Family Emergency

A couple of weeks ago, my dad’s face, legs, feet, and hands started swelling. Concerned, our caregiver called us and told us about his condition. When we took him into his primary doctor, we learned that Dad had developed Congestive Heart Failure. He prescribed him diuretics to reduce the swelling and also a prednisone based inhaler. He also instructed us to put him on a regimen of Advair and his Albuterol given by a nebulizer. For the next 2 weeks, neither was having a dramatic effect on him. So, we took him to his doctor and addressed our concerns on his follow-up visit on Wednesday. However, during his visit his doctor was concerned that his breathing was too strained and felt it was serious enough to get our dad to the emergency room.

On Pins and Needles

Wednesday night, Josie called me from the ER upset. I did not go with her because I had my little girl to tend to. So, I went home after the ambulance picked Dad up from his doctor’s office.  In that moment in time, they had Dad on a ventilator and he was having a really hard time breathing. He had bouts of anxiety where he would start yanking the mask and tubes out of his mouth and Josie had to wrestle him to keep them in. The attending physician had told her that it was a touch and go situation and had a grim look on his face. He told her that Dad not only was showing signs of CHF, but also COPD- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder. Given the changes in Dad the past few weeks this was news that we were dreading: not just one eventually fatal condition, but another one as well. I was so upset and scared that we were going to lose him that night because of the way they were talking. I wasn’t able to visit him until yesterday.

Cautious Optimism

Later Wednesday night, Josie called me back and had a little good news: Dad was breathing better. The doctor came back to tell her that Dad didn’t have COPD. That was welcome news. The only thing we had left was to see the results of his echocardiogram.  Well, that didn’t happen until today. Apparently, there’s more good news, that they couldn’t really find anything abnormal.  However, she forgot to ask (given the chaos) the doctor about the CHF again. So, we will be waiting to find out again tomorrow when he visits with Dad again. According to one of the nurses, he does have it, from what she learned but she cautioned that we find out from the doctor directly.

I want to know what stage he is at and what course of treatment they are going to offer him to slow down the process. I’ve been reading more on the condition since I last wrote about it in November’s article on Congestive Heart Failure. (Hope that wasn’t an omen) and I believe it’s true that you must be a patient advocate. Healthcare staff are so overworked and tending to so many patients that sometimes it’s hard for them to be “detail-oriented” about every patient’s condition. So it’s important that you know what questions to ask and not be satisfied until they give you an answer you are satisfied with. So, just waiting again. But I am glad hearing periodic reports from Josie that he is getting better.  I will be making the trek to the hospital later today.