Sigh! What a week!

Mom called Monday - dad was supposed to go to the hospital for his surgery (4th time this surgery was scheduled) to have the cancer removed from his neck.  Instead of that, he was taken by ambulance to the
ER for intense pain.  They admitted him and after being moved from room to room, he finally landed in CCU (ICU). The first two days they spend trying to get his heart rarte and blood pressure down enough they could treat him.  At one point they had 3 or 4 doctors and 8 or 9 nurses in his room with the crash cart. 
Very scarey stuff!  He had to be put on a ventilator, so he has tubes down his throat and the machine is breathing for him.  The danger is that he wont be able to breathe on his own when the time comes.  They turned it off for a bit this morning but he was struggling too hard to breathe so they turned it back on.
Overall the diagnosis is Pancretitus plus a whole bunch of complications including a heart rate over 150 and blood pressure skyrocketing from pain that was NOT responding to triple doses of super high powered pain killers (didn't know there was anything stronger than morphine!)

He was admitted to the hospital Monday, and to the CCU Monday night.  I took off Thursday and Friday and came down here after school on Wednesday - got in around 12:30.  I decided today to stay through the weekend (original plan was to come home Sunday) and come home Tuesday.  I figured mom would argue with me but she admitted she needed me.  Wow!  That's a first!

so here I am in the CCU waiting room... people came to visit and you can only have 2 people in the room at a time, so either I come out here and wait, or mom and her visitor have to come out here and visit.  I wanted mom to be able to be with dad so I am here.  This is not something I ever though of before, so maybe you haven't either... when you go to the ICU/CCU to visit someone, please be aware of the rules (only 2 in a room at a time).  If two people come to visit mom she had two choices, she can come out in the waiting room to visit - which means she leaves dad alone and he may wake up and be lucid during the time she is gone - she might miss an opportunity to tell him she is there and she loves him!  Her other option is to allow the two people to stay in the room and willfully break the rules.  While the nurses might not say anything, they DO notice. If it ticks them off that mom is ignoring the rules, it could affect (effect?  don't know too tired to care) the way that they treat dad.  In a life or death situation, which we are in right now, the nurses attitude toward the patient can make a HUGE difference.  So, if you come to visit someone in the hospital - especially if the patient is unconsious and you are visiting the spouse, please make note of the number of people allowed in the room and don't put the spouse in that difficult position of having to choose to stay in the room with her husband or go out in the waiting room with her visitors.  Not something I really thought about before, but I sure will now.
anyhow - sorry if this isn't well constructed folks, just trying to get some stuff out in the few minutes that I have.  I am really missing aron and the girls, and my friends (Brian!  I'm sorry about missing spades, partner!) but I do feel this is where I need to be.  There was a few moments yesterday and then again today when the sedative wore off and daddy was lucid and I KNOW that he knew I was there -- he nodded at me!  not much, but under the circumstances it was just awesome!  Well, I am going to go back in now.... thanks for all the prayers - please keep it up!!

~s~