Thank You’s and Ramblings

Thank you all SOOOO MUCH! It makes me feel better for him as well and maybe even better for myself to know that this is not unheard of.

I had thought that I had been dealing with all of this rather well until yesterday. I don’t think I have ever cried so hard.

A little back ground on my father, in 35 years I have never seen him sick (other than the occasional cold or hangover). I always knew he had dentures and he has had them since he got back from Vietnam (which I was born right after his return) however I have never seen him without them, even to brush them(again this really bothered me, I know it sounds silly but he as always been very anal about people seeing him without his dentures), he is retired Army,57 and has lived in Pennsylvania for the last 21 years. I have lived in Colorado for the last 10 years. My parents decided to move out here to be closer to me as well as my brother who is in California and intends to move back to Colorado in the next few years. Anyway, my parents had been here 2 weeks (their house is not even unpacked) before this happened. On the 8/25 I had them over for dinner and he said that his feet and legs felt like they were asleep, he ended up falling twice that night. I made him go to the ER and they treated him for altitude sickness and told him to go home and rest and remember to drink plenty of fluids( so now the joke is my cookin sent him to the hospital! I’m a good cook, really I am). On 8/27 my mother called me at 5:30 AM and told me that he had gotten up to go to the bathroom and fallen again and she was not able to get him up. When I got to the house they had managed to get him back to his bed, at this point he had very little strength in his legs however his upper body strength was still good. I informed him that he would be going to the ER again and this time it would not be at a military hospital and he had 2 choices he could help me get him to the car or I would call an ambulance. With that threat he decided to help me get him to the car (it only took a little over 2 hours). He was told within 20 min of getting to the hospital what they “thought” he had, this was after he was tested for West Nile Virus as well Spinal Meningitis and they were ruled out. He was admitted to the ICU right away and was there for 1 day then they moved him to another floor and started the IVIG which did not work and made him very sick. The paralysis moved into his face 3 days later he started the plasmapheresis and with this, his blood pressure dropped to 46 over 23 so he was moved back to ICU. Once stabilized (24 hours later) they moved him yet again to another floor where he finished his next 4 plasmapheresis treatments. 2 days after that he seemed to be doing well so he was OK’ ed to go to the rehab floor so yet another room change. He has been on the rehab unit since Wednesday and starting Thursday he has lost all upper body strength and has no control over anything anymore. They have started doing ultrasounds to ensure that he is able to relive himself (he often thinks he needs to go and nothing happens) and as I said in my first post on this thread the hallucinations started with dreams and in the last 48 hours full blown hallucinations while awake. They are starting his second round of plasmapheresis today and this time who knows how many treatments he will be given. The last was 5 days.

Anyway again THANK YOU ALL for the info. It has made me feel much better. I know he will recover and is not as bad off as some in the hospital. But it is still killing me to know that the strongest man I have ever known is not able to do anything for himself (yes I am a daddy’s girl! Is it obvious?:cool: ). I am sorry for going on and on however it’s made me feel better! Given me the strength to get through another day of being strong for my mother.

THANK YOU
Donna C