|
Post by strippitman on Dec 18, 2019 8:16:47 GMT -5
A week ago today I took my 75 year old pretty healthy dad down to IU Methodist in Indy to have an elective surgery performed. I definitely wasn't prepared for everything that was about to transpire. My dad told me the plan was that if everything went well his recovery would take anywhere from 3-5 days and then he would get released and then he would stay at my brother's house (in Indy) for a few more days until he was comfortable with coming back home. The surgery was an extremely rare situation and it took a lot of research to find a surgeon who would even take this particular case on. All that was known prior to the surgery was that most of my dads digestinal organs had migrated into his chest cavity over many years (at least 20 years) through a lesion in his diaphragm. His stomach was pressed against his heart! The doctor who took on this case told me after the surgery that my dads situation was the worst he's ever seen of it's kind. The plan was to pull everything back in place laproscopically but if he had to he would use his hands to move the organs into place. He ended having to use both hands to get the stomach and spleen back through the diaphragm. It turns out 75% of the colon, all of the intestines, the spleen and the stomach were all in dads chest. His right lung was only 20% of it's potential size. The surgery actually went pretty well but the day after the surgery everything went haywire. As I walked into his room the next morning he was gone and that freaked me out. I was informed that he had been moved to the ICU overnight. Upon walking into the ICU I see a whole team of doctors working on him. They informed me that his condition was declining fast and they weren't sure what was causing the decline. Dad continued to decline throughout the day. The next morning when I got to his room there once again was a team of doctors frantically working on him. One of the doctors showed me an image he got from doing a scope on dads stomach and the stomach was full of black spots. He was afraid that the stomach was dying. At that point it was decided that they needed to reopen dads gut to take a look. Upon opening his gut they found the stomach to only be bruised but the intestine was dying rapidly. They ended up having to cut out 7 feet of dads intestines. At this point dad was in septic shock and they had him in a medically induced coma. They installed a breathing tube because he was laboring to breathe. It was just awful seeing my dad laying there helpless with all those machines hooked up to him. I couldn't sleep for three days because the anxiety of everything was killing me. I am glad to announce though that he has made a turn around and the breathing tube was removed yesterday. It looks like he is on the road to recovery but it is going to be a rough road ahead. It's definitely going to be much more difficult than him or I ever imagined. There are still several obstacles in the way but I am optimistic he will make a full recovery.
|
|
|
Post by Chase on Dec 18, 2019 10:41:38 GMT -5
Really sorry to hear that Matt. I hope his recovery is as easy on him and your family as possible.
|
|
|
Post by goosepondmonster on Dec 18, 2019 10:54:17 GMT -5
Glad to hear he is on the mend. Definitely sounds like a scary situation.
|
|
|
Post by Greenedog on Dec 18, 2019 20:04:56 GMT -5
Man, I've never heard of anything like that. Very scary stuff. That's great news to hear that he's made a turn around!
|
|
|
Post by fever3810 on Dec 18, 2019 20:44:48 GMT -5
That's crazy stuff. I'll keep him and your family in my prayers. I live in Indy too so if there is anything I can to to help, let me know.
|
|
|
Post by spainy79 on Dec 21, 2019 21:19:13 GMT -5
Glad to hear your dad is doing better Matt.
|
|
|
Post by topwaterbass on Dec 23, 2019 7:03:34 GMT -5
Matt prayers for you and your Dad.
|
|
|
Post by strippitman on Dec 23, 2019 9:19:03 GMT -5
Well, unfortunately this past week hasn't been much better. The same day I made the original post my dad ended up going into cardiac arrest 3 different times. Thankfully they were able to resuscitate him each time. My dad is healing but it has been very slowly. The breathing tube is back in because he is having trouble sustaining his oxygen and they can use the tube to clean fluid out of his lungs that keeps accumulating. It looks like the struggle to get back on his feet is going to take quite a long time. The medical team is confident that he is gong to make a full recovery but looking at him at this point I find that hard to believe. I hope they are right!
|
|
|
Post by Greenedog on Dec 23, 2019 10:26:20 GMT -5
Me too! Sounds like he's a pretty tough guy with what he's gone through already.
|
|
|
Post by goosepondmonster on Dec 23, 2019 18:21:05 GMT -5
Good to hear he is keeping up the good fight.
|
|
|
Post by daybreak on Dec 24, 2019 7:17:09 GMT -5
Healing at our age can be a much slower process than when we were young, unfortunately. (I'm finding out after 4 months in a fracture boot.) Healing can happen, so keep positive and keep those prayers coming. Thanks for letting us know on his progress.
|
|
|
Post by strippitman on Jan 6, 2020 8:30:46 GMT -5
Unfortunately dad didn't make it. After going into cardiac arrest 3 times on December 18th and being resuscitated all three times it was discovered through a ct scan that dad had multiple broken ribs and a broken vertebrae in his spine due to the resuscitation efforts. After that dads vitals stayed stable for a few days but then started to fall downward after that. We had a meeting with the entire care team and the caseworker on December 24th and they informed us that even in the unlikely event that dad would survive there were going to be a lot of obstacles that he would have to deal with on a daily basis. These obstacles would greatly affect his quality of life. Earlier that same morning my grandpa (my dads dad) passed away peacefully in his sleep. With that happening we decided it would be best to give my dad a few more days and see what happens while we try to get my grandpa's funeral out of the way. The next day (Christmas morning) the hospital called and they said dad is deteriorating rapidly. At that point we decided that we would all head to Indy the next day and have dad removed from life support. He died peacefully within 10 minutes of being off life support. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers throughout this time of grief.
|
|
|
Post by topwaterbass on Jan 9, 2020 5:28:04 GMT -5
so sorry to hear Matt.
|
|