URGENT update! =(
Please focus your thoughts and prayers... especially on my mother and sister in Pittsburgh. They are alone with my father and are starting to fall apart.
After speaking with the doctors today (about an hour ago) the prognosis is not good. My father's condition has worsened. The pneumonia has progressed, and has proven to be viral and not responding to any treatments. His lungs have begun to harden and the damaged tissues are beyond repair at this point. He is very weak and not able to fight the pneumonia on his own. There is not much else they can do.
At this time, I believe they are going to keep him on the ventilator, for a time for as long as his heart is still unaffected. He is considered stabalized, but with little to no chance of recovery. As the pneumonia progresses, it is only a matter of time before his organs will suffer the effect of the loss of oxygen.
Our half of Pennsylvania is currently under a severe winter storm, effective about 30 minutes ago... until at least 9 pm tonight. We are unable to get to Pittsburgh in this weather, to be with my mother and sister. I ask you to pray for their strength to hold out, until we can be with them. Please continue your prayers, in that my father might defy medical science and begin to improve... it is not unheard of... however, be most adiment in your prayers lifted for my sister Marikaye and mother Kathleen right now.
I am torn between many emotions right now. I am equally devasted, helpless, focused and irrate.
This has come on very fast... however the surgeon has determined that his lungs have been dying since most likely 2006 and no one knew it.
I am grateful that we had the holidays with him. We had a wonderful time... and I could see that my father was truly so very happy.
I am very regretful of the fact that we put off taking our Christmas family photos this year. My sister had bought everyone in the family matching outfits and we purchased an incredible collage to frame photos of my parents, the entire family, my sisters and I, our families and the grandchildren. We took all but the picture of my parents and the big family photo because everyone was exhausted and the kids were no longer cooperating. We had planned on taking the last of the pictures this coming weekend, before my sister was to return to school. That final picture of my father would have meant the world to my mother. This is the first Christmas in my entire life that a picture wasn't taken of my parents together in front of the Christmas tree. Who would have thought... it was our last opportunity?
I am incredibly overwhelmed with a sense of helplessness right now... in the weather especially restricting my ability to reach my sister and mother. They are incredibly fragile right now... and I'm not certain they can handle being alone if my father should pass before we can reach them.
I am feeling surprisingly in control in my role to contact family and friends... to keep up these updates and to make memorial plans. I am grateful for that strength right now.
I am infuriated by the hospitals response to my father's condition. I, with no medical know how or background, was able to google pneumonia and find for myself 3 days ago, that his symptoms fell entirely in accordance with a viral case and would likely not response to antibiotics. When my father reached Pittsburgh, he was talking, alert, and effectively processing oxygen on only the basic equipment. Because of the results of his xrays... without consulting his past records... the impulsively reacted, got him to consent to a ventilator (which they assured him was precautionary, but necessary) and intubated and sedated him before my mother could even arrive at the hospital. Has they kept him stable in the condition he had arrived in... he could have at least seen his family in just a few short hours. They did not give him, nor us the option... and now without any of us (short of my mother and sister) seeing him since the New Year... he will pass away on a machine... in the exact way he had always insisted he did not want to die. Now... in reviewing his medical history... the hospital realizes this mistake... but there is nothing they can do... and my poor mother will have no closure. I am heartbroken for her.
This is all very overwhelming. I only ask that you continue your prayers for my family. I will let you know, as I have, as his condition changes. Send positive energies to my mother and sister and pray at least, for my sake... that my father continues to be stable until I can be there for them.