1:30 pm 4/1/06 Update on Tom Tate
Robin and Sherry and David and Loni and Mom are all down at the hospital now; I am doing a bit of work and then will join them. Jimmy is making spaghetti and meatballs for everyone for dinner at mom's house.
The news on Dad is not good but it could be worse, so we'll take what we can get. He is still on the respirator and is in total renal failure; will be on dialysis the rest of his life, however long that is. Yesterday his heart started fibrillating again and the p-rate went to 150 beats per minute, very dangerous. They tried doing shock treatments and he finally responded after the second try, and his heart began beating at a normal sinus rhythm again of 80 beats per minute. It has started creeping up again and is now averaging 110, but they are watching it closely. The good news is that they've been able to dial down the respirator so now it is assisting with only 12 of his breaths per minute. He is taking about 20 breaths per minute total, so that means that at least half of them are initiated by him, not the machine. He no longer is running a temperature, so that is good too. We still don't know if he actually has pneumonia and/or an infection, but the indicators are looking better. So we are basically just hanging in there today. It was a big shock for mom to see him on the dialysis machine; I think she didn't realize that they actually remove his blood, run it thru the machine to filter it and then put it back in his body. I don't know what she actually thought, but she nearly fainted when she realized what was being done. And all the pep talk about how it's a routine procedure and thousands of people have it done daily etc did no good. She just fell apart. So everyone's working on helping her hold it together again. She actually has been a real trooper all in all. I don't know how I would be able to cope if my husband of 63 years were the one in there. As it is, he is my daddy and I feel this primal scream trying to burst from my lungs, that he not leave me.
The news on Dad is not good but it could be worse, so we'll take what we can get. He is still on the respirator and is in total renal failure; will be on dialysis the rest of his life, however long that is. Yesterday his heart started fibrillating again and the p-rate went to 150 beats per minute, very dangerous. They tried doing shock treatments and he finally responded after the second try, and his heart began beating at a normal sinus rhythm again of 80 beats per minute. It has started creeping up again and is now averaging 110, but they are watching it closely. The good news is that they've been able to dial down the respirator so now it is assisting with only 12 of his breaths per minute. He is taking about 20 breaths per minute total, so that means that at least half of them are initiated by him, not the machine. He no longer is running a temperature, so that is good too. We still don't know if he actually has pneumonia and/or an infection, but the indicators are looking better. So we are basically just hanging in there today. It was a big shock for mom to see him on the dialysis machine; I think she didn't realize that they actually remove his blood, run it thru the machine to filter it and then put it back in his body. I don't know what she actually thought, but she nearly fainted when she realized what was being done. And all the pep talk about how it's a routine procedure and thousands of people have it done daily etc did no good. She just fell apart. So everyone's working on helping her hold it together again. She actually has been a real trooper all in all. I don't know how I would be able to cope if my husband of 63 years were the one in there. As it is, he is my daddy and I feel this primal scream trying to burst from my lungs, that he not leave me.
THANK YOU to everyone who has called, emailed, and been there for us all. You have been and continue to be such a wonderful support group. I don't know what we would do without you.
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