The Anatomy of life support part 3

The ICU doctors had ordered kidney dialysis. It was to clean dad's blood and filter it since by this point he was in complete renal (kidney) failure. Dialysis is typically a 3-4 hour process each session. Dad was far to sick for that because it's very hard on the body. The doc decided to use a different method for dialysis called CRRT (continuous renal replacement therapy) what this meant for dad is that he would be on kidney dialysis 24 hours a day continually. 

The doctor ordered dialysis I believe Wednesday or Thursday that the first week. It took 2 to 3 days for them to actually start the therapy. This was very upsetting to both my sister and I because we felt like they were delaying my dad in his healing process. They ended up starting it finally I forget what day it was. He was on it about 24 to 48 hours and then they decided to completely take him off. When we asked why they took him off of the dialysis, which was frustrating, because it was so important according to them start so that dad would start to improve, they told us it was because his blood was too thick it was clogging up the dialysis machine. I don't understand this because of he had a condition called atrial fibrillation which he had to take blood thinners for. And multiple times the doctors and nurses told us that his blood was too thin. So go ahead and figure that one out because we couldn't.  Anyway they were going to restart the dialysis on day 10 of his comatose state. He never made it that far. 

So essentially the kidney dialysis was to assist his body to heal and get better because he was in complete renal kidney failure. It was extremely hard to see him go through this and watch the blood coming out of his very sick body, through the machine and pump back into his body. I was Able to tolerate it because I believed this would help dad to come out of his comatose state and begin to heal his body. I WAS WRONG. The dialysis did absolutely no good for dad. It did not improve his health at all not even a smidgen but, on the plus side it also did not make anything worse or more life-threatening but it didn't do the job of making it better and that sucks. 

This post has been extremely hard on me so I am going to leave it at this and pick up next time on the last hours and days of dad's life in the last few days leading up to the very second we said our final good bye. 

Live, laugh, love and you can get through anything. Until next time.......

The Anatomy of life support part 2

I left off on Monday night.

I could only stay in the ICU for no more than 30 mins. It was so hard to see this man who was always so strong and burly being completely sedated in a medical induced coma. The put him the coma to allow his body time to rest so that he might get stronger. It didn't work. By Tuesday morning the Doctor decided to stop all the sedative medication to see if he would wake up and come out of the coma.

He didn't wake up at all on Tuesday. My sister and I had a hard time just sitting there watching our dad waste away to nothing. As I said in my last post his belly was so incredibly swollen yet his face was a dull gray color and completely hollowed out looking.  We were staying at a hotel less than 5 minutes away from St. Mary's Hospital. At this point the Dr. said to not get excited because he was still a very sick man. They believed that he got pancreatitis which caused his gall bladder to fail causing his liver and entire digestive tract to fail.

When we went to see him again Tuesday afternoon we talked to the Dr and nurses and got permission for my 7 and 8 year old nephews to come in the ICU and see dad. I took them in 1 at a time. I started with the youngest Mark (named after my dad ). I held his hand while we walked into the ICU. His dad stayed with the other nephew and my sister was already in dad's room. I explained that grandpa was very sick and was going to look different. I explained the best I could that he had lots of tubes and machines and such in him and in the room. This boy is such a tuff kiddo. We walked into the room. I told Mark that grandpa was able to hear him and to just talk to him as normal as you can. He was strong and brave. I picked him up so he could give his "papa" a kiss on the forehead. I walked him out and brought Ethan in. I explained everything all over again. Something you should know about Ethan is that he and his papa were the best of buddies. He tried to talk to dad but was very nervous and scared just as I would be at his age. I had been so strong since I got to the hospital on Monday however, when Ethan was getting ready to leave I again picked him up to give papa a kiss. I was strong until this little tender 8 year old said the most sad and profound thin I have ever heard. He looked at my dad and said " goodbye papa I will see you when I get to heaven" I LOST IT! Wow what a special boy he is. I am actually crying right now as I type this and remember his small voice saying those tender words.

After that I was so emotionally exhausted and worn out. We all went back to our hotel and I sat in my empty hotel room by myself and had a good hard cry. We didn't go back to see him that day because they were going to be inserting a tube into his gall bladder to drain the infection. He needed surgery to remove it all together but he was too sick and unstable for surgery so this was the next best thing they could do to try and relieve the infection to hopefully bring him out of the coma. It didn't help him to wake up.

In the next post I will talk about the dialysis they said was the fix all but they were wrong. Until next time....

The anatomy of life support part 1

We still don't know what type of infection caused my dad's life to end. It started out on Saturday with about an hour of vomiting. Within hours he was unresponsive and swollen. Within 24 hours of being in the hospital in Craig he declined so fast that he was life flighted to St Mary's hospital in Grand Junction... This was Sunday night. 

I left first thing Monday  morning after working a 12 hour graveyard shift. My sister was already there when I got there. She'd tried to prepare me for what dad looked like but I was not even able to process what I saw when I walked into his ICU room that very first time. This was Monday evening. 

I walked in I instantly felt like I was going to vomit. His vital signs were the lowest signs I've ever seen in my 8 years as a nurse. He was completely supported by medications and machines. He had tubes coming from every opening in his entire body except for his ears. He had numerous IV's including three directly in his neck.  He was swollen throughout his body almost past the point of recognition except his face which was hollow and gray in color. 

More details and such coming soon.......