Sounding better

I spoke to dad today and he sounds much better. He said he got a lot of rest yesterday so he felt pretty good today. He had his CT scan today and we will get the results on Friday. I am planning on going out for that appointment.

Thought of the blog

Thought of the blog:

WE ARE NOT HUMAN BEINGS

GOING THROUGH

A TEMPORARY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.

WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS

GOING THROUGH

A TEMPORARY HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

I got this in an email and thought it was a great thought.

Hmmmm...do I worry now?

They moved up Dad's CT scan a couple of weeks. He will now have one on Monday and I would assume we will get results next Friday. He is suppose to check on that for me when he goes for blood draw this Friday. So I am not sure if that is cause for alarm or not...

I talked to him yesterday and he sounded awful - like he hadn't slept in months!

Takin' it Easy

So, dad went to work this morning. Crazy man! At least he is cutting back to half days for a while. I will update with more info as I have it.

Home at last...

Dad is home and went to church. He has a small spot of pneumonia in one of his lungs but he has some antibiotics to take so that should clear up.

He plans on going to work tomorrow morning - so all you Haworth people take care of him and smack him in the head if he is overdoing it.

Thank you for all your prayers and good thoughts

and p.s. it was Dad who told them not to call Ruth when they moved him to ICU - he intended to call her around 7 or 8 that morning. HE didnt want her to lose sleep from worrying.

Update

I just spoke to the nurse and she said he is doing very well and she is hoping to give him a good night sleep. She said rumor is they are kicking him out tomorrow!

:)

More progress

I just came from the hospital and Dad looks tired and was dozing (or checking for holes in his eyelids as he calls it). They were planning on moving him from ICU today and I got a call a few minutes ago that they did. He should get out tomorrow, Monday at the latest if all stays well.

That's all I know, I will call later to check and update with anything new.

STABILIZED!

I talk to Ruth this morning and she said Dad's heart stabilized at about 6:30 this morning. I called the hospital last night about 8:30 and he iddnt answer so of course I panick and call the nurses. I guess everyone left because he was very sick to his stomach and I think he was vomiting. Thats is all I have for now. I am going to try to get out there around lunch time and I will update as I know things.

Another Update

Dad is still in ICU and will be until at least tomorrow night. So far all is positive - enzymes are normal, EKGs were normal. He had an ultra sound of his heart this afternoon and there are no abnormalities, no clots and no damage. So he did not have a heart attack. They are not sure what happened overnight to make his heart irregular. The basic goal now is to regulate his heart rate. The IV med they put him on took a while to work, but was working well and so they are trying to ween him off of it to see how his heart responds. The target is to get his heart regulated at or below 100 beats per minute. The cardiologist feels confident that it will regulate with meds, some potassium (his was testing pretty low) and electrolytes. If it does he should be able to go home after being on the new med for 24 hours which would be tomorrow night. If it doesn't the cardiologist will go Sunday morning and put him out and shock his heart back to regular. Give it a kick in the ventricles so to speak. She assures us this shock is nothing dramitic like on TV, she says she does it all the time. They are also going to keep giving him a mild blood thinner to decrease the chance of a clot forming until at least his heart stops being freaky. She said that if his heart is freaky for over 48 hours or so, it sets up stage for a clot to form.

He ate a good lunch and he was tired. I'm sure he didn't get much sleep last night.

So that is what I know, I will call later tonight and post anything new. For now my son his pulling on my arm so I have to go.

Update

Dad was moved to ICU at about 3:30 this morning. He developed Paroxysmal Atrial Tachycardia (I think that is what it is called). It is something about the top ventricals of his heart are beating faster than the bottom and the bottom ventricals can't keep up so his heart rate goes way up. (I was told it shot up to 170-180) This is listed as a severe, uncommon side effect of the Taxotere chemo drug he is getting. They had to move him to ICU to give him a specific drug to help regulate his heat beat - they can only give it in ICU.

So the CRAPPIEST thing about this is that they didn't inform anyone!! Ruth walked into his room this morning and they were cleaning it out - I can only imagine what *THAT* felt like! The stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me. How do you not tell his wife! I am so very angry about this I can't even express it in a nice, calm manner so that is all I will say about it.

I am leaving work soon to go out there to get more information. Hopefully the cardiologist will make it in to see him while I am there. We have no idea when he/she will come because they are very busy today and have to squeeze it in somewhere.

So I will update as I learn things.

Hospital stay

So Dad was admitted to Zeeland Hospital today, hopefully only overnight.

Here is what I can gathered from talking to him:
He started having some minor chest pain at about 4 this morning. He did his usual routine and went to work and waited to see if it would go away. Apparently it did not and it kept getting worse so he called the oncologist's office to see if it could be a "normal" side effect of the chemo he received last Friday. The oncology office said they would get ahold of the dr and call him back. So (I may have the time line wrong on this part) he went to a meeting and they tried to get ahold of him but couldn't because he was in a meeting. So they called the house and talked to Ruth who had no idea Dad was having chest pains (he was waiting to see if there was something he could tell her before getting her worried by telling her) so I guess she went to get him from work and took him to the ER under order of the dr. They ran some tests: EKG (looked good) and a chest x-ray (nothing new to show in the preliminary reading) and lots of blood draws. They admitted him and then Ruth called me at about 2 and told me the story. So after oacing my office for about 2.5 minutes I jumped in my car and drove out there to get more information. So far his tests look good and the nitro tabs they gave him in the ER took away the chest pain. When I left they had taken out the IV and said he could take off the oxygen.

So as far as his hospital stay...he is suppose to have a lipid test in the morning (cholesteral and such) and meet with the cardiologist. Depending on what transpires then he may have more tests or they may boot him out. I did talk to Heidi at about 8 and she said they put him back on the oxygen and were giving him a med for his blood pressure/heart rate - she wasnt sure which one. I guess my aunt was there when they did his second EKG and she said it looked good (she was an ER nurse for years) I will talk to him and his nurse in the morning to find out more of what is going on and will post anything new. (Added after I posted - I talked to my aunt and she said that his first enzyme test was normal and his second EKG was normal. The med they gave his is more of a precautionary thing. She was happy with what she found out - it was positive. So after some discussion we speculate that this may having something to do with his chemo, possibly due to some kind of tissues changing of the cancer or the tissues surrounding the cancer - who knows wether it is good or bad, but that is our best guess)

It is more difficult when Dad looks "sick". He has lost most of his hair and what he has left is very white and almost fuzzy. According to the hospital bed scale I was playing with (I just can't resist all those buttons - no "eject" button though) he has lost about 25 pounds since his last oncology appointment and about 12 pounds since last Friday, he is now under 200 pounds. I know he has not been eating well and what he does eat is vacating in a hurry (to put it nicely) It seems to me that this round of chemo is harder on him - I dont know if it is the difference in the actual drug or that he is not as strong...more likely a little of both.

Please keep up the prayers and if you have gotten lazy about it step it up!

Thanks to all of you for your support and any help you have given him and the family.

Too tired

Sorry I thought I posted this Monday, but I guess I didn't...

Dad is tired, so tired he went home from work early! Wow!

Said he feels a little better today though but still tired.

Thought of the Blog:

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy"
-Red Green

Happy Bunny Day!

A little late, sorry.

We went out to Dads for an Easter egg hunt and dinner. I have to say it was hard for me. He was so tired and moving so slow....and his hair is literally falling out. When he got up from the couch, the pillow was covered in hair. He was not cracking jokes and had very little humor. So I do not have much more to say. If my calculating is correct he will be getting his second round of chemo this Friday.

I will keep you posted.

Doing fine

Ruth called last night to say Dad was doing well down south. They have a lawn chair for him to sit and rest if he needs to. I know that even if he was feeling bad he is happy working for a good cause.

Well, it's off to work...

I went to the airport this morning to see Dad off. Fortunately for me the airline messed things all up so they got delayed a couple of hours. I was expecting my son to wake me up at 5:30 this morning as usual and of course he slept in a little. When I looked at the clock, I knew I wouldn't make it to the airport in time so I called and then heard they were delayed...so I ran out the door (after my friend got here to watch the kids of course) to go give him a hug and remind him to take it easy. So we all hugged him and Heidi and told them to be safe, carefule, etc. I also told Dad to be smart & "Don't make me come down there" if he overdoes it. My sister assured me that the "guys" would be watching him, Dad also assured me he would watch himself.

So now we worry for a week. My sister had a dream that something horrible happens to him down there. My stepmom and I both had dreams eluding to that as well. Ruth told me she would let me know when they get there safely tonight and she will keep me posted when they check in with her.