This has been a rough week.
My dad was hospitalized from bleeding (from his crohns) about a month ago. He got well enough to be released. But he never really was well. The month at home was filled with stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea, and high fevers.
Things got worse, and I was checking in with him every day. He wasn't doing well.
Last Saturday he called me at 6:10am. He'd been bleeding rather heavily since 2am. He asked me to dive him to the ER, since he was pretty shaky and worried about passing out. I went and got him, and we got to Good Sam around 6:45am. He got fresh frozen plasma almost immediately, and saline. Later he got a bag of blood. He finally got admitted around 1pm.
Things stayed about the same in the hospital. More bleeding, more transfusions, not much pain, or fevers.
His GI (Dr Balaa) did an emergency colonoscopy on Tuesday. The whole colon was in bad shape. Two sections were very bad, and one was kind of bad. Dr Balaa suggested a full colectomy, because my dad had pretty much run out of options.
(He was diagnosed in 2005, and has run through lots of different medications (steriods, TNF, 5-ASA, and cancer drugs). He responded well for about 5 years to 5-ASA (Pentasa), but for the last 2.5 years has been having problems.)
I emailed my mom (a retired RN) the pictures from his colonoscopy, and she agreed that he looked pretty bad. The surgeon (Dr Youn) can to visit on Wednesday to discuss the surgery, and why it was a good idea etc. It was pretty much settled from there, surgery was the best choice. I was thinking the surgery would be laproscopic, as many surgeries are now. But this was going to be huge, major surgery, with an incision from ribs to pubis. He's in a weaken state (he's down to about 140 lbs at 5'11"), and he had pulmonary emboli in 2005.
In talking about it with him on Wednesday night, he was determined it was the best choice (as was I, and everyone else), but he was, rightly, scared. He got teary, and talked about final wishes that weren't in the Trust. That was hard. I don't mind talking about the Trust or death planning. But the fact that it was actually a real possibility. Plus I have no memories of seeing my dad cry.
Thursday the nerves were a little more calm. We found out his surgery would be at 3:30pm. And Dr Youn came to talk to us (specifically me, Aaron and Ginny (my dad's girlfriend)), on Thursday night, and spent a long time, answering all our questions. I like Dr Youn, he seems really capable, knowledgeable, and friendly.
I took Friday off of work, because I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate. I did pretty well about not freaking out in the morning. I started to cry on the way to the hospital in the afternoon, but then my sister called and cheered me up a little. I got there a little before 1, and just hung out.
Around 2, the anesthesiologist, Dr Steve (I didn't catch his last name), came by and met with us. And then at 3:20 he was whisked off to the OR.
Aaron came right after my dad left. He was bummed about missed him, assuming they'd start right on time, or (more likely) late. He helped me move my dad's stuff, and then sat with me in the waiting room.
Time didn't go by as slowly as I thought it would. I brought lots to do (magazines, sudoku puzzles, snacks, laptop, etc). Ginny came around 5:30, and my dad's friend Charlie came around 6. So we sat around, and waited, and chatted a little. At 6:45 Dr Youn came out and told us all had gone well. The colon looked pretty bad, with 2-3cm ulcers all around.
He was in recovery for almost 2 hours. Then we followed him up to his room. Then was where I lost it more. It's terrible to see someone you love in pain, and know there's nothing you can do. Though, he did say some funny things in his semi-lucid state.
Now, I've just sitting here, watching the results on the vitals machine. BP is good, pulse ox is good. But his heart rate is too high much of the time, especially when the pain is present. It'll go up to 125 bpm, then when he's ok, it'll go down to 98 bpm (still high).
They're getting ready to set up an EKG to make sure everything is ok.
