In August of 2005, Dad was admitted to the hospital because he needed his gallbladder taken out. He was scheduled to go back to his job teaching science to special education children the next day, but was instead admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery that evening. He knew he was in pain and needed to go to the doctor, but wanted to begin the school year first.
His surgeon, Dr. Joanne Rink, was absolutely wonderful and was able to complete the surgery laproscopically, which gave his body much less trauma and stress than an open procedure would have. His gallbladder was grossly inflamed, discolored, and all around horrible looking.
After surgery, he was transferred to the ICU, where he spent several days. He almost died while in the ICU, and it was very difficult to watch. Mom and I took turns taking extra care of him when he was transferred to the medical floor. He was unable to feed himself, let alone walk. He fell while in the hospital once and bruised up his face and head very badly. However, we had lots of visitors and support from friends and family, which was greatly appreciated!!
When he was dismissed from the hospital after the third lengthy admission, things started turning around for him somewhat. He slowly rebuilt his strength, and came out of his mental fog. He has no memories for about a six month period, and has not been able to build enough strength up to return to work. He has been on disability since that time, but functional for the most part until very recently.
His confusion has been related to a buildup of ammonia in his system, and he takes a medication to help bind it and remove it from his body. He takes a number of other medications daily, some for the pain he is in following his car wreck when he was 18, and the aftermath of 4 different back surgeries to try to correct the problems that caused.
That is a VERY abbreviated version of the events of the past few years. I will continue with another post to let you know the latest news.
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