5 Weeks In The Hospital - Good Times!

Tonight at about 8:00pm, Dad will have officially been a patient at University Hospital for five, count them ..... FIVE weeks in a row - without ever having set foot outside the hospital doors for even a breath of fresh air! Just the thought of it makes my heart ache for him.  Lung transplants are hard enough knowing that if everything goes as planned you'll be in the hospital for up to two weeks.  Five solid weeks in a hospital is a whole different ball game.  Six weeks?  Six weeks just might send all of us over the edge, stay tuned. ;)

Despite this not-so-happy anniversary tonight, things are actually going well for my Dad considering what he's been through.  He's now been out of the ICU and in the same room on the 5th floor for one week, which is a record, and he's doing better each day.  He still has the chest tube in to continue suctioning and draining the fluid and air that kept showing up and causing all of the problems.  The plan is to seal off the tube today, leave the tube in place for a couple of days and monitor him, then remove the tube, monitor him again for a couple of days, then hopefully send him on his merry way by the end of next week.  His nutrition has improved and he actually has had a much better appetite lately, but he's lost a ton of muscle mass - especially in his legs, so he's still got a ways to go before he'll be strong enough to do simple things like get out of bed and walk around on his own.  Now that he's feeling a little better, he's also more vocal with the nurses and doctors about how he's feeling, what he needs, and what he thinks should happen next.  It's pretty funny to hear HIM telling THEM when he's planning on going for a walk, or that the respiratory team needs to come back later or adjust his oxygen, or to call his doctor to get permission to do something.

Thanks so much to all of you who have come by to visit.  Now more than ever, he appreciates visitors to help break up his day and evening - especially if you call ahead of time and see if there's something that he's craving :)  His favorites lately have been Hires rootbeer floats, McDonalds cheeseburgers, Pizza Factory pizza (pepperoni and green peppers, an Osborn family fav) cheesy potatoes, lemon meringue, peach or apple pie or carrot cake.  His doctors want him eating a high fat, high protein diet so anything that meets those criteria is even better.  He's so sick of the hospital food and really appreciates anything homemade as well. 

By the way, if anyone knows how to get their hands on some Chuck-o-rama scones and honeybutter then my dad will seriously love you forever.  Sadly, Carter was unsuccessful in his attempts to beg the cashier at Chuck-o-rama to let him just buy some scones to take to his dad in the hospital (apparently they don't allow take-out under any circumstances.)  This did not please Carter and he may or may not have gone a little postal on the heartless cashier, as the past five weeks of stress even got the best of someone as mellow and easygoing as my little brother. :)

A Utah Man, Sir .... A Utah Man Am I!

 

My Dad received a very, VERY special visitor on Saturday morning.  Ute football head coach Kyle Whittingham's daughter Kylie is a close friend and soccer teammate of my cousin Lindsey and when my Aunt Julie told him about Dad's situation and what a loyal and dedicated Ute fan my dad has been over the years, Coach Whit took time out of his busy recruiting schedule to come by University Hospital on Saturday morning and visit with my Dad and talk Ute football with him.  Dad's been a mid-level Crimson Club member forever but never in a million years would have thought he'd warrant a personal visit from the Coach.  For me, it would be like having Bono come and visit me in the hospital :)  A special thanks to Julie, Ron and Lindsey Osborn for loving my dad enough to find a way to make this happen, and a heartfelt thanks to Coach Kyle Whittingham for being so much more than just a great football coach, but an even better human being and friend.

I know it may sound cheesy to some of you, but the University of Utah is truly an important part of my dad and my entire family's lives.  Dad graduated from the U's business school and enjoyed every minute of his time spent on campus and as a member of the Beta Theta Phi fraternity.  My brothers and I grew up going to countless Ute football and basketball games with my Dad in our family's red VW bug.  All of his kids attended the U and we all continue to attend as many games as we can with our own kids.  I've worked here off an on over the years and when it became necessary to go back to work full time it was the only place for me.  My co-workers have enjoyed having my dad drop in to visit me at my office on campus while he was on his way to or from one of the many doctor or clinical trial visits he's had over the past two years.

So when our family had to make the decision of where to have Dad have his lung transplant - UCLA who does 80-90 transplants a year, or the U's much smaller program that only did nine transplants last year - it wasn't even a question for us.  We felt so lucky that the U was even able to get my dad on the list and that he wouldn't have to go through this and recover for months afterward so far away from home.  The U's lung transplant team normally only accepts patients under 65 years old.  They made the exception based on his amazingly good health and discipline and the support network they knew he had to help with his care after the transplant.

We are so incredibly grateful and impressed with the doctors, nurses and staff of University Hospital - and yes, even our head football coach!  They are truly top notch and are so invested in all of their patients, not just my dad.  Even little things like the free valet parking service the hospital provides, which seems like such a trivial thing, but to family members who are making daily trips to the hospital - often times stressed and in a hurry to get to their loved ones, it becomes anything but trivial.

I've worked in development (fundraising) in Salt Lake for over 15 years and I'm very familiar with and have even visited personally with many of the donors whose names are posted all around the hospital and on  plaques next to many of the rooms my dad has stayed in over the past four weeks.  I know how much these families have contributed to countless nonprofit organizations in our community, but I've never been more grateful to them than I am now.  We are so blessed to have a research University with a hospital of this caliber so close to us and to have so many philanthropic families who have made it all possible.  I've been a die-hard Ute fan all my life, but I've never been more proud to be one than I am now, and I know my parents and brothers feel the same way.  Go Dad!  Go Utes!

You ve Got A Friend

You know how they say you can judge a man by the friends he keeps? Well that, in a nutshell, is one of the many reasons why my dad is such an amazing guy.

I've been here with dad in the ICU most of the day today and have seen several of his good friends come by to visit him. One of his closest friends from high school, Jim Carlson, stopped by with rootbeer floats from Hires, their favorite burger joint. And earlier in the day his friends Mike Petersen and Bart Hopkins stopped by to check on him and brought him a Cottonwood Heights 5k shirt (which made me cry, so sweet!) There are so many others who come by all the time that I know I'm forgetting, but I hope you know how much we appreciate it and how much your friendship continues to mean to my dad.

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.