MIA

For those of you who were wondering why I have been MIA, let me update you on my life over the past week.

I found out after arriving home from piano lessons that my parents and aunt had found my grandpa on the floor of his apartment. They called an ambulance and he was rushed to the local hospital. He was in a far worse condition than they had originally thought. They moved him to the ICU and put him on oxygen and antibiotics for an infection.

I left around 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday so that I could see him. I got in around 12:30 a.m., put the boys to bed, then my mom and I drove to the hospital. He looked so uncomfortable and was having a very difficult time breathing. The pulmanologist refused to give him any pain medicine even though we told the nurse we could tell he was uncomfortable. It was terrible.

Wednesday morning they decided to intubate him (which they should have done the day before) and they life flighted him to UPMC Presby in Pittsburgh. When we all arrived down there several hours later, we were relieved to see the care he was receiving there. It was rather daunting to see my normally healthy grandfather with a tube in his throat, eleven different bags of fluids and medicines going through multiple IV sites, and later him hooked up to a dialysis machine.

He then developed DIC, which is an uncommon bleeding disorder. It causes clotting in the small blood vessels, but bleeding in the large. Because of this he was losing blood from all of his IV sites. That was not easy to see, but they kept him replenished through volunteer blood donations. Thankfully this resolved itself on Saturday so he is no longer needing transfusions.

The doctors discovered that the origin of this whole ordeal was an infected tooth he had pulled 2-3 wks. ago. The infection either began before it was pulled or developed after it was pulled. This bacteria first attacks the heart (they originally thought he had a heart attack - the damage is actually from the bacteria), then enters the bloodstream, then enters the kidneys, etc. It had already progressed to this final stage.

A couple of the days we visited he was too sedated to respond, but on Thursday he was able to open his eyes and shake his head yes and no. It was nice to be able to talk to him and to have him respond. He also started breathing on his own on Thursday, with the help of the respirator.

I drove home with the boys yesterday, arriving home around 7:30. We had beautiful weather to drive in, which was nice. The boys did a great job overall, though the last hour or so was a little rough. Peyton had had enough of his car seat and we had to make an "emergency" stop for Gavin to use the restroom.

The update I got from my mom last night was that his kidneys are starting to void a little now, which gives us hope that his kidney function will resume. They are also hoping to take him off the respirator today, which is a really good sign.

Since Jason and I are flying out of Pittsburgh next week for our survey trip, we are hoping to stop by the hospital before we leave. I am hoping to see a much improved Grandpa!