Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2002. Mattie was about 5 or 6 days old and we took him home for the first time. Before we got into the car, I snapped a photo of Peter and Mattie together in front of Virginia Hospital Center. Ironically this was the hospital in which Mattie was born and also diagnosed with cancer.
Quote of the day: You treat a disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you, you'll win - no matter what the outcome. ~ Patch Adams
My morning was a nightmare. I got up early because I had to take my dad for his follow up primary care doctor appointment. When I got to his bedroom this morning, he was already up and in the bathroom. Very disoriented and very agitated. He had urinated all over the floor. I did get him into the shower, but while in the shower he pooped. It truly looked like a crime scene. I took photos, but will spare you the visuals. While pooping, he was screaming, and also dry heaving. When I got him out of the shower, he was white as a ghost and said he felt nauseous. ALL NOT GOOD SIGNS.
He did have breakfast and then we whisked him to the doctor's appointment. This doctor, as my faithful readers know, I call Dopey Doo! Dopey lived up to his name yet again today. I highlighted to the doctor my concern about my dad's exhaustion, everything that happened today, and the fact that my dad sleeps the entire day, and has no appetite. Do you know that the doctor told me that my dad should consult a sleep doctor because he probably has sleep apnea? It gets better, he even implied that I should switch his high blood pressure meds to the evening rather than the morning, so prevent him from getting tired. Mind you I told him I tried switching the timing of the meds before and it never mattered. He could tell I was getting agitated with him, actually practically battling him and talking him down. I felt he wasn't LISTENING and getting my caregiver observations and perspectives on the significant decline in my dad's energy level and behavior.
After he dismissed us and told us to follow up with him again in four weeks, I loaded my parents into the car and noticed I had a voice mail. It was from my dad's cardiology office. I pestered them yesterday because I wanted my dad's heart monitor results. They apparently called the heart monitor company today and the company told them my dad's results constituted a medical emergency. He has a level two heart block, which means that the electrical signals between his atria and ventricles can intermittently fail to conduct. In fact in his case the heart monitor found that for periods of three seconds of so, his heart actually wasn't beating. A serious issue! The cardiology office asked if my dad was symptomatic. So I told them about his extreme exhaustion and their response was that I should get my dad to the nearest emergency room and quickly.
I had to decide where to go. My initial instinct was Mattie's hospital. But that was too far away, so I elected to take my dad to Virginia Hospital Center. It was the BEST decision I made all week. Totally amazing place. I would give them an A+ today. As soon as I walked my parents into the ER, they immediately checked my dad in, put him in a wheelchair, and we were taken to an ER room. We were in the ER from 1pm to 8pm. At 8pm, my dad was admitted to a floor and I stayed with him until 10pm. He has to get a pacemaker put in tomorrow afternoon.
All of this is very confusing for my dad and though I wanted to stay the night in the hospital with him, I had my mom in tow and neither one of us ate a meal accept for breakfast today. So I will return to the hospital alone at 9am on Friday.
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