Good news??

Dr. Cahill and the surgeon Dr. Abraham did another broncoscopy a few minutes ago to see if they could find where the air leak was coming from and they said everything looks good - the soochers are healing nicely and they didn't see any leakage. I could even see that things were looking better than the last time- less gunk down there than before. There's a small chance there could still be some rejection, but they don't want to biopsy the lung yet or start him on steroids until he gets some more meat on his bones and this air stops showing up in his chest and around the heart.

I guess he'll be here in ICU for another couple of days, but what do I know?

ICU ..... Again :(

Came by to see Dad this morning on my way to work and as I started walking down the hall to his room I noticed the door was open but the bed was gone and the room had been cleaned. I panicked and asked the closest nurse where my dad was, and they said he'd been moved down to the 4th floor ICU around 4am because he was just struggling too much with his breathing. He's on an oxygen mask with full oxygen but I was able to talk to him - I'm still waiting to talk to the nurse and see what's going on. Hopefully they'll get this figured out soon. I think this is the 9th room he's been in over the past 3 1/2 weeks. I'll post an update as soon as I can.

23 Days And Still In The Hospital

Dads hanging in there - he's still up here on the 5th floor in a regular room, versus one of the many ICU rooms he's been in over the past three weeks. The doctors have been trying to figure out the cause of the air that's still floating around inside his chest cavity that prevents his lung from expanding all the way. They just came in and added a new, larger chest tube which, based on this last X-ray, has now allowed his lung to expand. Now they're hoping that we'll see these air pockets subside and be able to take this tube out in a few days. At best, he'll be here at least 3-4 more days, poor guy!

We're all ready for him to get out of here, as fun as this place is :). I had a dream the other night that I couldn't find my dad in the hospital and as I ran back into the elevator and went to push another button, they now said "1 3/4ths floor, 2 8/9ths floor - just like the train station in Harry Potter, and I had to run at the doors really fast to try to get off. This place is starting to make us all a little crazy! Hopefully we'll all be laughing about this one day soon as we're sitting at home around a nice fire and NOT listening to the old hacking cough and watching him haul his oxygen around. It's still a wonderful life :)

AFTER OVER 41 YEARS OF MARRIAGE, I CAN SINCERELY SAY THAT DWIGHT IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN THE BEST PERSON I KNOW. IT HAS BEEN SUCH A STRUGGLE WATCHING HIM BATTLE THIS DISEASE AND THE TERRIBLE EFFECTS IT HAS HAD ON HIM. BUT ALL THAT IS IN THE PAST BECAUSE HE HAS A HEALTHY RIGHT LUNG AND WE HAVE SUCH HOPE FOR HIM NOW. ON DECEMBER 23RD WE GOT "THE CALL" AND OUR SON CARTER DROVE US UP TO THE UOFU HOSPITAL. ON CHRISTMAS EVE 2011 HE RECEIVED THE NEW LUNG AND STARTED THE LONG BATTLE OF OUTLASTING THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS THAT KEEP COMING OUT OF NOWHERE. THE DOCTORS, NURSES AND STAFF HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLE. I HOPE NONE OF YOU EVER HAVE TO EXPERIENCE THE CHALLENGES DWIGHT HAS OVERCOME. RIGHT NOW WE KNOW HE IS IN THE CARE OF MANY INCREDIBLE PEOPLE. WE ALL HAVE SUCH HOPE FOR DWIGHT'S FUTURE. I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS THAT IT WILL TAKE AWHILE TO GET ALL THOSE THOUGHTS TOGETHER BUT I CAN SEE THAT IT WILL THERAPUDIC TO GET THE THOUGHTS OUT THERE. BY BEGINNING TO WRITE ABOUT THIS EXPERIENCE I HOPE IT CAN HELP OTHER FAMILIES WHO ARE EXPERIENCING OVERWHELMING CHALLENGES. RIGHT NOW, THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT WE STILL HAVE HIM AND HE IS DOING BETTER. WE HOPE TO GET HIM HOME IN A FEW DAYS (SCARY TOO!!!!!) SINCERELY, OZZIE'S BIGGEST FAN CHRIS.

Good news from the broncoscopy!

Carter and I just got to watch the broncoscopy and Dr. Raman said things look ok. They were looking to see if the sutures were leaking air into his chest cavity, but they looked good which is great news - no new surgery. They think it's air that's being generated in his bad lung from the bpap oxygen he's had to have and that loose air floating around is putting pressure on his lungs and not allowing him to breath fully.

There's also a lot of gunk in his new lung that he doesn't have the reflex to cough up yet because those nerves aren't connected. They'll continue his respiratory vest treatments that basically shake his lungs and then keep encouraging him to cough. Having the chest tube back in has helped release a lot of the air, but it also is a pain for him to have it in since it's uncomfortable and makes it harder to breathe deeply. He's going down for a CT scan in a few minutes which will let them see if any air pockets remain.

All I know is that he's in great hands up here and that they're doing everything possible to give this new lung a fighting chance. He'll obviously be here for a few more days, so we'll keep everyone posted.

Not so fast ...

This morning when Carter and I were here visiting Dad he was doing great - he only had his nasal canula set at 1litre, he had eaten a decent breakfast, chest tube and catheter were finally out, etc. but we were a little shocked when the doctor said be might be going home tomorrow - we had no idea it could be that soon, which had us worried about all of the logistics that go along with taking care of him at home.

I stopped by tonight around 6pm thinking I'd be here maybe 20 minutes and when I walked in, Dad had just called the nurse because he had been starting to struggle with his breathing, getting cold and clammy, heart rate rising. Within about 10 minutes the doctors had determined that his new lung had collapsed and had me leave the room do they could re-insert the chest tube and do a broncoscopy to see what's going on. Please pray for him .... again!

Bye Bye ICU!

Dad was transferred out of the ICU yesterday and moved up to the Specialty Transplant unit on the 5th floor. He's having his last chest tube removed today and just completed his longest walk down the hallway - about 200 feet!