Daddy had a pretty tough day. They put a perma cath in for his dialysis this morning and then took him to the cancer clinic to insert the chest tube to try and get some of that fluid off his lungs that dialysis isn't pulling off. They brought him back and said they couldn't do it because there were too many small pockets of fluid and it wouldn't do any good because the tube would only draw fluid from the point of insertion. The dr. explained to us that the fluid is a jello consistency. I kind of pictured it like if you put a straw in jello, the only portion that would be drawn out is where the straw went in. Anyway, needless to say we were pretty devastated. The transporter who brought him back to the room said that the dr. has another plan but when I left around 5:00 we had not seen him so don't know yet what that plan is. They did manage to dialyze the sweet thing for four hours this afternoon and he slept and rested better than he has since being in the hospital. He is worn slap out. Buddy just called and said he was able to eat a few bites of his dinner, which is a huge praise, because he has eaten little of nothing since last Friday. For those of you who may read this, please continue to keep him in your prayers, as well as my mama. She is holding up, but I can tell it is taking a toll on her. She has been a champ!!!

Lamentations 3:22-25 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.

Whirlwind Week

Wow! What a week it has been! Daddy was admitted to the hospital on Friday, February 27 with congestive heart failure. His lungs were filled up with fluid and he was having trouble breathing, so they admitted him on sixth floor. They ran all sorts of tests and put him through the ringer, so to speak! The plan was to do a procedure (don't know the medical name), but they would go down his throat with a light and look behind his heart to see if there were any bloodclots or blockages so that they could shock him and get his heart rate back to as normal as possible for an 81 year old man with a defribrilator. In the meantime, they did a scan of his lungs and veins and arteries and found there were several blood clots in his legs and lungs. Needless to say, they were more worried about that than his heart at this point. On Monday, his dr. decided that he needed to go on dialysis, since his kidneys were shutting down and his heart wasn't working properly, therefore, not emptying the fluid in his lungs. So, the plan was to put a temporary dialysis shunt in his neck, and then to do the original EKG scope thing down his throat and then to do the shock. The temporary shunt insertion went without any problems. When they finished there, they took him to the heart clinic to do the heart thing, and he had a reaction to the anesthesia and they had to reverse that to bring him back around. They immediately took him to dialyze and before they even got him hooked up to the machine, his blood pressure bottomed out, so he ended up in ICU. (They did finally insert a filter in his groin area to catch the bloodclots before making it to his heart on Wednesday. They also said, that sometime, they can't exactly pinpoint when it was, that he has had a mild heart attack.) From there we have been on a major roller coaster ride, thinking one day, this would be his last day on earth, to seeing him bright eyed and actually responding to us. Today, is one of those days we are climbing up that steep, steep hill. We are truly encouraged by his drs. that he is making progress, however small the steps may be. He just got back from having a permanent dialysis shunt put in and then they will do dialysis to see if they can pull some more of that thick fluid off of his lungs. Next, they will insert the tube into his chest wall to try to pull more of that fluid off, if the dialysis doesn't seem to be pulling it off. I just pray today that all that thick fluid will become more liquid so he won't have to go through another invasive procedure. He is really worn out.