Dad
 

Please continue to pray for my Dad. He is in St Joseph hospital in Lexington ky. He's been here 2 weeks. Yesterday they did an emergency procedure and put in a temporary cath for dialysis. He didn't do well with that. He is in CCU. They are doing dialysis right now. He is not doing well at all. His blood pressure has been running too low. So many things are working against him right now.
We are trying so hard to keep our faith during this difficult time. I will update as soon as I know something. I have been down here for the past four days with him. Almost all of the family is here now. Thanks in advance for your prayers.

So sorry to hear this. Heart failure is so hard on so many of the body systems. Gary's kidneys are very bad too - not bad enough for dialysis, but he will probably need it at some point.

I will keep you in my thoughts, I know it is hard on everyone, including your dad.

Guess I've missed some posts huh? Paula I'll keep your dad in my prayers. Not sure what kind of cath you mentioned, but my Mom has had two put in for kidney dialysis. Please keep us updated and let your Dad know he has a lot of strangers praying for him too.

Oh, Paula, so so sorry to hear this. Will pray for the best possible outcome!!!

Paula I'm so sorry. I hope he recovers pretty soon and hopefully his just giving you guys a little scare. XOXO

Paula, so sorry to hear your dad isn't doing well. will send prayers your way that he gets better soon.

I'll be praying for your Dad, Paula. I hope he gets better soon.

Paula your dad and family are in my prayers..

Paula....how is your Dad doing? Praying he is recovering nicely.

I'm just seeing this......I hope your Dad is better!!! I'll be praying!! Hugs!!!

I know how hard this is for you and your family. My thoughts and prayers are with you all!

You all are awesome friends. Sorry I haven't updated sooner. I'm still in Lexington, he is still in CCU. Things aren't good:cry2:It's been a really hard and long day. I will try to get time to post tomorrow. Please:hands::hands::cry: keep praying. I love my Dad so much!

My prayers are with you all, Paula.

My prayers are with you all, Paula.

:hug: I'm so sorry that your Dad isn't better. I'll be praying.

Keeping you and your dad in prayer Paula.

He is still in critical condition. His kidneys have shut down. His dialysis was done late today. We couldn't see him until after 8:30 tonight. He was sleeping soundly. So we all went back to our motel rooms. God works miracles. So just keep praying for him.

They took out the cath from the groin area yesterday and put another one in on the right side of his chest. It will last about 30 days before it will have to be changed. I'm so confused about all of this. His icd is on the left side so obviously they can't put it there. I knew something was terribly wrong when they put him on diladid thru his iv and still haven't taken him off of it. That was 3 weeks yesterday. I don't think they are telling us everything. I'm sorry if I don't explain things real well but after you hear so much info it kindda all runs together.

For those of you that don't know what diladid is. It is a pain med more powerful than morphine.

Will try to update tomorrow. Love you all!!:ghug:

Oh Paula...this is a hard time for you. I am praying for all of you.

I am praying. God is listening to our prayers right now.

Paula, it is very confusing, especially when several things are going on all at once. I''m unsure why they were giving him Dilaudid. There's really nothing related to heart failure or kidney failure that usually causes pain - so it is a mystery to me. You might ask them why they are giving it to him.

Was hoping to hear some good news.

Sorry it has taken so long to get back to this thread. When he went in there 4 wks ago, he went for severe stomach pain. They started him on the diladid for that. Still don't know for sure what was causing the pain. Maybe pancreatitus or prostate infection. They never figured that one out:rolleyes: He does have gout really bad too. So I guess that would explain the diladid. Fast forward to 2 weeks or so ago....I've lost all track of time. Sorry.

He was on Teakison (sp?) that works with his icd. They said his heart was overloaded with it and it also attacks the kidneys. They took him off that and put him on Mexalatine. He doesn't deal well with that. It gives him tremors really bad. His creatine count shot up to almost 6. That's when they started dialysis.
Yesterday they took him off the Mexalatine and while he was eating dinner, his icd shocked him:eek: Last night they started him back on the mexalatine. Sigh... Bless his heart!

I hope this makes a little bit of sense you all. He had a really good morning Sunday. He walked to the nurses station on a walker. And now he's having a bad time again. Keep him in your prayers please. They did move him to an intermediate care room so we can pretty much come and go as we please. So that's a good thing. I am going back down there tomorrow. I'll stay a couple of nights at least. My poor Mom is worn out. Thanks for your continued prayers. I love you all.

Your Dad is really going through a lot. I know that it's stressful for you and your Mom. I'm praying. Hugs!!!

Oh Paula! This is so hard for your whole family, including your dad. I wish there were an easier way, but healing is a slow process, especially as we age. I hope he begins to rally and feels better soon.

Thanks all! Gayle have you heard of these meds that they are using with his icd?

prayers are still going out to your dad and family. I am sorry you are having to go through this.

Mexalatine is a medication used to treat ventricular arrythmias. Ventricular arrythmias (sometimes called V-tach, pronounced Vee-Tack) is the medical term for a very bad heart beat where the bottom part of the heart beats very fast, so fast that the heart cannot pump out any blood. Left untreated, a person will die of V-tach. An ICD will fire when the heart goes into a V-tach rhythm. The ICD firing will bring the heart back to a normal rhythm. Mexalatine is a drug used to control V-tach. Unfortunately, most of the medications used to treat V-tach are very strong and have many side effects.

I'm not familiar with Teakison - maybe it is Tenormin or Tambocor. They are used to control V-tach too. All those drugs are nasty with lots of side effects - but one cannot live with V-tach, so it has to be controlled. It's a double edged sword.

My heart goes out to you, I hope meds are just making him look sicker than what he really is. Big huggs going your way.

Dad is still in the hospital! Today he had SLED dialysis. It lasted over 10 hours. They got 22 lbs of fluid off of him. Please keep him still in your prayers. Janet has your Mom ever had this kind of dialysis done? Just curious. I'm going back down tomorrow.

Hi Paula, thanks for the update on your dad. Janet's mom has probably not had SLED dialysis because it is used for persons who are very sick. It's just a slower way to do regular hemodialysis (where the blood is filtered through the machine to remove the toxins and wastes). Regular hemodialysis takes 3-4 hours, but SLED is done over 8-10 hours because people who are very ill can't tolerate the loss of fluid so quickly - so it is done slower.

Yes that is how they explained it Gayle. I also googled it and read that it is easier on the heart too.
I'm going back down today. They are planning on putting a shunt in his abdomen tomorrow for the paritineal (sp?) dialysis.
This has all been so crazy!!!

Paula, I have been keeping up with this thread but haven't posted lately. I just want you to know you are all in my prayers.

Hi Paula...sorry I haven't seen this thread for awhile. My Mom has never had the SLED dialysis, this is the first I've heard of it. My Mom is on peritoneal where she can do it at home at night while she sleeps. She usually hooks up at 8 PM and unhooks around 5 or 6 AM.

You'll probably find all the information overwhelming, but it really is very simple to do. The main thing is to keep the exit site clean and to ALWAYS maintain sanitary conditions while hooking up and unhooking. If he was to get an infection, it can be very painful. Mom had peritonitis and had to have her abdominal cath removed and go on hemodialysis for a little over a month. She hated it with a passion. After her peritonitis healed, they put a new cath back in and she has been doing great.

Please feel free to ask anything you like....If you would like my phone number just PM me.

My prayers are going out for all of you.

Still thinking of you :2hearts2:

Praying for better days for your dad.. Hugs to you my friend..

Hugs, Paula. I'm praying that your Dad gets better.

Hi everyone! Daddy had the surgery for the cath in his abdomen for the peritoneal dialysis. The surgery went fine. Now they are waiting for the incision to seal before it can be used.....so.....he's still in the hospital but doing pretty fair. In three days, they got 44 pounds of fluid off of him. The dialysis staff said they had never gotten that much fluid off a patient before.
Janet the SLED dialysis is used for critically ill patients. It lasts over 10 hrs:eek:
I'm going back down there tomorrow and will be back home Sat if all is well. Thanks for your continued prayers.

Thanks for the update, Paula. I bet that your Dad will feel much better with that fluid off!! I'm praying that all goes well with everything else and he gets to go home soon!! I miss you being one here!!!

Thanks Diana! He is still in the hospital and he is doing pretty fair right now. They are doing dialysis every two hours. Been doing that since yesterday. I talked to him as we were leaving Lexington earlier today and he said that he felt pretty good. That's all we can hope for right now...that he is not suffering and is able to talk and even give us a little chuckle once in a while. :)