Monday night, my dad woke up with terrible pain in his ankle and foot. My mom saw him jump out of bed (which is very bad with his BP) so she followed him towards the bathroom. He was extremely wobbly, so she put her arm around his waist from the back. When he got into the bathroom, he collapsed and she couldn't do anything to break his fall. Andrew and Shane (in my family list as the Beer Guy) went running and immediately started first aid. I heard the crash and went flying upstairs to see what was going on. My dad had lost consciousness and Andrew and Shane were trying to bring him out of it. At first we thought it was his sugar, so Mom checked that, but it was fine.
Andrew checked my Dad's pulse, and Shane checked his eyes and kept talking to him to get him to respond. Once he regained consciousness, Shane and Andrew tried to get him to stand up, but he couldn't. So I called 911, in a panic, and waited outside for the police and ambulance. I sent the first cop and medic in, and waited outside for the second ambulance. The first one was an SUV that wouldn't be able to transport him. I stayed out of the way outside, making phone calls.
When I went back into the house, they had put my dad on the heart/bp monitor, and had already put an IV in his arm. He was starting to talk a bit, but was still out of it. They bundled him up and rushed him to the hospital.
I'll try to make this a little shorter, because I can tell right now I could type all day. In the ER, they checked him for seizures, did a sonogram on his leg to see if it was a blood clot, and monitored his BP/heart rate. His blood pressure was extremely low, and his pulse waivered between 40 and 55. They ran two ekg's to check for a heart attack. After 2 hours of waiting, they came in and told my dad they think he had a heart attack. Weird thing is, he had no chest pain, pressure, or numbness like he did when he had his heart attack in '93. Within 15 minutes of hearing this, he started having chest pain/pressure, so they gave him an aspirin. The pressure eased up shortly. I think he was having an anxious episode from the news.
After 5 hours of waiting and worrying, they finally found him a bed in the CCU. They said the best thing would be to wait for his heart doctor to get there. 5 hours! His heart doc came in, checked all the labs and tests, and said he didn't have a heart attack. They put him on (pardon my spelling) Heprin, Dopamine, Potassium, Sodium Chloride, sugar water, and something to bring up his blood pressure. By that time, his BP was 87/40 and his pulse was 45. Very low! They put him on a liquid diet so his heart wouldn't have to work hard to digest his food. He wasn't allowed to get out of bed for any reason, and the pain in his leg had traveled to his knee. The nurse said the worst thing to do would be to rub his leg because they weren't sure if it was a blood clot or not. So she set his bed so that he could push his foot against the footboard to relieve the pain a bit.
The whole family stayed there from the time he went in until last night. Joey called off of work on Tuesday to come up and sit with us. He was a huge help, trying to cheer us up, keeping me strong when I would start to lose it, running here and there if we needed anything. Thank you, Honey. I would have lost my mind without you.
Last night, they took my dad off of everything but the heprin and gave him "real" food. He was much stronger and his bp was staying around 110/65 with a pulse of 60.
Today I'm babysitting my sister's 3 boys while she's at work. My mom usually does this, but she couldn't take them with her to the hospital. Let's just say, we would be kicked out in 10 minutes if we took them there. She just called to tell me they are x-raying his knee AGAIN, and doing a stress test tomorrow. My dad is going stir crazy.
This whole experience has been a nightmare for my dad. If you are the praying type, all prayers are welcome and needed. I will be on and off all day until my sister comes to get her kids tonight. Then if she gets here on time, I'm heading to the hospital. I'm sorry this is so long. My brain is too asleep to edit it. I've gotten about 8 hours of sleep in the past 3 days and there's no way I can close even one eye with these kids here.
I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with everyone. I'll do my best once my dad is doing better. Thank you in advance for your prayers and support. My dad's name is Carl.
As always, I love you guys!
Laurie
