Couple of Rough Days
My Dad's taking a long road to recovery this time. The day after his last surgery, he was up and walking all on his own. This time, he didn't get out of bed for two days. Then, he spent two days in a delirious state.
It was bad. He was seeing things, fighting us to get out of the bed and thought he was back in his hometown, or his backyard or Tempe...the answer always varied when we asked "Do you know where you are?" but it was never "The hospital."
The pumped a lot of drugs in him to calm him down but it didn't seem to help. He would sleep for a few minutes then start struggling again. They have someone sitting in the room 24-7 with him to make sure he doesn't hurt himself.
They're not sure why he freaked out. Could be meds, could be 'hospital syndrome' (where people just go nuts from staring at the same walls), could have been a stroke. They did a CAT scan, MRI and EEG so the head damage can be ruled out (and it was). They're weening him off of all the meds except his antibiotics but told us it could be several days before he comes out of it. And, it may take going home to make him completely better.
Today, he is MUCH improved, thank God. No restraints and he's resting more comfortably. He recognized my Uncle which he couldn't do yesterday. They took out his stomach pump tube so he's not fussing with that. Even better news, he's passing gas which means his intestinal tract is starting to work again. In the drama of the delirium, the colon recovery was sort of forgotten.
Being the control freak that I am, this has not been easy. Sugar Daddy gave me a lecture, the gist of which was "Let go, let God." Though, in this case, it was more like let the Docs instead of God. He had a valid point in that pretty much I'm not adding any value unless my presence is comforting Shorty or my family because the medical folks are doing everything they can. And, I really believe they are. They were mightily concerned when Shorty started to hallucinate and it seemed like he had half of the floor staff checking on him most of the time.
I stopped in to see him at lunch and he was 80% more peaceful than he was on Wednesday. He may have recognized me but it was hard to tell. He's sort of sleeping with his eyes open so you can't really tell if he's awake for sure and he's talking a lot in his sleep still.
The Physical Therapy people are supposed to get him up and moving a bit today. Next step, I guess, is to get him alert enough to start taking liquids. The sooner we get food successfully through his system, the sooner he can go home.
