Dad's Home!

They unplugged everything except for the kidney tubes, made him stay for 24 hours to make sure nothing failed then sent him home Thursday evening!  Ariel has been staying with him to make sure he's okay and to help him around the house.  His swelling was entirely gone, so he looks much better.  He was most excited about being able to roll over in bed because he's not plugged in everywhere.

He's expecting to go back to the hospital this week to get blood drawn.  If the renal values are low enough they'll schedule his CT scan.  I'm hoping everything goes smoothly!

Hospital Stay Overview

The first couple days in the hospital were the worst.  The doctors said because my dad's kidneys are not working properly, the waste that normally leaves in the urine was staying in his blood.  Those toxins in the blood were causing some confusion for him.  He was really out of it, so he didn't really understand what we told him.  When he thinks back on those first few days he's says it's really fuzzy.  Those toxins also cause muscle tremors and itchy skin (when the urea escapes the blood through the skin, it causes dry skin).  He also had trouble accepting the fact that he was seriously ill and needed to be in the hospital.  I think it was day 3 or 4 when he said, "I feel like I should be here."

The first week he had a catheter and was on IV fluids.  They gave him lots of pills to help with his high heart rate and malnutrition, occasionally for his high blood pressure.  They were hoping after his bladder was relieved, his kidneys would improve on their own.  Sadly, that was not the case and he started going in for dialysis every other day.  The doctors said there was still hope that his kidneys could recover, but the dialysis would speed up that process for him.  

On Tuesday, a week after he was admitted, he went in for the bladder scope.  The urologist was hoping to cauterize the bleeds and take a look around.  Unfortunately, when he was in there he found it wasn't a bunch of little bleeds in the bladder wall, so much as a large bleeding tumor.  He removed as much as he could, but after giving him 4 bags of blood decided to cauterize everything and back out. 

The plan is to do the CT scan and see how extensive the cancer is.  Hopefully it's only in his bladder and they can just take the dang thing out.  If they do that, they will most likely perform a bladder reconstruction out of his intestine.  

The doctor also found that the tumor was blocking his kidneys from emptying properly which explains why his kidney values weren't improving like they hoped.  A day or two after the cystoscopy he had a bilateral ureterostomy (tubes from his kidney through his skin).  So many tubes.  Getting out of the bed takes five minutes because of all the things that need to be unplugged or rearranged.

At the moment his is mostly unplugged.  The ureteral bypass tubes have to stay until the tumor is addressed.  Crossing my fingers that he can remain unplugged.

My Dad has Cancer

Somewhere back in January of this year (when we were visiting for Christmas), my dad started having some urinary tract symptoms.  I don't want to go into too much detail for his privacy, but I want to point out that this didn't exactly happen over night.  My dad was planning to come visit in Texas immediately after we left and bring back Callaway.  His symptoms prevented him from coming.  He said he was going to get better, then come down later.  

Weeks go by and I start urging him to go to the doctor.  He's always been healthy (as far as we can tell), so he has managed to avoid seeing a doctor for decades.  I'd bet he hasn't seen one since he and my mom were married (prior to 1996).  My dad's a "don't worry about it" kind of guy so I don't know the details on his health.  He lives alone, so I've kind of always worried something would happen to him at home and no one would know about it.  I always figured it would be a heart problem since those seem to run in his family.

About a month ago, his texting dwindled down to nothing.  He used to message me at least five times a day so when he stopped, I got suspicious.  The week of my wedding anniversary I called him to see how he was doing and he sounded horrible.  His voice was weak and he complained about being so tired that he had to sleep every afternoon.  There were several new symptoms, all of them worth a visit to the doctor.  He'd told me he'd been to the doctor a month prior.  Obviously, the medication wasn't working so I urged him to go again.  He seemed really out of it.  The next day, my sister called after having a similar phone conversation with him.  

In fear, I decided to go behind his back and call his good friends to see if they would go check on him.  When I talked with the wife, she admitted that he hadn't been out for Whiskey Wednesday with her husband in over a month.  They used to meet every Wednesday to try out fancy whiskeys at one of the bars in town.  My dad is the poster child for 'social butterfly', so this news scared me even more.  That night (Friday), she called me back to give me the update.

I was on the road to Austin to visit friends for the weekend.  She recounted her husband's visit and it was horrible.  She said my dad was pale and had no energy to stand.  He had told me he hasn't been eating much lately so I asked if he looked like he'd lost weight.  She said he was so swollen, she couldn't tell if he'd lost weight.  I called Ariel and that's when we decided to drive to Illinois (I looked into plane tickets, but the last-minute cost was outrageous.)  Unfortunately, I was almost to Austin by this point.  We opted to use the weekend to make arrangements for our jobs and my family, then leave first thing Monday morning.

We got a late start on Monday, so we didn't get in until 4 am Tuesday.  We didn't tell our dad we were coming and went straight to our mom's.  In the morning, we went to the store and bought some easy to prepare foods and drinks, then headed over to his job site.  We didn't know where he was, so we were discussing which way to go in when we heard a weak, "You're not supposed to be here..."  It took me a moment to find where my dad was sitting.  He was slumped on a bench between two trees not moving at all.  He looked horrible.  Exactly as his friend has described.

He asked what we were doing there and we told him it was a Father's Day surprise.  We know how much he has fought going to the doctor so we didn't want to scare him away immediately.  But then he said he felt bad because he didn't have the energy to do the fun stuff we probably wanted to do.  I told him we just wanted to go to his house and make him lunch.  He immediately refused and said he'd rather go out for pizza.  At this point, I knew he was avoiding us going to his house.  Our college-aged brother had gone by to bring him food a couple weeks prior and said our dad had apologized constantly about the smell and mess.  He hadn't had the energy to clean the house and Callaway was having accidents inside.  

It took some coaxing, but we convinced him to let us come over.  Ariel drove his car and I played chauffeur.  The house was dusty, but I didn't notice any odor.  Alex had come over the weekend before to take Callaway for him.  He must have cleaned up that mess.  The one thing I did notice is how hot it was.  He complained about being so cold all the time.  

Dad obviously did not want us in the house, so he announced we were going to the pool.  He was in no state to walk anywhere.  To appease him I said, "Sure, go get changed."  It took him HALF AN HOUR to change clothes.  He was wiped out so I told him to go take a nap.  While he was sleeping we cleaned his house and did some laundry.  When he woke up I listed off all his symptoms together and explained he was going to the doctor and we weren't leaving until he did.  Hoping he would take the bait, I gave him three options: his previous doctor, urgent care or the ER.  He said he didn't like his doctor, "so I guess take me to urgent care."  It was weak annoyance on his part.  He honestly didn't have the energy to fight us.

The urgent care doctor took a blood and urine sample and said he had a mass in his abdomen.  Go to the ER immediately.

We hobbled back to the car and headed to the ER (where I wanted to go from the start).  They brought him in back immediately.  I am seriously impressed with the efficiency, cleanliness and friendliness of that hospital and all it's employees when compared to ours in Texas.  No wonder it's a Magnet hospital.

The doctors announced the mass was his entirely-too-full bladder.  Something was blocking the proper flow of things and it caused renal failure.  His kidney values were through the roof.  They worked their magic to relieve his immediate discomfort and admitted him that night.  We were back at my mom's by midnight.  

A week after he was admitted, the doctor was finally able to do a cystoscopy and found a large tumor in his bladder.  He removed two thirds of what he could see.  The pathology report stated it was malignant bladder cancer.  The next step is to do a CT scan to determine the extent of the tumor.  They use iodine (a dye) in that procedure, but it is renal toxic.  After his kidneys recover, they will do the scan.

Ariel and I spent as much of our time as possible in the hospital with him for two weeks.  I needed to come home to attend to my family and get back to work, but Ariel chose to put her job on hold and stay with our dad.  I'm going to try to get back on here and give some more details about what happened during those two weeks soon.

Another Hospital Visit

Thankfully this trip was not for Mila.  This time it was for Ariel.  You know how more often than not, men refuse to go to the doctor for one reason or another?  Ya, well Ariel is the same way.  She only goes if her life is threatened.  The last time I took her to the ER it was because she stepped on a rusty nail on the beach.  Two days later, her foot was red and swollen to the size of a softball.  This trip was for something much more tricky. 

A week ago on Saturday she had some sort of an episode.  When she first told me about it, she said she'd had a seizure.  But after she described it to me, it sounded more akin to a stroke.  She said her left arm curled in and her face drooped on one side, complete with drooling.  But then she said it lasted for 30 minutes, then went away.  It happened again, daily, for four days.  Then Friday rolls around and she has three episodes in one day.  It was affecting her ability to do her job because she couldn't work during the episode and afterwards, her hands are immobile. 

My entire family, and Robert, spent the entire week trying to convince her to see a doctor.  Last weekend she said she'd go on Monday.  Monday evening rolls around and she promises to get in by Thursday.  FINALLY, on Friday afternoon, she caved and had Robert take her to the ER.  Robert had to go in to open the bar for Ariel before he left for his new job at a steakhouse on the island, so he left.  After work that day, I ran the kids home to Travis and then headed back to the hospital to sit with Ariel.  I brought her food, since by that point, she'd been waiting for her turn for over 4 hours. 

While she was in the waiting room, after Robert had left and before I had arrived, she had another episode.  The nurses thought she was hyperventilating (she has labored breathing during the event), so they gave her a Xanax.  When I got there, her thumb on her left hand was immobilized.  I gave it a wiggle and it was trying to break a branch of a tree.  Stiff as a board.  So strange.  I was finally able to hear all her symptoms in person. 

Turns out, it's basically a Charlie horse in her hands, arms, shoulders, neck and lower face.  She said the pain is excruciating and it makes her groan uncontrollably.  She can't talk very well during, because her lips are affected, but she is fully conscious and aware during the entire thing.  She can still walk, but she usually ends up curled in a ball from the pain.  Afterward, she said it feels like she just ran a marathon with her upper body.  She is sore and exhausted.  It takes longer for her hands to uncramp for some reason, but they always loosen up eventually.

The ER doctor, RN and PA were all baffled.  They called her the mystery girl.  The doctor asked Ariel if she uses her hands very much.  Ummmmm.  Just curious doctor, do you eat with your hands?  Open doors with your hands?  Wipe your ass with your hands??  I'm pretty sure my sister does too.  And that's just the basics.  Because they have to document some sort of diagnosis, the doctor put it down as carpal spasms.  HA.  When the nurse told us that, I laughed so hard.  I looked at Ariel and said, "You're having carpal spasms of the FACE!"  The doctor told her to do HAND STRETCHES.  Because that'll fix everything.  Ugh.  The best thing he did was refer Ariel to a neurologist.  That clinic was suppose to call her yesterday to schedule an appointment (I haven't talked to her to see if they called).  I hope to god Ariel actually gets her butt in gear and makes it to that visit.  I don't know what's wrong with her, but the problem needs to be addressed by a professional.

Oh!  Forgot to mention, the nurse gave Ariel an entire Xanax pill.  She was so loopy by the time we left that hospital, giggling at silly things.  Robert was working late and Ariel had left her purse in the truck, so she didn't have her keys to the house.  So, I brought her home with me.  I think we got home at about 10 PM.  It was probably for the best because she kept feeling like she should go into work.  That girl's guilt about missing ONE night of work is outrageous.  I can't imagine Ariel sitting in a bar with a bunch of drunk people while she's all looped out on Xanax.

Looooong Weekend

I am EXHAUSTED.  Mila was released from the hospital yesterday at 5 pm.  She never developed more than a fever and a booger nose.  She was really tired on Saturday, but I'm sure that's because they kept her up so late with the poking and prodding.  Her doctor was an infectious disease doctor, which turned out to be a godsend.  He didn't freak out about her fever and immediately do a lumbar puncture.  Apparently that's standard procedure when babies under two months have a fever.  Because she was exhibiting cold symptoms (she also had a slight cough) and her brother had the exact same thing at home, he didn't jump the gun.  I am very thankful.  She was poked enough (blood draw and a catheter to get urine).  No need to get her in the back as well!

I stayed at the hospital all day Saturday.  Travis came back up late that afternoon to trade me places.  I went home for a much needed shower, ate dinner and went straight to bed.  We postponed my birthday party that was originally planned for Saturday night.  For dinner we ate leftovers from the dinner my mom made for my birthday on Friday, since I didn't get any - fish tacos.  Aiden woke up once in the middle of the night.  I heard his door open so I went to see what he was doing.  When I asked what he was doing, he said Phage pooped in his room.  I didn't see or smell anything, so I asked him where.  He pointed to a few spots by the door.  I picked them up with a tissue and realized it was vomit, not poo.  When I went to flush it in the toilet, I found a giant clump of cat vomit wrapped in toilet paper already in the toilet.  Aiden had cleaned up Phage's mess.  Aiden likes to help, but sometimes I think he tackles tasks bigger than he's capable of doing.

Travis said Saturday night was fairly uneventful - just the regular vitals checks from the RN.  Her last recorded fever was Saturday afternoon.  I fed Aiden breakfast and headed up to trade spots with Travis.  I was hoping he'd go home and rest, but he chose to clean the house instead.  Someday this refusal to rest is going to catch up with him.  I spent Sunday afternoon with Mila just watching TV and playing around on Pinterest and Facebook (all accessible on my phone).  I was ecstatic when they finally let us leave at 5. 

For dinner, my mom and Travis made broccoli-cheese soup with bread.  We have a lot of food from the cancelled party we need to eat.  We'll save the canned and boxed foods, but the perishables won't last until we can reschedule.

Last night was miserable.  Mila's nose was completely stopped up last night . She won't drink more than an ounce or two of formula before she gets too angry about not being able to breathe.  Since Travis had horrible sleep at the hospital Saturday night, I stayed up with her last night.  She was awake off and on until midnight.  She had horrible gurgling out the nose until that point.  When she woke this morning she seemed to be able to breathe better.  Not perfect, but MUCH better than last night.

The daycare won't use the booger bulb.  I'm really bummed because I know that means she will have a really hard time eating today.  I asked if they had any other kids sick last week and they said there were a few that went home in Aiden's class.  Bummer.  Hopefully we've seen the worst of it.  I need some sleep.