Bad news; Good news

It seems there is never a dull moment with the Smith family lately. As I told you in my last posting, Danny went to stay with Mom and Dad Sunday and I headed home. Just before I left, Mom called Danny and me into their bathroom and showed us that Dad had passed a good bit of blood. She was obviously concerned, but we all decided not to panic but keep a close eye on him. Around 1:10 a.m. Dad woke Mom up and had another "episode" with blood in the toilet (hope this is not too much information!). Mom tried to get Dad to let her call 911 then, but he vehemently refused. The bad news...Monday morning Dad woke with blood in the bed and then conceded to allow Mom to call an ambulance. It was such a blessing that Danny was there to comfort Mom and be an extra set of hands in getting Dad cleaned up and giving Mom time to get dressed. Danny and Mom followed the ambulance to Burnet's Seton Hospital. As soon as I heard that they were taking him to the hospital, I got dressed and drove to Burnet. Dad was in one of the ER rooms when I arrived. The Burnet Hospital does not have a gastroenterologist on staff, so they had to transfer Dad to Seton Williamson in Round Rock. They could not take him to an Austin Seton because they have to transfer to the nearest facility in the Seton family. Danny followed the ambulance to Round Rock and got Dad admitted and Mom and I went back to Marble Falls in my car.

Mom was scheduled at 2:00 for her follow-up appointment with her eye surgeon in Marble Falls. Gratefully, her eye was healing remarkably well and the doctor told her to go back to her normal activities and just finish out the 3 different drops she was using in her eye. Mom was giddy that she didn't have to be worry about stooping and bending any more! She'll need a new prescription for her glasses in about a month, but that's about it! She was so relieved to have that behind her! As soon as we left the eye doctor's office, we went back to their house, packed a suitcase for her, and she followed me in her car to the Round Rock Seton Hospital. I didn't think she would need her car, but I knew there was no point in arguing with her about it!!

We arrived at RR Seton about 5:00. Dad was settled in a room and was already hooked up to IV fluids. That night we were visited by an Internal Medicine specialist. He had already discontinued Dad's Coumadin and Aspirin (both are blood thinners) and ordered Dad to receive plasma so that the effects of the Coumadin would move out of his bloodstream quicker. In doing so, hopefully slowing down and, better yet, stopping the bleeding. At this point, Dad had not eaten since Sunday evening about 6:00. The doctor felt badly, but told Dad that he still could not have anything to eat or drink, but that he could have ice chips. That did not appease my Daddy one bit, but he didn't complain too loudly. But, oh those looks he gave us and the doctor!

Danny headed home about 4:00. Glenda came to see Dad and Mom as soon as she finished work. We are now familiar with the gathering of the troops! I would like to interject that I am self-employed, while Jean works part-time and Glenda and Danny work full-time. So, I am more available to help with Mom and Dad than the rest. Since we has all been at the hospital, Jean decided to wait until Tuesday to visit. She was also in the midst of getting ready for our whole family to converge at her house for Thanksgiving Day! Around 8:00, I decided to head for home. I had no doubt that Mom would want to spend the night at the hospital. There was no sense in trying to talk her out of it, and I really didn't even try. She would not sleep well anywhere else and she is happiest being with him. Dad did make a futile attempt to get her to go home with me, but she wouldn't consider it.

They had an okay night, sleeping a couple of hours at a time as the nurses checked Dad's vital signs and started the plasma. He received two rounds of plasma during the night. By Tuesday morning the bleeding had stopped, praise God. I arrived early so that I could hear what the doctor had to say when he made his morning rounds. Mom has just gotten up and I witnessed the intimacy of her loving care of Dad. Before she did anything for herself, she got a warm wash cloth and ever so gently and lovingly washed and then dried Dad's face, hands and feet. It wasn't a chore to Mom...it was as if it was a privilege. I believe, to her, it was. I cannot describe how priceless it was to see this. The doctor came in mid-morning and was pleased that the bleeding had stopped and said that the gastroenterologist was going to do a colonoscopy on Wednesday to see if they could determine the origin of the bleeding. He did at least allow Dad to have clear liquids until it was time to do the colonoscopy prep.
Around noon, Mom and I left to get some lunch and, when we got back, Jean and Danny were both there! By mid-afternoon, we all left so that Mom and Dad would both nap. Also, we didn't need to be there while Dad did his prep.

The prep kept Mom, Dad and the nurses busy until about midnight. Needless to say, they didn't have a good nice's rest Tuesday night either. On Wednesday, since no one could tell us what time they would do the test, I arrived at the hospital at 7:45 because I was hoping ask the doctor some questions prior to the test. I also wanted to be sure someone was with Mom while Dad had the colonoscopy and then hear what the doctor had to say afterwards. It's a good thing I got there early because they came to get Dad right at 8:00! Mom hadn't been up but a few minutes when the nurse alerted her that they were on their way up to get Daddy! Bless her heart, she dressed in record time!

The staff in the GI department did a great job of explaining the procedure to us. First they did an endoscopy (placed a probe down Dad's throat and looked at his stomach to check for bleeding ulcers). Then, they did the colonoscopy. The test took about 40 minutes. The doctor found no lesions in Dad's stomach, but did find one polyp in his colon that he believed was the origin of the bleeding. He said that, every time a stool passed by the polyp (sorry, again, too much information?!), that it would get irritated and bleed. It happened for a long enough period of time that it finally bled a lot. He biopsied the polyp and clipped it off. That darn polyp won't cause any more trouble...that's the good news!!! It will take 3-5 days to get back the results of the biopsy. Once he got back to his hospital room, Dad received one last unit of plasma and the doctor signed orders allowing him to have a soft diet. As soon as Dad was totally awake from the sedation, we ordered just about one of each item on the soft foods menu! The doctors also gave Dad the good news that, as long as his blood count stays good, he would be discharged tomorrow! That means that our family will be blessed to have both him and Mom at our Thanksgiving Day family prayer and meal! I made a plea to the doctor to come in early tomorrow and get the discharge papers done so that Mom and Dad would be ready to leave the hospital by 10:30. He said Dad would be the first patient he checked when he started rounds in the morning! HOORAY!!!

Mom and I had a late lunch and I decided to leave the hospital around 4:00 so they could have a nice, quiet evening. I'm betting that they go to bed pretty early tonight! Since Mom is not familiar with the area around Seton Williamson, Danny and Lisa are going to go by there in the morning so that Mom and Dad can follow them to Jean and Jimmies for our family's gathering. I can well imagine that they will eat lunch with all of us, visit a little while and head home to their comfy chairs! Their bed is sure going to feel good to them tomorrow night also! I won't go back out there until one day next week. I think they'll relish having the house to themselves and for their lives to get back to "normal"!

We have already had so many blessings for which to sing praises to God, and now, we have even more! Mom's eye is healing beautifully and Dad is back to status quo!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah! He has blessed us in the Messiah with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm... (AMEN!!!)
Ephesians 1:3

From our family to yours,
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!