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cimoreneMy dad's back in the ER again now. I didn't actually post here when he went in earlier this week - he was having some fibrillations with some other adjectives in front of them meaning random and atypical, and apparently this is a thing that has to do with blood pressure and it was probably caused by a misbalance in his other medications.
(Managing blood pressure is one of the major issues for quadriplegics, because they are at such increased risk of blood clots.) So the doctors adjusted his medication and after he started feeling a lot better the next day, they let him go. However, he had barely been home at all when his lips turned blue last night and he lost consciousness, and mom called 911. It's not really clear if it was the same thing that was wrong with him before; they used paddles on him, although he told my mom he thought they didn't have to so I guess he (thinks he) was already conscious at the time? They were hunting a bed for him in the ICU, but he was awake and lucid. The first doctor Mom talked to - an ER doctor, not the spinal cord specialist - said he had low kidney function and too much potassium, and basically 'his chemistry was out of whack', so more medication adjustments forthcoming.
I think I also didn't post when I found out both of my parents had covid-19; my mom had flu-like symptoms but never required hospitalization back in March, and my dad was tested as a result and found to be positive, but he was asymptomatic the whole time.
In fact, in between covid and then he's been to the hospital for surgery after what the doctors think was a spider bite (the brown recluse is the sole venomous spider where I grew up, but you aren't really taught to fear it because it's so reclusive - the bites hardly ever happen, people hardly ever even see it). Routine hospital visits have been commonplace ever since the spinal cord injury first put him in a wheelchair in 2003, so much so that he's contracted an intense dislike of being in hospitals at all and gets intensely resentful about it even if it's inarguably necessary, because he's simply spent so much time bored, frustrated, and uncomfortable in them.
In a way, although his suffering with hospitalization is obviously a lot worse, I think the same process is what has happened to worrying about him for the rest of us. Obviously, there's a spike of worry each time you hear he had to go to the ER, but the whole risk/alarm level assessment has had to be emotionally recalibrated after he's been there so many times. This is a closer call than most of them I think? ...but he did end up in a coma in Paris during the all-time prizewinning Vacation from Hell and this is definitely less hair-raising than that still.
I feel a tad nervous and very... waiting for a verdict (realistically just more information) today though. I am not allowing myself to draw again yet, because I've been feeling near-constant bits of numbness or tingling in my right hand this week, so it's no drawing and frequent wrist exercises/stretches until it feels better. That's very frustrating because I still haven't moved on from wanting to draw more lettering all the time, though.
(Managing blood pressure is one of the major issues for quadriplegics, because they are at such increased risk of blood clots.) So the doctors adjusted his medication and after he started feeling a lot better the next day, they let him go. However, he had barely been home at all when his lips turned blue last night and he lost consciousness, and mom called 911. It's not really clear if it was the same thing that was wrong with him before; they used paddles on him, although he told my mom he thought they didn't have to so I guess he (thinks he) was already conscious at the time? They were hunting a bed for him in the ICU, but he was awake and lucid. The first doctor Mom talked to - an ER doctor, not the spinal cord specialist - said he had low kidney function and too much potassium, and basically 'his chemistry was out of whack', so more medication adjustments forthcoming.
I think I also didn't post when I found out both of my parents had covid-19; my mom had flu-like symptoms but never required hospitalization back in March, and my dad was tested as a result and found to be positive, but he was asymptomatic the whole time.
In fact, in between covid and then he's been to the hospital for surgery after what the doctors think was a spider bite (the brown recluse is the sole venomous spider where I grew up, but you aren't really taught to fear it because it's so reclusive - the bites hardly ever happen, people hardly ever even see it). Routine hospital visits have been commonplace ever since the spinal cord injury first put him in a wheelchair in 2003, so much so that he's contracted an intense dislike of being in hospitals at all and gets intensely resentful about it even if it's inarguably necessary, because he's simply spent so much time bored, frustrated, and uncomfortable in them.
In a way, although his suffering with hospitalization is obviously a lot worse, I think the same process is what has happened to worrying about him for the rest of us. Obviously, there's a spike of worry each time you hear he had to go to the ER, but the whole risk/alarm level assessment has had to be emotionally recalibrated after he's been there so many times. This is a closer call than most of them I think? ...but he did end up in a coma in Paris during the all-time prizewinning Vacation from Hell and this is definitely less hair-raising than that still.
I feel a tad nervous and very... waiting for a verdict (realistically just more information) today though. I am not allowing myself to draw again yet, because I've been feeling near-constant bits of numbness or tingling in my right hand this week, so it's no drawing and frequent wrist exercises/stretches until it feels better. That's very frustrating because I still haven't moved on from wanting to draw more lettering all the time, though.
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Date: 6 Jun 2021 12:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6 Jun 2021 02:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7 Jun 2021 05:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7 Jun 2021 08:25 pm (UTC)