Birthdays and Hospitals

 It's been a week!  Last week I had to take my Dad in for a procedure on his heart called a cardio-version.  He had been having an irregular heart beat so they put him out and shocked his heart.  It took 2 times, but he converted into a regular rhythm.  He's not been feeling well and they thought this would help.
However, at the end of the day Wednesday he called me at work and asked me to stop and check him.  When I got there I couldn't believe how short of breath and wheezy he was and I took him to the ER. They ran tests, nothing really showed up.  They adjusted his meds and sent him home.
Thursday he wasn't any better and Friday was his birthday.  91 years old! 

(Dad and Ann in January)

I called him and he said he was doing ok, but not up to getting out. (This is not his normal.  He usually is up and about and bowls twice a week),  He said he would like us all to just come over.  We ordered takeout and gathered at his house.

My 2 sisters and their husbands, my brother and Bob and I came.  A few granddaughters came too.

(Dad and Cheri)

He still wasn't feeling well and was really wheezing, but he loved having the family around.

When I got home, I was just not comfortable with how he was wheezing, even though the hospital said to just wait and let the med changes work.  I call the on-call for that night, who turned out to be his primary care Dr and knows him.  He said to go back to the ER, and this time he would call ahead.

It was crazy busy that night. We got their around 9 and had to wait for almost an hour to get into an ER room.  Then there was test after test - which were not showing anything.  However, it was obvious he was sick.  Finally at 5:30 he was transferred to the Critical Care Unit.  He has a lot of extra fluid around his belly, and his kidneys aren't working well.  They will be doing more tests and trying to get some of that fluid off.
I went home about 6:30 that morning.
My Dad is a really sweet guy, the nurses always say he is so cute!  We agree that he is pretty special and it sure wasn't a great way to spend his birthday night.

I went back up on Sunday morning.  Here's his room, nice and big. However, the crazy covid rules continue, and he can only have 2 visitors in a day, so we are having to plan out who can visit and try to arrange for our stepmom to be one of those people.

And this is the view from his window - 6 stories up.

He said he was feeling a little bit better.  They were giving him a lot of diuretics while monitoring his kidneys.
They plan to drain the extra fluid in his abdomen, possibly on Monday.
If that's successful it will help him feel quite a bit better.
I'll try to update you on how he is doing in the coming days.