Today is a very hard day. Dad is struggling with multiple infections. Including pneumonia. He is on many antibiotics. It is not MRSA so that is good. But his oxygen is low and his lungs are full of fluids and his abdomen is distended to the point that it is hard for him to breathe. He is not lucid unless you forcibly pull him back. Please send all thoughts and prayers his way. Thanks.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
thursday night
well, another day that my cold/flu/whatever kept me away from the hospital, but mom and nicole were there, and here are the updates...
they are afraid that dad may have MRSA, which sucks. they are also thinking he has ICU syndrome, which basically means that he is disoriented terribly by the 24-hours-a-day cycle there, because his confusion and delirium is getting worse, although you can always lead him back to reality. His primary doctor and the rest of the team agreed tonight that they want to change his environment first, before they decide whether his mind is permanently affected by all the trauma or not. so he will be moving to telemetry after all. will update room information when i get it.
i know this is unethical, but as a mental health professional (i know, i am his daughter, hence my disclaimer about it being unethical) i don't get the impression that his cognitive deficits are organic. they aren't pervasive, and he is oriented to time, place and person, which is pretty much not possible if you are dealing with organic brain disorder or damage. it started when he was on high doses of IV opiates, but seems to be persisting now that he is on oral opiates only. my professional opinion, as unethical as it is...i think he is trying to cope with the trauma by "going to his happy place", if you will, since 99% of what he is "rambling" about is going to work, doing his show, music, etc. i think once he is transferred and can be more active and oriented by environmental activity it will clear. he is untethered by pain and location and i think he is dealing with it by kind of floating away when he can. at least i hope i am right about this.
anyway, that is all the news that is fit to print. please keep the cards, calls, and visits coming. love you all.
christene
they are afraid that dad may have MRSA, which sucks. they are also thinking he has ICU syndrome, which basically means that he is disoriented terribly by the 24-hours-a-day cycle there, because his confusion and delirium is getting worse, although you can always lead him back to reality. His primary doctor and the rest of the team agreed tonight that they want to change his environment first, before they decide whether his mind is permanently affected by all the trauma or not. so he will be moving to telemetry after all. will update room information when i get it.
i know this is unethical, but as a mental health professional (i know, i am his daughter, hence my disclaimer about it being unethical) i don't get the impression that his cognitive deficits are organic. they aren't pervasive, and he is oriented to time, place and person, which is pretty much not possible if you are dealing with organic brain disorder or damage. it started when he was on high doses of IV opiates, but seems to be persisting now that he is on oral opiates only. my professional opinion, as unethical as it is...i think he is trying to cope with the trauma by "going to his happy place", if you will, since 99% of what he is "rambling" about is going to work, doing his show, music, etc. i think once he is transferred and can be more active and oriented by environmental activity it will clear. he is untethered by pain and location and i think he is dealing with it by kind of floating away when he can. at least i hope i am right about this.
anyway, that is all the news that is fit to print. please keep the cards, calls, and visits coming. love you all.
christene
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
tuesday night, so sorry for the delay!
very sorry about the lack of posting, i was struck down by what could have only been an evil halls-of-the-hospital virus and have been in bed for about three days. i even missed the lush after christmas sale, which is surely a sign on armageddon in my world. alas.
anyway, my mom had my dad moved to a specialty hospital last week, i think i posted about that. well, that was a mistake, apparently this specialty hospital sells a big package that they don't deliver, and carmella wasn't having that. all who know carmella know that if carm ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. and nothing makes carm unhappier than substandard medical care of any person, let alone her husband. so...chuck is back at medical center of plano, with carmella circling his bed like a bird of prey. incompetent nurses and careless doctors, beware.
medical updates are as follows:
chuck is stable. he does not have a bowel obstruction, which is great. he does, however, have a raging intestinal infection, which is not great, but is better than a bowel obstruction. apparently it comes around after massive antibiotic use. gross, but treatable.
he is not allowed to have a cell phone in his possession right now, because that is the ICU protocol but mostly because he is already wrangling the nurses into calling my exhausted mom at horrific times of the night, like, 3-5 am, to insist that she come get him, to complain about the absence of popsicles, etc. etc. so, it is on my list, now that i am not an infectious agent, to bring him the iphone that my big sis kindly provided. if he is lucid, he can use it as long as he wants to, but the last person out at night is taking it with them. no late night wake up calls for any of you poor, unsuspecting contacts.
anyway, my mom had my dad moved to a specialty hospital last week, i think i posted about that. well, that was a mistake, apparently this specialty hospital sells a big package that they don't deliver, and carmella wasn't having that. all who know carmella know that if carm ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. and nothing makes carm unhappier than substandard medical care of any person, let alone her husband. so...chuck is back at medical center of plano, with carmella circling his bed like a bird of prey. incompetent nurses and careless doctors, beware.
medical updates are as follows:
chuck is stable. he does not have a bowel obstruction, which is great. he does, however, have a raging intestinal infection, which is not great, but is better than a bowel obstruction. apparently it comes around after massive antibiotic use. gross, but treatable.
he is not allowed to have a cell phone in his possession right now, because that is the ICU protocol but mostly because he is already wrangling the nurses into calling my exhausted mom at horrific times of the night, like, 3-5 am, to insist that she come get him, to complain about the absence of popsicles, etc. etc. so, it is on my list, now that i am not an infectious agent, to bring him the iphone that my big sis kindly provided. if he is lucid, he can use it as long as he wants to, but the last person out at night is taking it with them. no late night wake up calls for any of you poor, unsuspecting contacts.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Merry Christmas
Hello all...sorry for the "radio silence" (haha) I have been furiously trying to make it seem like a regular Christmas for my son and my sisters kids the last day or so...they had a really fun day yesterday and a very happy Christmas morning so it was worth the effort all around! The kids obviously know that their Pappa is not here and that he is in the hospital but I don't want them worrying...I really don't think that children should be kept in the dark,but I also don't think that they should be given adult worries when they clearly have no way of managing those emotions.
Anyway...Chuck was moved to a specialty hospital sikence that he can get rehab services while still in ICU level care. He needs the extra attention because he is in a tremendous amount of pain and would never move a muscle if it were up to him. And while it is understandable, it is really not the best for him. So he isn't happy about it, but he knows if he is ever going to walk again the aggressive therapies are absolutely necessary.
I am heading over there later so we can give him the portable DVD player we got him with his stack of Kiera Knightley movies.
Anyway...Chuck was moved to a specialty hospital sikence that he can get rehab services while still in ICU level care. He needs the extra attention because he is in a tremendous amount of pain and would never move a muscle if it were up to him. And while it is understandable, it is really not the best for him. So he isn't happy about it, but he knows if he is ever going to walk again the aggressive therapies are absolutely necessary.
I am heading over there later so we can give him the portable DVD player we got him with his stack of Kiera Knightley movies.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Thursday night
Hello to whoever is still reading...
So tomorrow my mom has arranged to have dad moved to another facility. Medical Center of Plano wanted to move him from ICU to a cardiac telemetry unit...which is good as far as their opinion of his condition, but would have caused a problem as far as what his insurance would have covered later...basically he would only have qualified for a nursing home rather than an inpatient rehab...um, no. So he meets criteria for admission at a place that is a critical care unit and rehab in one...so we will be having him moved tomorrow. Also he was more alert today and sitting up in bed. Keep the thoughts and prayers coming strong, please!! I will update info once he is in his new digs tomorrow.
Love as always...
Christene
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Wednesday night
Hello...
I did not get a chance to go over to the hospital myself today...I was on child care duty. My mom and sister were there all afternoon, though, and said that dad is still pretty sedated. They gave him a muscle relaxant for some spasms he is having, and apparently it really bottomed his blood pressure out. They obviously won't be giving him any more of that, but will be trying something else. In general I guess this is the "it gets worse before it gets better" part. He is stable but still critical. I spoke with a really nice writer from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette this morning. She will be publishing the blog link so I will probably remove my phone number from the first post. If you want it, feel free to save it, but I am not sure I want it published to that wide of an audience. I will also attempt to not use profanity...but no promises there. :) Will post in the morning first hand ..it will be my turn to visit and I will pass on all the news. Thanks for reading and supporting my dad at this crazy and terrible time. We all really need it. Xoxoxoxo, Christene
I did not get a chance to go over to the hospital myself today...I was on child care duty. My mom and sister were there all afternoon, though, and said that dad is still pretty sedated. They gave him a muscle relaxant for some spasms he is having, and apparently it really bottomed his blood pressure out. They obviously won't be giving him any more of that, but will be trying something else. In general I guess this is the "it gets worse before it gets better" part. He is stable but still critical. I spoke with a really nice writer from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette this morning. She will be publishing the blog link so I will probably remove my phone number from the first post. If you want it, feel free to save it, but I am not sure I want it published to that wide of an audience. I will also attempt to not use profanity...but no promises there. :) Will post in the morning first hand ..it will be my turn to visit and I will pass on all the news. Thanks for reading and supporting my dad at this crazy and terrible time. We all really need it. Xoxoxoxo, Christene
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Tuesday night
So I just got home from night visiting hours and dad is pretty much exhausted. I am not surprised and the doctors aren't concerned...he has been through the ringer to say the least. His vital signs remain stable for the most part and I guess now we really just wait and watch. We are sharing the articles and posts with him...don't stop sending them! He may need more rest for the next couple of days so we are gonna stagger our visits some. Just text me about visiting if you want to...I can let you know if he is up for it at any given time. In the meantime, stop stressing about dumb stuff and enjoy the holidays. Without meaning to sound preachy, I gotta say, if none of your loved ones are laying in an ICU, you really have nothing to stress about. Love to you all.
Christene
tuesday december 20
good morning. so, yesterday, the pelvic specialist did do dad's pelvic reconstruction surgery. he told up that he could do a good job in an hour to an hour and a half, but that if he could keep him stable, he would work as long as he could to make the repair as strong as possible. in the end, he was able to do all the work that he wanted, it took about four and a half hours, but the rock star anesthesiologist and trauma surgeon duo were able to keep him safe, and dad hung tight for that whole time, losing some blood but otherwise tolerating the surgery well. i saw him at about 9 pm CST and he we really zoned out, but about thirty minutes later he was asking about the steeler game, and knew that they would be in about the third quarter because of what time it was. he was also asking who was calling, or asking about him, and that is really important to him so keep it up! i am going to get him an iphone today (i know, i know, he will get fingerprints all over it and lose it and not know how to use half the features) because he is really impatient to talk to people, when he is awake and not in too much pain, and he misses his facebook page. so those are good signs. he had some low blood pressure and his hematocrit had dropped, but that was from the blood loss and they gave him more. he still only has one kidney functioning, but again, he was stable late last night when i went to sleep at about midnight. stay tuned and keep the thoughts, prayers, phone calls and texts coming, he is thriving on them. love you all.
Monday, December 19, 2011
monday december 19
if you are reading this, it is because you are a friend or family member of my dad's. on friday, december 16, at about noon, my dad was hit broadside by a large SUV on independence pkwy, less than a mile from the house, while on his way to his weekly blood work appointment. we haven't gotten to speak directly with the police since the ER, but we do know the jaws of life were necessary to get him out of his car, and that it took almost 20 minutes to do so. the other people were completely unharmed, and drove away. Clearly the car that hit him was speeding. the speed limit where it happened is 30. the trauma doctor told us that there was no way the damages could have been sustained if the other car was going the speed limit. but that is all another matter.
dad's injuries are: 6 fractured ribs, a complex (type C) pelvic ring fracture (the ortho doc said they counted at least 20 pieces) i believe his hip is also fractured. these injuries caused internal bleeding. one of the ribs punctured his left lung and caused internal bleeding as well. he has a chest tube to drain this blood out of his body. he also has a large hematoma on one of his kidneys, which has essentially shut it down. his other one seems to be fighting the good fight, but it is still of course a significant concern.
his blood pressure has been low and unstable from the blood loss. as of last night, the bleeding seems to have slowed to a trickle and that let his blood pressure come up and it seems to be stabilizing. his heart rate is high, and his heart beat is irregular. he has had a pacemaker for about two years, and it has been reprogrammed, but i guess his heart is just, well, dealing with the catastrophic injuries by freaking out.
he is conscious, and has been the whole time, some of you have spoken to him on the phone, or come to visit. this is awesome, and appreciated. he is totally cognitively intact, sarcasm and all. this is also awesome, at least to us. there are a couple of nurses that may not be so overjoyed at this, but oh well.
last night, he became really disoriented and confused but that is primarily the dilaudid, and the effect of having been flat on his back for two days without being able to see around him. i took pictures of the wall behind his bed last night to try and convince him that there was not, indeed, a living room behind him where he and JKC had been watching football earlier that day.
so, today, the plan is, if he is stable, for the trauma surgeon (who, by some stroke of luck or divine intervention, depending on your personal paradigm, is a complex pelvic ring fracture specialist) to attempt a minimally invasive (rather than an "open") reconstruction of the pelvis if dad is medically stable. this is yet to be seen, since on saturday morning, when they began sedation to attempt to put him in traction, he had a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated with CPR. holy shit. it was propofol that they gave him, so naturally i called him MJ all day.
so, check back here, i will update this regularly. or, you can text me. calling is the least likely way to get me when i am in the hospital. i am also updating with a bit less detail on facebook. i know how awful it is to not know what is happening, so if you are worried, please use this blog to keep up if you can't reach me personally. calling my mom is truly useless.
we love you all and are grateful for the thoughts and prayers. dad loves that he has so many people that care, we read him the facebook threads and he gets a real boost from it. also, not too sure about today, but visiting hours are 8 am to 6 pm, then 8 pm to 10 pm. he is in room 22 of the critical care unit at plano medical center. text me if you want to visit and i will let you know if he is visitor-ready.
talk soon.
dad's injuries are: 6 fractured ribs, a complex (type C) pelvic ring fracture (the ortho doc said they counted at least 20 pieces) i believe his hip is also fractured. these injuries caused internal bleeding. one of the ribs punctured his left lung and caused internal bleeding as well. he has a chest tube to drain this blood out of his body. he also has a large hematoma on one of his kidneys, which has essentially shut it down. his other one seems to be fighting the good fight, but it is still of course a significant concern.
his blood pressure has been low and unstable from the blood loss. as of last night, the bleeding seems to have slowed to a trickle and that let his blood pressure come up and it seems to be stabilizing. his heart rate is high, and his heart beat is irregular. he has had a pacemaker for about two years, and it has been reprogrammed, but i guess his heart is just, well, dealing with the catastrophic injuries by freaking out.
he is conscious, and has been the whole time, some of you have spoken to him on the phone, or come to visit. this is awesome, and appreciated. he is totally cognitively intact, sarcasm and all. this is also awesome, at least to us. there are a couple of nurses that may not be so overjoyed at this, but oh well.
last night, he became really disoriented and confused but that is primarily the dilaudid, and the effect of having been flat on his back for two days without being able to see around him. i took pictures of the wall behind his bed last night to try and convince him that there was not, indeed, a living room behind him where he and JKC had been watching football earlier that day.
so, today, the plan is, if he is stable, for the trauma surgeon (who, by some stroke of luck or divine intervention, depending on your personal paradigm, is a complex pelvic ring fracture specialist) to attempt a minimally invasive (rather than an "open") reconstruction of the pelvis if dad is medically stable. this is yet to be seen, since on saturday morning, when they began sedation to attempt to put him in traction, he had a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated with CPR. holy shit. it was propofol that they gave him, so naturally i called him MJ all day.
so, check back here, i will update this regularly. or, you can text me. calling is the least likely way to get me when i am in the hospital. i am also updating with a bit less detail on facebook. i know how awful it is to not know what is happening, so if you are worried, please use this blog to keep up if you can't reach me personally. calling my mom is truly useless.
we love you all and are grateful for the thoughts and prayers. dad loves that he has so many people that care, we read him the facebook threads and he gets a real boost from it. also, not too sure about today, but visiting hours are 8 am to 6 pm, then 8 pm to 10 pm. he is in room 22 of the critical care unit at plano medical center. text me if you want to visit and i will let you know if he is visitor-ready.
talk soon.
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