Around the middle of September we had a bit of scare with my Father. I got a call Wednesday night from my Mother asking me health related questions pertaining to dad. She said that he felt dizzy/faint and light headed and that he was going to pass out. He had been feeling fine all day and it had just all come on suddenly. She was curious about my opinion and what she should do. My Father also said that something just didn't feel right. I told her to have him lay down on the couch and put his feet up in the air. I also told her to take his vitals and helped explain to her how to do it. All the vitals were fine except for his blood pressure, it was in the 70's over 40's which is really low. I instantly thought, he needs fluid, he's dehydrated and knew that drinking a ton of water wouldn't help. I knew he needed an IV and I was also thinking in my head that something was possibly bleeding internally somewhere to make him not have enough blood for a good blood pressure. I advised her to take him in to be seen just because it was late at night and if his blood pressure is dropping something worse could happen.
So because it was later in the evening and his regular doctor's office was closed, they took him in down to a Medical Walk-in Clinic. His blood count was still a little low by the time they got to the doctors but certainly nothing alarming. His blood tests showed slight signs of a possible infection but nothing significant but they went ahead and gave him a antibiotic shot just to be on the safe side. He had another near passing out episode where his blood pressure dropped again while getting na EKG on his heart so they just hurried and laid him back on the bed and put his feet up which seemed to help. They asked several questions of my dad including if he had any signs of a bloody stool and my father answered "no" to all the questions.The EKG looked normal and after giving him a bag of IV fluids, he seemed to improve so they chalked everything up to him just being dehydrated and sent him home. (The whole dehydration thing did not make sense to my mother since my father drinks water 24/7 but there seemed to be no other reasonable answer at the time.)
The doctor than sent them home and said if he started feeling like he was going to pass out again to head to the hospital. (In all fairness to the doctor there, he did offer to admit my father into the hospital just to monitor him over night but was not really sure that was necessary and because my parents were trying to avoid a huge medical bill, they chose to go home and just monitor the situation and check in with their regular doctor the next day.)
So home they went and my father was put to bed. Well wouldn't you know it, that next morning he started having bloody stool. So my mom hurried and called the doctor they had seen the night before and asked him if she needed to take my dad straight to the hospital or just go see his regular doctor that afternoon. She was told he would be fine and to just make an appointment with his regular doctor and let him know what was going on. My father could not get in until 11:30 that morning so my mom put my father back to bed and headed into work for a few hours.
By the time my mom came home to take him to the doctor, my dad had already had three more extremely black tar-like runny stools. (Sorry for being so graphic but it literally looked like someone had poured a can of black paint in the toilet!) My mom was now extremely worried and knew something was very wrong. They quickly headed to his doctor appointment only to check in and have his doctor say, "I can't help you ... you need to go straight to the Emergency Room!"
Tons more labs/tests/diagnostics were done there at the ER and they knew there was a bleed somewhere higher up in the body since his stool was black but they didn't know exactly where. So my father went straight from the ER to the surgical floor to have an Endoscopy. An endoscopy was done and sure enough he had a peptic ulcer at the very top of his stomach that had been bleeding profusely! By the time they actually scoped him, the bleeding has stopped since he had lost over half his blood supply. He basically was going on "less then half a tank" is how the doctor put it. So they put a clip on the ulcer and tried to look around for any other bleeds or signs of trouble but it was really hard to see much with all the old blood inside of him ... the doctor described it as "old coffee grounds). The doctor thought he saw possible signs of a liver issue and so an ultrasound on the liver was ordered but thankfully that came back good and did not show any really signs of cirrhosis of the liver.
Dad then stayed in the hospital a couple days per doctors order to rest and regain strength from his blood loss. Luckily for us, Jackson wasn't working that Friday due to previous plans and so we were able to head up to the hospital to see my dad that Thursday as soon as Jackson got home from work. Thankfully we made it, it's amazing how a 3 hour drive can feel like it took even longer when you want to get somewhere quick.
The boys visiting with Grandpa at the hospital. The hospital made Braxton a bit nervous but I pulled out the ipad to ease his nerves and distract him.
Greyson didn't care though.
This all could not have happened at a worse time for my Mother with her job at the district office and her trying to get 30 new employees in the system and payroll done. Thankfully Jackson agreed to stay at my parent's house with the boys so I could spend all day Friday at the hospital with my dad to help take care of him while my mom went into work. My mom felt bad leaving me to take care of his "personal" needs as she felt that was her job but I just reminded her that I was a nurse and would be fine taking care of him! Dad was really hoping they would let him go home Friday afternoon but his blood levels were still too low so he had to stay another night.
Dad was finally able to come home Saturday morning. He was now up to "half a tank" and that as long as he rested, the doctor felt he could eventually build up his levels on his own without a transfusion. The doctor said they would give him a transfusion if he wanted it but once again my parents were worried about all the mounding medical bills so chose to come home and just get plenty of rest.
These pictures were taken just shortly after getting home.
He was so glad to be home and having a couple of his grand kids there was great medicine!
The most recent update on dad now is that he is doing well. He's blood levels are back to normal and he has regained his strength. He has had no more sign of bleeding and he has also had another endoscopy since his hospital stay there it too showed no more signs of bleeding. Since they were going to have to put him out for the endoscopy, my mother and the doctor convinced him he should also agree to have a colonoscopy done since he is over 50. (My mother and us kids have been trying to get my dad to have a colonoscopy for several years now!) Dad finally agreed and we are so glad he did. They found 5 polyps, 2 of which could have became cancerous. Those polyps were removed and he just has to keep getting a colonoscopy regularly to make sure he doesn't get colon cancer.
So as awful as all this was and the scare it caused us all, not to mention the medical bills it produced, we all truly see it as a blessing because in the end, we prevented him from getting colon cancer. We love you dad and want you to stick around for a lot longer!
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