We're staying afloat.

We decided to take shifts last night for 3.5 hrs each. Courtney (my favorite step sister) started off and I was to follow. I set my phone alarm two different times, and although I didn’t feel too tired when I went to bed (in the really comfortable chairs that I fit so well in) a little after 10.  The next think I know, Courtney is waking me up and yelling (not really I’m just being dramatic) about oversleeping. I didn’t hear my alarms, but I’m sure the other people in the waiting room did (now that I know what it’s like to sleep with tons of noise). It’s been kind of funny, every morning I get up to this nice fella who is talking extremely loud! I want to tell him to use his indoor voice like he does in the afternoon, but I think it’s his goal to make sure everyone wakes up in a timely manner (5:45).

Sorry for the bantering, so in the midst of Courtney’s lecture, she tells me dad has had a pretty rough night. He’s extremely restless, and is consistently moving around and having a bid of a hard time relaxing. I wait a little before I go in because they’re doing a procedure (which I won’t mention), but it’s rather uncomfortable and they usually kick us out for it. As I come in I see him very figidity and hanging off the bed. His eyes are slightly open and I try to calm him down, but it’s not working very well. I finally get him to relax a little and fix wires that are hanging everything, and try to straighten up some of the pads and tubes that look pretty uncomfortable.

As he’s calming down, the x-ray guys come in and want a chest and abdomen x-ray (sighs). So they have to turn him lift him up to get the cold metal thing in alignment, they eventually finish and allow me to go back in the room and try to calm him again. He’s having a difficult time breathing again, and is getting worked up, the nurse eventually comes in, we suction him out and he’s resting peacefully.

It’s good that we’re able to suction some of the mucous and junk out of the lungs, but the more we do it, we’re risking an increase chance of getting an infection which is something I’d rather him not have. It’s kind of a tough situation to be in. I’m anxious to talk to the Doctor today to see what the plan is. Dad has been breathing on his own all night and his vent levels are looking decent (I’m now a professional venter). He should be getting blood gas draws soon, and we’ll take a look at a lot of different levels of things in the blood. They help with monitoring your kidneys functions (and we have some pee, which I don’t recall ever being happier about seeing pee). It’s been a pretty good level and I’m hoping this means we have kidney function and we don’t have to stay on dialysis (I’m not a professional peeologist).

I think I’m starting to fight a cold, which couldn’t come at a worse possible time. I don’t want to do anything to make pops sicker than he already is, but I want to be in here and be with him to make sure things are going well. Although I was in his room a lot the last couple days, I felt like I was a little less aware of what was going on, I think it’s because we’ve all been so tired that you forget what was said to you almost immediately. Courtney and Chris are starting to look scary and definitely need to sleep a little more. If things worked out as planned Chris ( I keep on spelling it as Christ, which I’m sure she thinks it is appropriate since she did bring pops back to life) should get about 7 hours of sleep which will be almost as much as she’s gotten since she’s been here. I’m trying to get her to leave and take a little break, but she’s a typical woman and stubborn as (searching for a funny line) mule ( I know it’s original --sorry, couldn’t find anything better). 

The rest of the cousins are leaving today, so it’s just going to be Chris, Courtney, their family (which all live really close to each other), my grandparents and myself. I’ve decided I’m going to go through my grandma’s bags before the plane (whenever we decide to leave) so we don’t get patted down and walk through the body scanner (I’m being overly dramatic again).  I have a little extra time to write today, since the big chief, is sleeping so nice right now. I feel like I haven’t kept everyone as updated the past couple days as much so here is a quick rundown of a few things. We may have an infection somewhere, the white blood cell count (WBC) should tell us that, it may be in his hand, but it also could be in his lungs. He’s a little more alert and is waking up a lot more, but that also means he’s more restless and uncomfortable. His kidneys weren’t working at all, but they seem to be producing something at least. He’s breathing on pressure support for the past day (which means he is initiating all of his breathing).

I’ve had 2 people mention a few things to me recently concerning dad that I feel I should share. The first one was a doctor who saw him initially after the heart attack, and his exact words were “it’s a miracle he’s doing this well.” There was one respiratory therapist who also said he’s been doing great, and he’s really done well despite everything that has happened. It’s a long road and we’re still not sure of what the outcome may be, but we do know he has people around the world praying for him. And there is nothing else we can do. It may be selfish of us to want him to get better so quickly and we know that heaven is a greater place than earth, but he was selfish for wanting to go visit with my mom. So I guess I’m glad Chris was jealous and brought him back for us.

Our favorite nurse is back today, and I’m hoping she gets to work with dad again. She makes it easy because I don’t have to bribe her that much anymore, because I did all of that with her already. She was great with Lindsey and helped her play nurse. She listened to both her and pops heart, as well as their lungs. Lindsey helped hand IV bags, and she’s just been great working with her and talking to her. I’m hoping she can help with a different bed that’s more comfortable. Someone termed the bed as the “fat guy in a little coat” portion of tommy boy the movie. All is well as of now,  I feel roles have reversed and just like dad was proud of me at times growing up (I can’t recall a certain time I’m just hoping ;)), I’m proud of him for the fighting he has done. We aren’t out of the woods yet and we have a long road ahead, but we’ve been negotiating a lot of bumps and curves and we’ve gotten car sick a few times, but we’re still in the car and that’s good (that was a lame analogy, but it was fun). Last time Denise worked she described dad as treading water. He’s staying afloat with not many changes, but he’s stay afloat and that’s good enough for me at this time, I’m just glad his head is above the water.