Engleberts in Missouri [miz-er-ree]

My dad had more fluid drawn off his left lung today. He says he’s feeling better after all that fluid from yesterday and today was removed. Still in the ICU though. And still on oxygen.

My mother is exhausted. 10 days now and no end in sight. Today she asked if I could come down. So, I have a ticket and will be flying down Sunday morning.

My brother John called this afternoon to confirm my trip details. He’ll be picking me up at the airport on Sunday. He had some wonderful news to share. He and Crystal have been trying to get preggo (iloverabbits iloverabbits) ever since they got married. It’s been a difficult and disappointing year and a half for them but now they are expecting a baby! It’s early days yet so I don’t know the exact due date but I should have a new niece or nephew in November.

I’m having trouble writing about anything except my dad. It’s not like there aren’t good things going on around here. Still, the only thing I can think about lately is my dad.

How is he this morning? Any improvement this afternoon? I obsessively wait for my mom’s phone call and when she doesn’t call as soon as I’d like I call the ICU desk to get an update on his condition. I’m constantly thinking about whether I should be flying down there right. this. minute.

I really don’t want to see my dad in the hospital. I’m sure he’s quite a sight right now. I try not to imagine all of the bandages on his head, tubes in his chest, machines and wires and gizmos attached to him. I want to see him and reassure myself that all this medical drama is not so bad but I’d rather fly down there when he gets home and is feeling better so we can talk and laugh and do stupid computer stuff.

I spend a lot of time on the internet looking up his symptoms and procedures. Then worrying about them obsessively and calling my sister Wanda who is doing the same thing. We share our internet finds and then discuss in detail exactly what they might mean. Today is Day 9 in the ICU and there are still problems. This morning the doctors removed 760 cc of fluid from his right lung. I googled all kinds of combinations of words regarding fluid and lungs, trying to figure out exactly how bad that is. Now I’m trying to convince myself that he doesn’t have congestive heart failure. Even though I know his heart is damaged from the 2 heart attacks.

It also doesn’t help that the last 2 episodes of House (my favorite show) have featured problems my dad has experienced. On Sunday night, the gal had a collapsed lung and nearly died. Last night, the girl’s blood oxygen levels dropped to 85 and everyone went into a controlled panic as she struggled to breathe. 85 - meh. That’s nothing. My dad’s dropped to 73 just the other day.

My mom has stopped telling me that he’s doing really good - I’m not sure if that’s in response to me or whether it’s because she’s realized that he’s really not doing good. Today my dad sent me a message to stop obsessing and to “get off the flipping internet!”

So in an effort to not write about my dad today, I scoured my brain for happy news. And realized that I never even mentioned Violet’s birthday the other day and didn’t share any of her pictures. So…Violet’s 10. Here’s her pictures. (how’s that for happy and chipper ?)

Another call - another set back. My dad’s left lung collapsed this morning. Fluid on and in the lung. A pleural effusion which is often caused by artery bypass surgeries. The doctors will go in and drain the fluid and then reinflate his lung.

I talked to my dad this morning. I haven’t been able to talk to him since his first surgery on Tuesday because he’s been in ICU and they don’t allow cell phones in there. He’s still in ICU but they let him use a cell phone this morning to talk to each of us kids before they do the chest-tube-procedure-thingy. What does that mean? My mom says the nurses felt sad for him that most of us kids are far away and worrying and just bent the rules. But I can hear the worry in her voice.

My dad is upbeat and optimistic. Eager to get all this over with and get back home. He really does sound real good, except, you know for the shortness of breath thing.

Please say a prayer for my dad. I’ll be doing the same with some begging/bartering thrown in - I’m not ready for any other result than my dad getting well and coming home.

Update: They’ve put a tube in my dad’s chest and are pumping off the fluid around his lung. They’ve removed fluid from his lung - turned out to be jelly-like consistency and they don’t know what that’s all about. It’s been sent off for testing. Lung is reinflated and he is taking oxygen but breathing on his own.

My dad is on his 5th day in ICU. Every day my mother calls me to let me know how my dad is doing. Every day she tells me how good he looks, how he’s feeling really good, and how he’s doing really well. Then every other day she throws in something new.

Thursday afternoon, they took him back into surgery to fix some leaky vessels. Turns out they couldn’t actually find what was leaking so they just glued up everything they had cut. And, viola, no more leaking out the tube. Turns out that they probably just diverted the flow of whatever was leaking.

Today’s call went something like this…”Dad’s still in the ICU. He’s doing really well. He looks good. He’s feeling really good except he’s having trouble breathing. It’s his lungs. The left one is filling up with fluid.”

His doctors don’t know exactly why this is happening - obviously something’s leaking, hmmm, wonder if that’s where the leak disappeared to? They tried to draw off some of the liquid with a needle but couldn’t because it is so thick. So, they will xray his lungs every few hours throughout the night and make a decision about what the next procedure will be in the morning after they see how he’s doing. Cause, you know, it might clear up on it’s own. But other than that he’s doing really well.

My mom tells me not to worry…he’s doing really well. He’s got his own nurse to watch over him and about a gazillion doctors taking care of him. Seriously. Today I was trying to count them all up. Everytime something goes wrong they add a new doctor. He’s got his regular physician, a cardiologist (heart), a neurologist (brain), a vascular specialist (circulatory system), a pulmonary dude (lungs), a nephrologist (kidneys), and a urologist (bladder). Not to mention he’s on really friendly terms with his anesthesiologists (2 of them!) and the doctor who puts the wires on his brain. I don’t know what his title is.

Today he got an internist. My dad thought he said he was an intern and wasn’t real impressed. My mom said she thought he said “I’m just here to watch and make ridiculous diagnoses. That’ll be another couple hundred bucks. Cha Ching!”

Apparently internists are known as the “doctor’s doctor,” because they are often called in to act as consultants to other physicians to help solve puzzling diagnostic problems. After about a 5 minute visit, the internist told my mom that he thought my dad was suffering from mild dementia because dad failed to mention the 2 heart attacks while reciting the mile-long list of crap that has gone wrong with him in the last few weeks.

Yes, dementia. That causes fluid in the lungs right? I think it might be time to call in Dr. House.

My mom called - my dad’s bypass surgery went well. He is out of the operating room and in the ICU but doing well. My mom should be able to see him and talk to him in about an hour. I can breathe again.