An update
again, too lazy to type so I'll just copy and paste the letter I wrote my brother (he's in the navy btw, out to sea)
Ray,
The past two days have been horrible. Thursday while visiting dad in the hospital, he put his hand on his head and said he was going out, and fell backwards on the bed. His defibrillator shocked him again.
They started him on an anti-arythmia drug and made sure his defibrillator was working properly. Everything seemed to be okay. Well Friday, I left the hospital around 5pm when John got there. John called me around 6pm and said that the defibrillator shocked him AGAIN, but not to worry, everything was okay, they were just checking him out. Around 6:30pm, he called again and said "Rachel, get up here now, it shocked him again". When I was almost there, he called back and said they moved Dad to ICU.
When I got there, John, Steve, and aunt Barbara were back there in the room with him. There was a nurse on each side of him trying to get IV's in and John was standing at the foot of the bed. John looked at the heart monitor and said "Dad, calm down, you're about to go into v-tac" about 10 seconds later dad said "I AM going into v-tac". As soon as he said that he started shaking violently like he was having a seizure, the doctors pushed us all out of the way, they called for the crash cart. I freaked out when they called for that and left so I don't really know what went on but I was told there was about 15 people in there working on him. A minute or two later we heard them call a code blue over the speaker.
They finally got him stableized enough for us to go back and see him. A whole lot of family was there. He was feeling okay just really sleepy (he hadn't slept in 4 days, can't sleep in hospitals). Well I came home to get some sleep and John just now called and said Dad's like a different man. He's feeling MUCH much better. They got his potassium level up and he got some sleep. Dad said he feels better now than when he came into the hospital in the first place.
He gave us quite a scare, we were debating whether to call you through the Red Cross or not because it was REALLY REALLY bad there for a while. But, hopefully, things are better now. We just have to wait and make sure things keep getting better.
I heard your mom was going to try to contact you, not sure if she did already or not but I figured I would at least give you an update on the situation. I'll let you know more as I know more.
We came really close to losing him.
Love,
Rachel
Ray,
The past two days have been horrible. Thursday while visiting dad in the hospital, he put his hand on his head and said he was going out, and fell backwards on the bed. His defibrillator shocked him again.
They started him on an anti-arythmia drug and made sure his defibrillator was working properly. Everything seemed to be okay. Well Friday, I left the hospital around 5pm when John got there. John called me around 6pm and said that the defibrillator shocked him AGAIN, but not to worry, everything was okay, they were just checking him out. Around 6:30pm, he called again and said "Rachel, get up here now, it shocked him again". When I was almost there, he called back and said they moved Dad to ICU.
When I got there, John, Steve, and aunt Barbara were back there in the room with him. There was a nurse on each side of him trying to get IV's in and John was standing at the foot of the bed. John looked at the heart monitor and said "Dad, calm down, you're about to go into v-tac" about 10 seconds later dad said "I AM going into v-tac". As soon as he said that he started shaking violently like he was having a seizure, the doctors pushed us all out of the way, they called for the crash cart. I freaked out when they called for that and left so I don't really know what went on but I was told there was about 15 people in there working on him. A minute or two later we heard them call a code blue over the speaker.
They finally got him stableized enough for us to go back and see him. A whole lot of family was there. He was feeling okay just really sleepy (he hadn't slept in 4 days, can't sleep in hospitals). Well I came home to get some sleep and John just now called and said Dad's like a different man. He's feeling MUCH much better. They got his potassium level up and he got some sleep. Dad said he feels better now than when he came into the hospital in the first place.
He gave us quite a scare, we were debating whether to call you through the Red Cross or not because it was REALLY REALLY bad there for a while. But, hopefully, things are better now. We just have to wait and make sure things keep getting better.
I heard your mom was going to try to contact you, not sure if she did already or not but I figured I would at least give you an update on the situation. I'll let you know more as I know more.
We came really close to losing him.
Love,
Rachel