So I hope the start of this new year isn't a sign of how the rest of the year is going to go because if that's the case, I'm a bit scared!
We found out early yesterday that my father-in-law was being taken to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing all night. We all thought he also had pneumonia the last few weeks as well and figured it was somehow related that.
Hubby was able to get someone to cover for him at work and he came home several hours early and we got cleaned up and went to the ER where we met up with his mom and sister and his dad.
We learned that he had fluid in his heart and his lungs and that officially they had declared him having congestive heart failure and there was also something wrong with his kidneys as they weren't functioning correctly. They had him breathing with a CPAP mask (which he hated having on) and we all kept having to tell him to shut up and stop talking and just focus on breathing which is hard to get him to do as he's the type of person that loves to talk and will talk to anyone and everyone about anything and everything! Prior to us getting there they had given him morphine too to help take the edge off as he was panicking a lot when he first went in.
After several hours in an ER room they moved him up to the ICC ward and we spent the rest of the afternoon and a good bit of the evening in the waiting room as they got him settled and he was finally able to rest a bit.
They said his condition status was "guarded" meaning that he's stable, but he could go either way all depending on how well he and his system cooperates with everything.
We went back up this afternoon for a little bit and to be honest he looked a good deal better than he did yesterday and his breathing was quite a bit better too (they had him on oxygen). Of course he was talking up a storm like usual though!
They had ruled out a blood clot as a cause of concern and had run a bunch of tests on him before we got up there, however they still weren't entirely sure as to what had caused the congestive heart failure (they seemed to have ruled out him having pneumonia too, believing that really it was just the start of the congestive heart failure which the symptoms can mimic pneumonia). They did say his kidneys were only functioning at 15% though, which isn't good and they weren't really sure why they weren't functioning correctly - there had been quite a bit of talk of how if it didn't improve at all they were going to consider starting him on dialysis in a few weeks!
They have some more tests and diagnostics to run on him - he'll most likely be there the rest of the week at least.
The family is hanging in there. My mother-in-law seemed more so annoyed and upset at my father-in-law yesterday, as when he went to the doctor just before Christmas to get the pneumonia checked out he was strongly advised to go to the hospital and have them run some tests on his heart, however he didn't go and she feels this could have been prevented or at least caught earlier had he listened and gone. My brother-in-laws all seem to be hanging in there, at least from the outside, but who knows how they're actually feeling on the inside. Hubby's little sister (she's 12) seemed a bit worried yesterday when we got there, as she clung onto hubby for a good bit; we found out today she's a bit bored at the hospital so we told my mother-in-law if she wants to come hang out at our place she's welcome to do so as we have the cat here as well as TV and video games that she can keep herself entertained with. Hubby was doing alright yesterday, distracting himself with video games when we got home last night, but when we got to the hospital this afternoon he broke down a few times, poor guy... he rarely ever cries =( I'm trying to be supportive of him and the rest of the family as I know it's gotta be hard for them whether they show it on the outside or not.
Please keep my father-in-law and the family in your thoughts and prayers as we go through and the doctors try to figure out what the cause is and how to fix it - it's much appreciated!
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