CU n CCU

Dad's surgery was scheduled for late in the afternoon, so Mom and I took our time in the morning doing some housework.  We got a phone call a little after 11:00 am from the hospital reporting that another patient's surgery had to be postponed and they had moved Dad's surgery forward.  He was being wheeled into pre-surgery prep right at that moment!  So, Mom and I clean-up from the chores we were doing and get ready to go.  Mom was ready before I was, so she left first in her car and I followed in mine shortly thereafter.

Mom and Dad's pastor just happened to be there to visit Dad that morning, and he stayed with Mom and me during the surgery.  He is a very nice man and it was comforting to have him there.

When the surgery was over, the surgeon reported that the repair of the hip was successful.  However, Dad lost a lot of blood during the surgery.  He said that with the types of surgery he performs, it isn't unusual for a patient to lose as much blood as would fill a standard soft-drink can.  However, Dad lost almost a two-liter bottle's worth of blood.  Because of Dad's already-frail state, the volume of blood lost, and Dad's low blood-pressure reading after surgery, the surgeon moved him to CCU (Critical Care Unit, this hospital's version of what is known as "ICU" at most hospitals).  When he awoke from the anesthesia, he began thrashing around and attempted to hit one of the male RNs that was attending him and had to be restrained.  He was probably too weak to have actually caused the RN any harm, but they were afraid that he was going to pull-out his IV tube and disconnect the monitors that were keeping tabs on his blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration, etc.  They removed the restraints at one point when he ceased being combative, but his continued thrashing-about forced them to place them on again.

After a couple of hours in CCU, Dad's condition stabilized somewhat and we were allowed to see him.  He was still under the effects of the anesthesia, though, and wasn't himself at all.  He proclaimed himself ready to leave the hospital since his surgery was over and thought Mom and I were in-league with the hospital for not letting him go home immediately.  He thought we were trying to get rid of him.  Damn, anesthesia does strange things to one's mind.  The presence of Mom & Dad's pastor hrough this weird and painful experience helped tremendously — he really is a jewel.  The RN assigned to him gave Dad an intravenous shot of pain medication and he quickly drifted back to sleep.  The pastor left, and Mom and I went home to rest for a short while.

We returned to the hospital an hour-and-a-half later to find him still asleep.  We sat beside his bed for over an hour-and-a-half but he never woke up, so we went back home to try to rest.

The picture accompanying this blog entry is my father, not so many years ago.

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