is too short to be taken for granted. Thanks for the reminder on that point.

  GopherNever bolt your door with a boiled carrot.
  Irish Proverb
• 

  Mulan

  Great news, Essie!! I thought of you all the time. We are having similar challenges here, but one is out of the woods now (my future daughter in law, works in a hospital lab, and was exposed to encephalitis, from a bad spinal tap....splashing fluids.....she had a rough go for two weeks). Two more family members are terminal, and one of them also has Alzheimer's.

  But, this is the way life goes, when you know you actually will grow old and die. We have to face death, and serious illness, square in the face, more and more, the older we get.
• 

  Esmeralda

  Thanks, Gopher and Mulan. I appreciate your remarks so much!

  Mulan:It is a big relief to know that Dad's general prognosis is good...we just don't know how well he'll function mentally. He is so lucid at times sounds just like his old self...other times he thinks that he has to get up and go to work, tries to reach imaginary objects, etc.

  I've been told that this usually gets better in time with aneurysm patients...but it has been awful, having to tie him down and restrain him to keep him from pulling his lines out...a lot like dealing with an alzheimers patient...so disoriented and child like. And I felt like a bully telling him that I couldn't untie his hands. He talked my sister into doing it once, and when he was confused and hallucinating, he took a swing at her. Thank goodness he missed, but it took three of them to get just one of his arms tied back down.

  I just kept telling him that I loved him enough to let him be mad at me for the time being, that if I was the one in bed and he had to protect me the way that I was protecting him, I would probably be angry too, and that it was okay. He said he wasn't angry, but he looked so hurt.

  I can only hope that when he is feeling more like himself, he will find it in his heart to forgive me for what he percieved as me standing idly by while he was tied up.

  Oh, and...I forgot to tell you. You had said that you were glad it wasn't my 'special' Mom, (like yours) who was ill...but guess what? Managing her at the hospital was harder than taking care of Dad! She was up to her usual insanity...and we had to draw the line when she refused to stop approaching total strangers who were greiving in family waiting rooms and trying to tell them her life story. On top of that, at one point she actually began fiddling with my father's ventricular drain line...my sister was about to have the nurses remove her from the room when suddenly she let go and bolted. She could really have hurt him.

  Finally she went home, and she hasn't been back to the hospital in 2 weeks, thank the Universe.

  I'm going to try to write this whole thing out...I need to get it all out of my head where all the thoughts are running around and crashing into eachother.

  My heart goes out to you with your struggles with terminally ill relatives and your daughter in law's scare. Terrifying!!! :(

  I think of you often and have thought many times about your words of support as this has been going on. Thanks, from the bottom of my heart.

  And you're right about having to deal sickness and death...of course my JW relatives are in shock because they keep thinking that the system should have ended before my parents were old enough for any of these things to start happening.

  I'm glad that I was able to deal with the situation with my feet firmly grounded in reality, instead of in some fantasy world.

  Thanks again!

  *hugs*
  Essie

  p.s. Gopher! Love that quote *lol*
• 

  LDH

  Esmerelda,

  I am glad to hear of your dad's progess! My dad is in NY and I am in CA, it would kill me for him to go in the hospital. I'm glad you're there with him.

  Of course, we all look forward to reading about the escapades. But for now just concentrate on your Dad.

  Love,
  Lisa