Dad had some set backs last night. They found out even though his blood oxygen was registering as good, he was not expelling enough carbon dioxide. It was starting to build up in his blood.

He was doing so bad this morning that they did not kick me out at 6am.

They had to put him on what is called a Bi-pap machine. This thing is very similar to the kind of machine you have if you have sleep apnea. The face mask fits VERY VERY tight to your face & forces air into your mouth & nose. It is very uncomfortable and dad has been fighting it all last night & today.

At one point they thought they were going to have to put him back on a breathing ventilator machine. This would have been a MAJOR set back. They would have put him to sleep for the entire time he was on this machine.

When they told us about this, we all finally broke down emotionally. The worst part is he lays there begging you to give him water & you cant because he cant have the mask off. They give him some ice chips every couple hours. It makes you feel very guilty.

Also they were worried that pneumonia was setting in. He was showing some spots on his chest xrays & his white blood cell count was high. After the infectious disease doctor checked on him, she said it appeared to be just “normal” fluid in his lungs. They expect to see some of this after surgery & his white cell count was coming down. They think it was just elevated due to all the stress he was under.

Luckily the Bi-pap machine seems to be working at least a little. But they did put him back on morphine.

He also has gases building up in his stomach, and not getting rid of it. Once he comes off of the Bi-pap machine they are going to put a tube down his nose & into his stomach to drain off the gases. He will not be happy about this at all.

He still isn’t very coherent. He is just coherent enough to know something bad is going on.

The good news is all of his incisions are healing very fast & they said even his chest is healing quicker than anything they have seen in a very long time. So if he can get his breathing working, he would be doing pretty good.

I just got to the hospital for 8pm visiting time & they had just cleaned him up. He is finally resting & the nurse said he is her only patient tonight, so I am sitting outside of his room letting him sleep. If he wakes up & starts asking for someone I will go in there, but I don’t want to be the reason he wakes up.

I am currently at the hotel resting while my sister is taking a 5hr shift staying with dad.

When I got to the hospital today around noon (slept in late) Mom & my sister Betsy were there. They had removed dad’s chest tube. His heart beat/rythym was still good & his blood pressure was doing very good.

Mom & Betsy left to eat lunch & get some rest (yes we are taking y’alls advice and making sure we take care of ourselves). Mom then went on back to her house, she is feeling real weak. She isn’t used to this much running around. Betsy went back to the motel & took a long nap, she needed it.

They took the bandage off of Dad’s leg (where they had removed the veins for transplant) and removed the bandage covering his chest staples. They said all these areas looked very good.

They moved him into the recliner & he sat there trying to dance with the nurse. He was doing some good coughing. He wasnt getting anything to come up, but at least he was getting the junk in his lungs broke up.

Later this afternoon he used the bathroom (which is important info, they said this is a good sign). They bathed him after this & it really wore him out. They gave him some medicine & he went to sleep in the recliner.

After about 30 mins, Dad’s pulse & blood pressure dropped pretty low. So they had to put him back on IV medicine to bring his blood pressure back up. He was having trouble staying awake for more than 30 seconds & he wasnt able to make a complete sentence.

When they kicked me out at 6pm (in case I didnt say it before they force everyone to leave from 6p-8p & 6a-8a) his blood pressure was still low, but not real dangerous low. He was snoring & they said I shouldn’t wake him up to tell him I was leaving, they would call me if anything bad happened.

It is now 9:15p, Betsy has just called me. His blood pressure is back to a normal level, but they still have him on the IV blood pressure medicine. They said he is doing great, but he is very worn out from today’s “activities” and he seems more comfortable in the recliner. They are going to let him sleep in it as long as he wants to. Betsy said he is sleeping just like he was back home.

I am going to go shower & then sleep until 2am when I will head over to spend time with Dad.

Once again, thank you to everyone for all the kind words, thoughts & prayers.

As most of you know I am not overly religious, but my Dad is & it means the world to him that he is in your thoughts & prayers. It also means the world to me.

He did very well yesterday.

We got a hotel room about 5mins from the hospital so we would have somewhere close by to recharge our batteries.

Me and my sister took turns spending 3-4hrs with dad last night. By early this morning his heart rate & blood pressure leveled out & they took him off the medicine for that.

He still has the chest tubes in, but they think they will remove them today.

They are telling us over all he is doing good, but they are extremely worried about his lungs. He has never done much coughing, ever. They need him to start coughing so he doesn’t develop pneumonia.

He is still confused about everything going on, but it is getting better.

I just talked to my sister & she said today’s nurse seems to be rude & has no bedside manner. So we may have an incident today. With dad being confused he needs someone with a good bedside manner.

Yesterday he got sick when they tried to feed him some ice cream and he is hungry today but started feeling queezy when they fed him a couple bites of ice cream. I guess the nurse copped an attitude with my sister when she suggested trying some pudding. My sister suggested this because dad was begging for something else to try & eat. I understand the nurse may be having a bad day, but she needs to leave it at the door when she walks into that room.

Ok, time for me to shower & head back to hospital.

He is out of Accute care & in Critical care now.

He is breathing on his own & able to talk.

He has an irregular heartbeat & is on medication for that.

His blood pressure keeps dropping low, he is on medicine for that too.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers & wishes.

Time to go back in the room with him.

Wow. It has been almost 2 months since I have wrote anything.

I guess life just got in the way.

Unfortunately this update isn’t completely happy. To establish a time line today is Thursday August 28.

My father (who will be 78 in 2 weeks) had a heart attack Tuesday & another one on Wednesday morning.

Tuesday he went to his doctor and had an EKG done, but refused to go to the hospital. Wednesday morning we convinced him to go to the local hospital. After running some tests they decided he should be transfered to the hospital in Concord, NC for further tests & possible surgery.

Wednesday afternoon he had catheterization “surgery” where they insert a large tube inside the groin area & inject dye into your system. They found 5 blockages & 1 possible aneurysm on the left side of his heart. The doctor said he needed triple bypass surgery and they would schedule it for the morning.

When they brought him out of the catheterization “surgery” they said he had done fine. We saw him as they rolled him by & he was sleeping like a baby. A loud snoring baby.

When they went to wake him up, there were some complications that I will not go into detail about, but their exact words were “He got scared & we almost lost him”. During this time the old man also showed the hospital staff that he still had some physical fight left in him. They had to restrain both arms, both legs & tie down his midsection to the bed. He had to stay laying flat for over 6hrs due to the tube being in his groin.

He did real well after this. He had a pretty good night. My sister Betsy stayed the night with him.

Betsy, thank you for being their with him last night. I know it helped him a lot.

This morning he was feeling good. They had him get up & walk to the bathroom before prepping for bypass surgery. On his way to the bathroom he even did a little dance for the nurses. That is my father, the “comedian”. Always keep them laughing is his motto.

They took him into surgery around 6:30 or 7:00am. Around 10 or 11 (I can’t remember time is starting to all run together) one of the nurses came in to let us know they had been able to retrieve veins from his legs & he was on the bypass machine & they were starting the actual bypass procedure.

What seemed like an eternity later (about 3 or 4 hrs) they came in & let us know they bypass was done, all had seemed to go well & they were in the process of closing him back up.

About an hour later the doctor came in & let us know the status of everything & that they would have him in the recovery area in about an hour. Closer to 2hrs later they came to get us so we could see him. This turned out to be very tough for me. He was still asleep & on a ventilator with all kinds of wires & tubes going everywhere. This was a very overwhelming sight. Up until that point I had been holding it together for the most part.

I was told he was doing extremely well for just having open heart surgery. So that is happy part of this story.

They said he would be on the ventilator for at least 6 more hours and that they were going to keep him asleep for awhile. Visitation time is extremely limited while he is in this area & they said he would not be awake for most of tonight & if he was awake he would not know who any of us were. Plus visiting hours end at 8pm (and you are only allowed to be in their for 15 minutes).

So we have all come back home to get some rest & we will be over at the hospital before sunrise tomorrow and hopefully I will have more happy news come tomorrow.

If any of you read this & think that I have gone to far into personal details, I am sorry. This is therapy for me. Hopefully you will never go through this & will not have a need to understand.

Michelle, thank you for being there for me. I love you.

Those of you that are religious please keep my father (and mother) in your thoughts & prayers.