Saturday - Update (6/16)

Made it here just fine last night. Dad was in a shallow sleep and was very fidgety--he'd throw out his arms as if to catch himself and would sometimes wake himself up. When I asked what was happening to him he'd say that he was on the edge of 2 or 3 flights of stairs, and as he was falling over the edge he'd reach out to catch himself; he'd often grab a book or a pen or a door knob. It doesn't make sense to him at all.

When Dad is awake (hours after a BP meds dose) he speaks coherently and with the same vocabulary as he's always used, which is refreshing to hear. The doctors and some nurses have noticed that Dad has mentally decayed a bit from 2 weeks ago, but this past week they have seen more improvement.

He is currently only on two different medications for his elevated BP (His high BP is odd to his main doctor, who sees patient's BP drop after surgeries, not increase.) He is on his anti-rejection drug prolaf, some vitamins (B12 and folic acid, they are giving him iron for his hemoglobin levels, NO antibiotics, I can have a more comprehensive list sometime soon.

112/67 is his current BP on the meds.

I spoke to many doctors today and here is a bulleted synopsis of what we discussed:

• Is Dad's hemoglobin level (7) low due to internal bleeding? "No."
• It seems as though he begins to tremor and hallucinate right after he is administered his blood pressure medication. "Ok."
• Is Dad's hallucination due to medication? "Maybe."
• Can you work with his medication to decrease his hallucinations or tremors? "Sure."
• How are his drains doing? "Good, the vac (attached to his incision) has been draining less, which is a good sign. His G-tube, which empties his stomach seems to be pulling healthy fluids and his J-tube is unclogged and functioning OK. His J-tube administers his liquid food (Peptamen), his G-tube drains his stomach (so fluids in = fluids out) and his vac drains his cavity and his wound."
• Tell me more about the whole in his stomach.. "His hole is very tiny and exists from surgery. The vac is in place to drain any seepage that may come out of the hole and into the peritoneal cavity."
• How do you know when the hole is healed? "It is difficult to tell via scans, so the output from the vac and his comfort level in his abdomen would dictate the the hole is closing. Then they would remove the G-tube to see if his stomach would retain fluid on it's own. If the vac remains empty, these are all good signs that he is ready for more solid food.
• Tell me about his clear diet.. "He is allowed any fluids (as long as he is not nauseous) he'd like. It's ok for water, coffee, soda, broth, ice cream. Some fluid may way it deeper into his GI track, the rest would be sucked out the G-tube.
• Dad has some bed sores, how are you making sure these don't get infected? "A nurse cleans the sores each day and applies anti-biotic ointment. This ointment also relieves the pain of the sores. There is no sign for infection, although we are watching them carefully."
• Can we hold a conference call with all of his doctors to make sure everyone is on the same page and so the family can feel comfortable with Scott's progress when we're away? "Yes, absolutely. It can be arranged."

More news to come later.

Adam