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.