Sleeping in Hospital Waiting Rooms

Life has been one large roller coaster ride lately. Within the month of April, I have spent more time in a hospital than I ever want to (over 70 hours). Here’s how the story goes:

April 1: My baby niece is born. I already wrote a post on this, but it was a whole day spent in the hospital nonetheless.

April 11: Around 3 am, my dad wakes up with extreme pain in his kidneys. My mom takes him to the emergency room where they wait for several hours before being seen by a doctor. I spend the night awake by the phone, waiting for her to call with details. After he is seen by the doctor, she calls to tell me that he has kidneystones and after they picked up his medicine they would be home.

April 12: Dad still in extreme pain from the stones. The vicodin is no longer working for his pain.

April 13: Still in pain. Enduring it. Doctor said to wait and come back in on Monday if things weren’t better.

April 14: Sunday, more pain. Poor dad can’t take much more.

April 15: Monday. We encourage him to go back to the doctor. He wants to wait one more day. We give in.

April 16: 2pm He can’t take it anymore. Mom takes him to the hospital near our house.

5 pm I get a call from mom saying that the kidneystones have lodged in his kidney and they are blocking his kindeys from working…they are failing fast. The hospital doesn’t have a urologist who can take a look at him, so they are going to transport him to the nearest hospital, covered by our insurance, that has a urologist: 45 minutes away. They load him up in an ambulance, hit the lights, and take him away. I find a ride home from work, change, grab dinner, and wait for my mom. Mom comes home, we leave.

7 pm Arrive at the hospital. Dad is back in the emergency room, awaiting the urologist. My mom goes back to be with him (only one person allowed at a time). My sister Erin and I settle down in the emergency room.

9pm Mom comes out and gives us the word: Dad’s kidney should be performing at a 9 (some number they assign your kidneys based on their performance) but his is a 1 and is dropping fast. They need to do surgery, but have to wait for the doctor and some other bloodwork to come back, which shouldn’t be till the next day.

11pm We leave to go home and a few hours of sleep before the doctor checks him out the next morning.

April 17: 10 am We arrive at the hospital. Doctor checks out dad. Determines he needs surgery asap to open up his kidney. They are going to place a stint in his kidney to bypass the stones so his kidney can drain. They wheel him away for the surgery.

12pm Doctor comes out to tell us that halfway through the surgery, the power went out in the room and all the machines stopped working. They had to stop, move to another room, and start all over again.

1:30pm Doctor comes out to tell us surgery was unsuccessful. He couldn’t get the stint all the way in the kidney where it needed to be.

4pm Dad back in hospital room, very depressed. Doctor talks about putting him under general anesthesia and putting a tube in his back into his kidney and drain the kidney into a bag outside his body. He would have the bag for a few weeks. They take all the preliminary bloodwork and whatnot. Moments before wheeling him off to surgery, nurse runs in and grabs the doctor. It seems dad’s blood was too thin to do surgery. Surgery canceled. Kidney still failing. Dad in the worst pain I have ever seen anyone in, in my life (I have only seen my dad cry one other time in his life–when my grandma died).

8pm Doctor decides to do first surgery again, only this time putting my dad completely under via a general anesthesia (he was under local anesthesia last time).

April 18: 12am They wheel my dad away to prep him for surgery. We all return to the ER waiting room. And wait.

4am Dad is out of surgery. It was a success. He is in recovery and should be back in his room within the hour.

5am Dad is back, tired, and falling asleep. We leave to go home for a few hours sleep before coming back.

9am Dad calls and says they are releasing him early. We hurry around the house to get ready.

12noon Dad is released. We take him home. Kidney is working, no more pain.

April 19: 7pm Dad notices his feet and legs are swollen and very discolored. Calls nurse helpline and nurse recommends he go back to the hospital in the morning.

April 20: 8am We arrive at the hospital again. After testing, it is determined dad has a blood clot in his leg. Dad is going to be here all day, night, and most of tomorrow.

5pm Doctors puzzled why one day his blood is too thin then the next it clots. Orders TONS of testing done (11 vials of blood drawn from him).

8pm Doctors think dad has Ciliac disease (causes the intestines to be inflamed and prevents them from absorbing nutrients). Makes sense. Dad has been having intestinal pains, and has lost alot of weight (he’s down to 148).

9pm Doctor checks charts and comes back with disturbing news: Dad was tested for Ciliac disease in 2006 and the results were positive. No one told us. Doctor is shocked. We are shocked. Doctor orders a bunch of tests to be done the next day.

10pm We leave to go home for a few hours.

April 21: 10am We arrive at hospital; Dad is doing well.

1pm Meet with doctor. He wants dad to start dad on a gluten-free diet which should help with his Cilliac disease.

5pm Testing done. We go home.

April 22-24: Dad feeling good, regaining strength.

April 25: 9am Severe kidney pain again. Mom takes him down to hospital.

10am I find a ride down from work.

2pm Doctor explains the stones are moving around. They can’t do surgery to help it until the blood clot goes away completely. Stronger pain meds are prescribed. Dad released.

Fast forward to May  2. Here we are now. Dad is regaining strength. He has even begun going back to work for a few hours each day. The gluten-free diet seems to be working. But the stones are still there. As soon as his blood clot completely dissolves, he has to go back and have surgery to take out the stint and another surgery to blast his kidneystones. He isn’t done with this thing, but things are slowly but surely getting under control.

Thank you to all of you who have expressed concern for him. He appreciates all your thoughts and prayers for him during this time.