Hi all,
Dad is "stable and somewhat improved." He is
getting something called hemofiltration which is a
different kind of dialyisis. It's much longer (goes
like 10 hours instead of the usual 3.5, but is very
gentle and doesn't make the blood pressure drop and
require massive doses of blood pressure meds. to keep
the BP up. Why wasn't the other hospital using this?
Well apparently not all hospitals have one of these
machines. So if you ever have someone in your family
on dialysis, find a hospital with the latest
technology!
He went 7 hours on CPAP and passes the
spontaneous breathing test, which means he is no
longer in respiratory failure and they are working on
weaning him from the ventilator. That's the good
news.
He still has infection and is getting several
antibiotics (some different from what the first
hospital was giving him). And they're still doing
tests to figure out how best to handle the GI problem.
They aren't sure about the liver problem. Basically
the medical, the gall bladder problems, and the
infection can make the the liver numbers abnormal
without him actually being in permanent liver failure.
So if we can get those things under control then
hopefully his liver will be okay. Plus he's been on
TPN for three weeks so he has malnutrition (TPN is IV
food). They're giving him lipids in IV too.
Mom had two good days. She told the speech
therapist the pasta tasted like straw. But she
hungry so she'd eat it anyway. She did really well
in occupational therapy yesterday, trying to comb her
hair, wash her face, and put lotion on her hands.
Progress!
More soon. Please keep those prayers coming!
Love,
Susan
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