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Please be in prayer for my grandpa. He has been undergoing chemotherapy treatments for a tumor in his esophagus and has faced some complications with other health problems through all of it. Earlier this week he was admitted to the hospital because he was having some dehydration problems they had to get stabilized before they did an MRI to see the progress the tumor has made in receding. Last night the nurses responded to his room because his call button was paging them and found him making a gurgling noise and having a hard time breathing. They have moved him to intensive care and have him on a breathing tube, but it seems he is breathing around the tube, too, so he has improved to that extent. Since moving him to ICU they noticed a spot on his brain on the MRI that they aren't yet sure of the cause for. Could be just a shadow and it could also be that the cancer has spread. No matter what it is, he's 74 years old and things aren't looking very good right now. My mom just left earlier this morning for Illinois where he is (and the rest of my family...this is her dad). I'm not real sure when she's coming back. So please be in prayer for safe travels and also for my grandpa that God's will be done in his situation in as painless and least-prolonged way as possible whatever the outcome may be. Thanks.
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praying
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Praying.
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I will pray for your grandfather, and for your whole family. This could be an emotional rollercoaster for all of you.
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Update: My mom made it up there just fine and just left the hospital there for the night with my grandma. Not too long after going into the ICU his breathing kept improving and they removed the breathing tube and he was able to breathe just fine and has also been pretty talkative all afternoon and evening. He has a sore spot in his throat now from the tube, but that should be fine. Tomorrow they are supposed to do a barium test (you drink nasty stuff and they xray you to see its path) and also a heart cathederization (sp?). He has needed the heart cath for some time due to his heart problems, but he is very stubborn and paranoid about being put to sleep while work is done on his heart. However, his new cardiologist was able to convince him to get it done and they will tomorrow. I think this episode scared him pretty well and also the fact that my mom came up there told him he wasn't in such good shape...but that's good that he's getting that done now. If there's a heart issue that can be fixed with surgery they plan on doing that as soon as possible, and if it can be fixed with meds then they will do that soon, too. I'm still kind of confused about all of it, but that's the gist of it that I could understand. Prognosis is definitely better now than it was this morning, though. Thanks for the continued prayers.
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Glad to hear things are improving a little; I'll still keep him in my prayers.
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He's doing a good bit better now. My mom drove back home Sunday and during that day he was released from ICU back to a regular room. The heart cathederization revealed a tightly narrowed place where an artery splits off into two, thus basically blocking two arteries. They fixed that. He is unable to eat or drink normally because the "flap" that switches between your lungs and the route to your stomach is paralyzed at the moment for some reason and it's stuck on the lung side, so any time he swallows liquids go straight to his lungs and any food is getting caught in his throat for some reason. They're trying to get that straightened out now and then they'll get back to the tumor he was originally there for. Before all this the tumor had been shrinking quite nicely, and since he's had this heart work done they now know that regardless of where it is now they can remove it if the need be because they know he can handle the surgery. Still no word on whether the spot they saw on his brain in the MRI is something to worry about or just a shadow.
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Sounds like he's making some great progress. You have an exceptionally good understanding of what's going on for a non-medical person, Brent. People usually can't articulate this much detail even about their own medical condition. It's clear that your family is very involved in your grandfather's care.
How your mom holding up?
~Mrs. M.
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Always In Prayer
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Originally Posted by MtlMom Sounds like he's making some great progress. You have an exceptionally good understanding of what's going on for a non-medical person, Brent. People usually can't articulate this much detail even about their own medical condition. It's clear that your family is very involved in your grandfather's care.
How your mom holding up?
~Mrs. M. My mom was a registered nurse at a hospital (same one my grandpa's in actually) until I was I guess 2 or 3 and then a school nurse at the local high school til I was in 4th or 5th grade or so maybe. After that she moved to another department at the school and never bothered renewing her license. So she knows a good bit more than the average person about the medical stuff and can explain it to me better. That's probably also got a lot to do with my grandpa changing his mind about not getting heart work done...when she drives up there unannounced (since she knows they'd say don't come by yourself) he knows it must be pretty serious. She's holding up fine now. She knows he doesn't have forever left, but that he's doing a lot better now than he was. When he was on the table for the heart cath they had to put the breathing tube back in because his oxygen levels went down really fast. He's always had breathing problems when lying flat, which is why he sleeps in a recliner...so when lying flat for the surgery that's what made his oxygen level drop. The problem is that each time they put the tube in they can be damaging his already-tender and malfunctioning throat. My grandma was apparently a mess when all that was happening and kept saying she shouldn't have let them do the heart cath and asking if it was too late to stop. My mom had to calm her down and tell the doctors to go ahead because she wasn't thinking clearly then. She's better now, though, but it's really taking it's toll on her I think. My mom is holding up fine now, though.
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Yesterday morning they called "a code" again on my grandpa. What I've learned is that this basically means he stopped breathing. Basically he's been so weak from not being able to eat solid foods (just nutrients via IV) that this fluid collecting in his lungs is settling overnight. He wakes up in the morning and has to cough, naturally, and when he does he gets this fluid up far enough that it chokes him, but he doesn't have the strength to cough it up like a normally-eating person would...so he chokes and stops breathing. They put a breathing tube back in and have decided to leave it in all weekend because one of his doctors is out of town and he's fine as long at the tube is in because there's no danger of him stopping breathing that way if he has to cough again. On Thursday they did surgery to install a feeding tube and they're now able to feed him solid foods with that, so hopefully that will get his strength back up so when he's breathing on his own again he'll be able to avoid choking again. So that's the story for the weekend at least.
Please continue to be in prayer for my family, particularly my grandma as this is really hard on her (and understandably). We're trying to convince her to go home early today since we know he'll be fine with the respirator, but there's only so much convincing we can do from 650 miles away. I know it's hard to leave when the one you love is that bad off and you don't know what the night will bring, but at least the night is a less unsure thing when he's on the respirator. I'm staying strong for my mom. I know she's better than before since she got to see him last week, but I feel like if I were to lose it now that she would, too. Lots of memories with my grandpa, so it's pretty hard for me inside, too. Thanks...
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I'm still praying for your grandfather and your family Brent. It must be really hard with the distance between all of you. Are they planning to put in a trach? Sometimes they do that so that the ventilator can be attached to the trachea at the neck instead of needing a tube going through the mouth.
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No, they said they won't do that, but I don't know exactly what the reason was. Something about it being more permanent....maybe they were referring to the damage it would/could do.
I do know now that his cardiologist decided to take the breathing tube out anyway. I found this out last night, so it must be something they decided in the afternoon yesterday. Apparently after that he breathed just fine...guess he wasn't breathing around it this time while it was still in because he knew he didn't need to or something. But anyway, breathing fine apparently and also coughing stuff from his lungs loose and actually getting it all the way out now (thanks to the nutrition of some solid foods in the feeding tube now). He even got up and walked to the chair in the room with very little help, which he couldn't do without two people and a chair behind him the whole way in case he gave out before. Through the advice of the doctor they have, however, listed him as DNR because of the apparent damage it causes each time they do the compressions on the chest when he stopped breathing. I'm praying that he can get through it anyway since he's getting stronger, but as scripture says, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done." I know it'll be fine whatever happens. But for now, things are looking better at least...that seems to be an hour by hour thing.
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How's your grandfather doing, Brent?
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Not really any change since the last post. Still in a regular room and no more real scares since then. They took him down to physical therapy yesterday to walk using the parallel bars and he did okay with that from what I heard. The doctors have said that if he doesn't make some progress in the next few days that he needs to go to an assisted living home until then. They had originally asked my grandma and uncles if they thought they could handle him at home for a bit, but there's no way because he can be so weak they have to physically move him to change bedding and whatnot for one day and then the next he might be up and moving around with help. I'm praying he makes some progress (which is quite plausible given how much he has made in a short time before) so he can stay at the hospital. I guess part of me knows that if/when he goes to a home like that it's basically the beginning of the end, so to speak. Also, I really don't want him to go to one of those places. I don't want my last memories of him to be in a place like that. They smell so horrible most of the time and the people there are so desperate for attention sometimes. That's not my grandpa. It's bad enough we live 650 miles away, so the last thing I want is to know he's stuck somewhere like that and can't go anywhere or do anything other than sit around or go to the bathroom. I know he'll have plenty of visitors and family, but people can't be there 24/7 and I can't imagine how lonely that would be.