I got another abrupt reminder r.e. the mortality of my parents this past weekend and have decided the whole “circle of life” system is just plain flawed. The greatest feature of our humanity is supposed to be the capacity to love, yet this also opens us up to the greatest amount of pain. Who the hell designed that little dynamic?!
Anyway, my spry, still-working and some say ornery dad's in the hospital with suspected congestive heart failure...well, I think they know he has that, but then they're also going to do some more tests today to see if there are any blockages. My mom called an ambulance early last Thurs. morning because he was having shortness of breath and pain when inhaling. This is not the first “I just called an ambulance for your dad” phone call I’ve gotten, but it never fails to send me into cardiac arrest myself.
The doctor thought maybe it was a blood clot in his lung, but then ruled that out and sent him home on Saturday. Then Saturday evening he started feeling worse again and by the time the ambulance got there, he was doubled over and could barely breath.
He said later that he thought he was going to die on the way, he was fighting for every breath. I guess his body couldn't handle all the excess fluids they pumped into him to protect his kidneys from the dye they had to use for the tests. So basically, he almost drowned. He has occasional heart beat irregularity, which I forgot the name of -- afib or defib or something, and he flipped into that, probably on Saturday, which normally isn't too big a deal, but it made it harder for his body to pump out the fluids. So they pumped him up with diuretics and gave him breathing treatments, which helped. He was in the ER 'til about midnight, then they finally got him a room.
We stayed 'til he was settled, and by then he was feeling much better. Yesterday he was better still, and today they're doing an echocardiogram and probably an angiogram. Hopefully he won't have to have bypass surgery. Lenore and I hung out w/him all afternoon yesterday, and while I appreciate the quality time, I would definitely prefer a better situation!
Speaking of hospitals, it amazes me how utterly retarded and inefficient the medical system is when it comes to caring for sick people.
No comments:
Post a Comment