About Dad

Thank you for asking about Dad. We are a bit worried. For those who might be interested, below is a bit about what is going on.

My 78-year-old father was rushed to the ER last Saturday afternoon having intense stomach pains. After a few hours of testing, ultrasounds and examinations it was determined he had a problem with his gall bladder. Gallstones were visible on the X-rays, portions of a stone had broken off and lodged in an area that caused extreme pain. Fortunately his Dr. and his surgeon were the staff on call that weekend. Both were "Johnny on the spot" to the ER and had Dad admitted by early evening with all things covered and surgery scheduled for Monday morning.
Dad has a unique medical history; he was healthy as a horse until he hit his 60’s. He developed a brain tumor a few years ago, which was removed. To have it removed a plastic surgeon basically lifted his face up and off from his upper lip to his nose to enable the Neurologist to reach/remove the tumor through his nasal cavity. He has to take medications to keep the tumor from growing back. The tumor was one of those 1 in a million type tumors. Which I can’t remember the name right now.
Shortly after the tumor removal he then developed heart problems. They diagnosed it as Tachybrady Syndrome. He required a pacemaker to regulate his heart. Thank goodness we have a top notch Cardiologist in the family.
He is on Coumadin which is used to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots in veins and arteries plus a few other medications for different issues. They could not do surgery on Sunday due to the Coumandin. They had to work with his blood to allow the clotting factor to increase before they did surgery.
They did the surgery Monday morning. After surgery the surgeon told sister and I that the coumandin did cause a bit of an issue with the surgery. Loss of blood being one. The gallbladder was so badly infected that the infection had an adverse effect on his kidneys and pancreas.
Dad is home but not doing so well. They had to leave a drain in his side for the infection, which was also showing blood. The drain was to be removed Friday but was not. They are leaving it in until Monday.

He thinks he should be 100% but is not.
They took him off some of his meds, one being a diuretic and he is having problems with fluid retention. He is having a difficult time breathing. He went back to the doctor yesterday due to not showing any signs of improvement. The Dr. made a few more adjustments to his medication, checked all out and sent him home until Monday.
Sister is here from the city, staying until all is better with Dad. If things do not improve within the next couple of days we are calling in the cavalry…Dr. brother in Texas and Dr. cousin in St.Louis.

During the same time Dad has taken ill Jim had left to drive to TN to move our son home. They arrived back early Sunday morning. Yeah! My baby is home! He had been so much help this week.