To put it simply, my grandpa almost died on the day before Thanksgiving. He ended up in the hospital down in St. George, UT after a few days of being sick and not getting better. My grandma had to call the ambulance to come get him and when they took him into the hospital, they showed that he had a UTI, his kidneys had shut down, and his heart had gone into afib. They were doing what they could to get his kidneys working, and trying to figure out what was going on. He complained of having a pain in his back that just would not go away so the nurse ordered an MRI.
I think the MRI came back on Wednesday and it showed his back was full of a rare, and very dangerous infection, the nurse said she had never seen anything like it.
They life-flighted him in a jet from St. George, up to Salt Lake to the University Hospital immediately. My whole family was at the hospital immediately, waiting for my grandparents to arrive. While the doctor talked to my grandma about what he was going to have to do, my family got to visit with my grandpa. At this point, he was closer to death than anything, and looking back, I think they did this beceause they weren't sure if he was going to make it.
They took him into surgery, where they cut his back open from the base of his neck, down almost 18 inches. They started out with a smaller incision but when they got it open, pus and gunk started to spill out everywhere so they had to make it bigger.
The surgery was about 5 hours or so I think. My family sent my grandma home because she had been by his side for days and she was exhausted, and they all sat and waited.
He came out of surgery and the doctors explained that this was going to be a long road to recovery. He was going to be on a breathing tube for at least a few days, and in the ICU for a while.
Only 10 hours after surgery, they took him off the breathing tube, and just last night(Nov.23) they moved him out of ICU.
Our family has seen a miracle.
It still is going to be a long road of healing. He will be in the hospital for a while longer and then he will be moved to my Uncle Gary's nursing home facility where he will stay for 6 weeks while they administer antibiotics through an IV.
I know I am right where I'm supposed to be right now, in Michigan with my other grandpa, but I feel like I am always in the wrong place at the wrong time. I feel so incredibly far away from the rest of my family right now, but I know that when I get home, they will really need my help as they all return back to work.
You might ask, Where in the world did this horribly rare infection come from? I asked the same question. Turns out, about 1 1/2 months ago, my grandpa stubbed his toe and it lifted the nail off of his toe. I told him he should go to the doctor to get it taken care of. He said, it would be fine, if it got worse, he would go in a few days. A week later he finally got it checked out, surprise surprise, it was infected. The doctor gave him an antibiotic, told him to soak it in Epsom salt a few times a day and sent him on his way. The infection cleared up, no big deal. Problem? part of the infection got into his blood stream and settled in the weakest part of his body, his back. (He has had 2 back surgeries in his life, so apparently that makes it the weakest part) So for a month, it has been building and building until finally it attempted to shut down his organs, one at a time.
Right now, he is in A LOT of pain. He doesn't get to sleep very much because of the pain. Someone from my family is there 24/7. While he was in ICU, he complained that there were ants crawling all over the walls of the room. (side-effect of the pain meds)
We know he is getting back to normal because #1 he has started harassing everyone like normal #2 the ants are gone.
Moral of the story? Listen to HEATHER! Nobody did when I said there was something burning in the house, next thing you know, fire in the oven. "Go to the doctor", if he would have listened, he would have been able to enjoy the turkey he hates for Thanksgiving. He has been harrassing me and grossing me out with his nasty toenail ever since it fell off.
Everybody has warned him that when I get home, he's gonna get it, and he will, right after I hug him and tell him to never scare me to death like that again, or I'll kill him.
Not very many people knew what was going on because everybody has been in such happy moods around the holidays and I didn't wanna bring my emergency into it but my family appreciates all of the prayers that have been offered, they truely have worked and have been a big blessing. My grandpa is a strong man and he will get through this, we all will make it through this. It has brought us all much closer together and there's no better time to do it than the holiday season.
*peace out girl scout*
No comments:
Post a Comment