from the beginning

on sunday, february 3, 2008, dad had emergency surgery for an abdominal aorta aneurysm that had suddenly torn.

he had been experiencing severe back pain and had been sick for a few days preceding the tearing of the aneurysm. at first, he and mom thought it might be kidney stones, so they headed to a local clinic. they were told it would be a two hour wait and a five hour wait at the emergency room. by this point, they think dad's aneurysm had ruptured. mom was beside herself because she couldn't figure out a way to make them admit him for an exam. she argued and "politely" fought back and forth with the triage nurse and receptionist, knowing it was vital for dad to see a doctor sooner than later. dad was in so much pain that he had to stay in the parking lot of the clinic because he was yelling at the top of his lungs and vomiting from the excruciating pain...thankfully, three different passersby noticed him in the parking lot in such agony, and they each (at separate times) told the clinic that there was a man in the parking lot that needed help. they finally realized it was more than a common flu or illness, and he was seen by the first doctor. from this point on, things went rapidly - thank God. they rushed him to the hospital via ambulance. once he and mom arrived, they confirmed that he had a ruptured aneurysm, and that he needed emergency surgery.

the surgery went as well as could be expected. shockingly, his aneurysm was 4 inches, 8 cms in diameter. it's considered pathological if it's larger than 4 - 4 1/2 cms. his was, obviously, twice the size. thankfully, his tear occurred in the back part of his abdomen, so it was able to be "walled off" to keep the bleeding from being more catastrophic. if it had torn in the front, he most surely would have died quickly after the rupture. he had to be transfused with 10 liters of blood, he had approximately 24 bags worth of an 8 x 11 ziploc bag of fluids, as well as 2 bags of platelets...the man is a champ! even the nurses have commented on how shocked they are of how much fluid they needed to replace.

they had to leave his stomach open because everything in his abdomen was so swollen. it would've been too risky to close it up and have everything continue to swell. his stomach remained open until tuesday afternoon. the second stitch-up "surgery" went well.

they gave him a paralytic drug and sedated him to keep him from exerting energy trying to breathe - they needed to give his organs all the rest they could so they'd have the best chance of healing...they also put him on a ventilator to help him with breathing.

we were told that the first 48 hours were extremely pivotal. his chances of survival were 50/50. he was admitted to the critical care unit on sunday night around 2 or 3 a.m. his organs were strained so much from the surgery and the loss of blood, that we were pretty much waiting to see how much damage was done and if anything was irrepairably damaged.

his blood pressure was fairly high (160s-170s) over the first part of the week. his kidney functioning deteriorated daily. his heart rate was oftentimes a little too high. and the levels of oxygen in his blood dropped a couple of times. he had a tremendous amount of swelling all over his body due to the fluids.

the other scary part is that they found some fuzzy space at the top of the page of his stomach x-ray (the bottom of his chest has the fuzzy part), but they can't get a clear picture of what it could be because it would be like sending him into a 'death trap' to do a CT scan at this moment...he's too unstable. they think it could possibly be another anneurysm in his chest, lung cancer or anything - it's just impossible to know without the CT scan. there's no definite answer of when he'll be well enough for the scan.

most of us had to go back home to work this sunday (feb 10) besides my sister and myself and baby strohm. my mom will not leave the hospital, so it has become our sleeping grounds (we rotate some nights). it's a horrible teeter-totter. i can only imagine how my mom feels. he's been a miracle to get this far...my dad's a strong man, a fighter, and loves so deeply. i have no doubt he's throwing the biggest punches of his life so far. God has moved mountains on his behalf.

i'll update more in the next post.