Thursday, October 13, 2016

Update On My Dad

...and a baby sweater set.
My Dad had to have his leg amputated. Sigh...  He is still with us. (I haven't heard anything today, or called up there today).  The last few days have been terrible for me, I can't even imagine what he is going through (and my step-mom)...   He is still in the ICU, as far as I know. He sounded kind of loopy the first time I talked to him. Yesterday he sounded angry, and depressed. Which; I would be, too.  They spent the first four hours in surgery trying to do a bypass... His arteries in his legs have been shot due to 50+ years of alcoholism and smoking.  I wasn't for sure but he has been drinking and smoking since he was a teenager. He turns 70 next April..  Back in 2009, he had a major surgery (that I went to Michigan for) to repair an aortic aneurysm, and... I can't even remember now. There were three major things. One of the three were the arteries in his right leg (the one he just had amputated). But, since he had been in surgery for so long already (I think it was 9 hours), and his signs were getting worse, they decided to do the major artery and leave the rest for later.  Well they never did go back in...   And this past weekend everything went downhill fast. He was outside weed whacking, and started having pain in his hip (weird). It started traveling down his leg and the pain was bad. They went to the ER that night. Stayed in the waiting room all night long. By then his foot was purple and he couldn't even feel it.  Finally got him in to surgery at 11:30 am.   Like I already said the first four hours were trying to do some kind of a bypass on that major artery they tried to repair in '09. But they weren't able to...  And he lost his leg.    :(   I feel so awful for him.  Even though it is his "own doing"..  (No one can tell him that, though..)  I am on pins and needles hoping to not hear any bad news. Expecting the worst, but hoping for the best..

I finished Jolene's baby sweater set. I am happy with how it all turned out. And now that I have finally done the Shells & Vines Sweater, I will do more for PR for the OB Unit.. I like it.

2 comments:

paula said...

I can empathize with you. Mom had her leg amputated, under a spinal since her lungs were so bad from years of smoking also.

She said she heard what sounded like a power aw taking down a tree limb, and it didn't bother her at all. Then, a couple day later when I went to see her, she never was in ICU, one of the nurses stopped me and said she had fallen out of bed. and she was okay.

When I went into her room I asked her what had happened. Had someone not pulled up the bar thing-ies to keep her in bed. She said yes and she had gotten out between them. Then, as only Mom would say, "Wouldn't have been so bad if I got out on the other side of the bed where I have a leg." Then she started laughing.

I knew then that everything would be alright . . . she was tough!

Hope your dad can get his mind around this and learn to do what he need to do to help himself.

Tina said...

Thank you so much, Paula! My Dad said something similar while he was still in the hospital (joking); the nurses were trying to help him out of bed and he said, "Even the leg I don't have is getting in the way." I just talked to him yesterday and he is in great spirits (I was so shocked, and relieved!) and said "I haven't given up yet."