So what did happen to my dad?

Okay, here’s the round up post on all of those one liners about my dad.

Sometime during the night of Wednesday January 6th, his appendix burst.  He woke up feeling like he had a very bad stomach virus/food poisoning.  Eventually on Thursday, at the insistance of my Aunt Diane (who lives with my parents), my brother was called and my mom came home from work to get him to the hospital via ambulance (trying to skip the long wait for ER by sending him in this way).  He was taken back right away and they started treating his symptoms (pain, nausea) and they ordered a CT scan.  The first scan must not have been very conclusive as a second one was ordered later that evening.  Then it was discovered that his appendix had burst and he was rushed into emergency surgery around 1:30 am on Friday.

He now has a 14″ scar because they could not do this surgery laparoscopically – this is because (which may also apply to me since it seems to run in our family) his appendix was not in the correct place, instead it was tucked up and under his intestines.  Thank goodness for this because it probably saved his life.  The surgeon cleaned out his abdomen, checked everything else and closed him up.  He was moved to the medical/surgical recovery floor of the hospital and was recovering well.  Saturday morning the physical therapists/nurses made him get up and walk and when he did, he became light headed and was having difficulty breathing, so a chest x-ray was ordered and it was discovered that he had developed blood clots in both of his lungs.  He was then moved to the Critical Care Unit (a different way to say ICU) for the rest of the day and for most of Sunday.  He was started on blood thinners and they were watching his breathing/heart function.  Sunday evening he was moved to the Progressive Care Unit, a step down from the ICU.  He remained there until Monday, where he was moved back to the medical/surgical floor.

He is still in the hospital today because they are trying to get his blood levels sorted out, the blood thinners worked too well and now they are trying to adjust him back to normal.  He’ll be having a screen put in to help this process but hopefully sometime this week he will be able to go home or to a rehab facility.

Considering Dad is NEVER sick this has thrown us all for a loop since he’ll be 75 this year. I’m just glad he’s okay!