An interesting Friday

Laura left last night with her parents to drive to Utah for Cindy Zenger's (her first cousin) wedding. Its the first time Laura has left Jared for more than an overnight. I was planning to take Jared to daycare and pick him up after work. However right after I had gotten Jared all dressed and ready for the day and I was just putting on my shirt, I catch a glimpse of Jared running full tilt out of the bathroom and just as he gets to the door way he stubs his shoe on the metal strip that separates the linoleum from the carpet and he takes a header into the foot of our bed.

Now the impact was cause for concern by itself, however as I go to pick a screaming Jared up off the floor I notice the corner of his left eye is already swelling and purple and he is bleeding down his cheek and into his eye as well. Now it may sound cruel but I had to leave him there so I could take off my dress shirt so he didn't get blood all over it but once I got it off I picked him up off the floor and tried taking a look at his eye.

He wasn't having any of it, he would barely hold still for me to look but I could see that he had split his skin next to his eye and that if weren't for the swelling he would be bleeding all over the place! At this point I am thinking to myself 'I can't believe Jared just did this, now Laura will never let me take care of him while she is gone :-) So I call Laura to let her know what happened, luckily she is still sleepy so she didn't freak out too much.

Jared took his header around 7:30 am and I know he needs to go to the Doctor to probably get some stitches because his eye is still bleeding and it was a pretty nasty cut. So I called the pediatricians office and they said the doctor would be in at 9am and we could come in then. We showed up at 9am and of course waited for a bit. While in the waiting room this lady made a comment about Jared getting his first black eye, I let her know that this was actually Jared's third black eye (and actually not even close to the worst one).

The nurse came out and took us back and she used some gauze to clean up Jared's eye. Jared was so brave, he just gave the nurse his leary look but he let her clean it up and he never cried or winced once. The Doctor came in a bit later and took and look and luckily she said it wasn't too bad after she took a look and said that she could just glue it shut instead of doing stitches. We had to switch to the procedure room and the nurse had to clean Jared's eye with beatadine and saline solution. We had to take off his shirt and wrap him in a blanket so we could keep control of him since he was squirming like a fish out of water and kicking me like a mule as well. Then the Doc came back in to glue his cut closed which took everything the nurse and I had to keep Jared still so the glue didn't get in his eye. He of course screamed during this whole time but when the Doc was doing gluing his eye and he was still screaming I sang Rock a Bye Baby too him and it calmed him right down but he looked so sad that Daddy felt so bad for my little guy.

When we were all done Jared got to pick a prize and he decided on a dinosaur. Later I told Laura that he got a dinosaur as a prize and she in her sleepy state says "did he get a real one" next thing out of my mouth and Kathie's of course is "yes Laura they gave him a 'real' dinosaur, a real live T-Rex!" Of course she meant a big one like he has at home but Kathie and I enjoyed teasing her about that one. So of course at this point its 10am and I just can't take him to daycare, I felt so bad for him so I stopped in at work since it was close to the doctors office to let them see that I didn't make it all up ;-) and then Jared and I went home to hang out the rest of the day.

Utah Trip

Okay so it was back in March but hey its all good right...So we had good times, it snowed a ton on Saturday night and Sunday, don't miss the snow so much. We went to Utah for Michele and Jordan being sealed to Julie Beth and for Julie Beth and Kaisleigh's baby blessings. Good times seeing everyone and watching Julie Beth starting to walk, and falling down as well.

Of course we were all bummed Dad couldn't be there but happy that he is doing better :-)

Sunday

Dad is doing good, he no longer has any IV's going, he only has oxygen when he sleeps because he has sleep apnea so his oxygen levels get a little low. Other than that he seems to be doing good, no doctors today since its Sunday. Hopefully tomorrow holds good news, but I go back to Oregon tonight. My Mom and I are exhausted since sleeping in a hospital room can only be so comfortable and the nurses come in and out all night but I am glad I came home to see my Dad.

Aging is a natural process but the medical stuff starts to catch up. Makes me want to move home but I know Laura would struggle with it but I'll eventually need to figure it out. So it seems that my Dad is doing much better, he just needs to take it easy and rest (while still getting some exercise) and actually manage his diabetes so his kidneys last longer:-)

We are all sad that Dad can't be in Utah this coming weekend for Juju B getting sealed to Michele and Jordan and for Juju B and Kaisleigh's baby blessing but that's okay. That is why I am glad we are an eternal family!

Once again thank you for all of your prayers on our Dad's behalf, and all that you do for our family. Its been a scary experience but its always nice to know how much Ohana one has in the islands and through out the world.

Love and Aloha,

Ronald

Lazy Saturday Afternoon

Dad has been sleeping most of the morning since he did not sleep at all last night. Nothing like telling some one they can't move and of course mentally you feel that you have to! Needless to say he has been very vocal on how much he wants to move and how much being on his back has been really sore. Now that his leg is doing good and there is no hematoma (s/p) on the entry site in his femoral artery where they went in to do the stent he can now move around and not have to be on his back.

Funny thing though now that he is so tired and is sleeping he is in the exact same position from when he couldn't move and is sleeping comfortably. ;-) Nothing like the power of suggestion. During his napping though his sleep apnea started to kick in a bit and his oxygen level was in the 70's and it made some alarms go off, but since his nurse never showed up I just put him back on oxygen and he went right back to 100. When his nurse came back in I told her why he was back on oxygen and she was like oh it should have made the alarms go off. I said they did twice but when you didn't show up twice, I just silenced the alarm (I've been doing this for awhile on his monitors and his IV drip - they take forever to get in here and never have the new IV bag ready and the alarms are so obnoxious and loud) and put him on oxygen. She was like oh, okay.

As Caroline would say, "Good times."

After the procedure

Dad is back in the room, they put in a stent and he is doing good. The hardest part is that they are making him stay on his back laying down in his bed. He doesn't do that, he always sleeps in a Lazy Boy chair so its killing his back. So needless to say he isn't supposed to be moving his right leg but of course he is...to be continued.

Friday Update

Dad is doing a ton better, yesterday he had more of an appetite and I was able to get him to eat some food and drink more fluids. His blood pressure has gone down to really good levels, his oxygen level in his blood has been staying at 100 and on his own without the oxygen in the 90's. His heart rate has leveled out around 100, earlier yesterday and on Wednesday he was only around the 60's and since putting in the external pace maker his heart has only needed it a couple of times to keep it from going too slow.

When the lady came in this morning to do his EKG his heart rate goes up a ton because he gets nervous or something. His heart rate yesterday was all over the place when she came in to do the EKG, this morning I tried getting him to be less nervous about it but his HR still went up to the 140 range and then crashing to the 40's and 50's. Don't be alarmed, it does this a couple of times a day and when his HR goes under 60 the pacemaker kicks in to keep it going at a faster rate.

So mostly besides helping out with going shishi and helping him adjust in bed so his okole doesn't hurt too much, feeding him and making him drink stuff is all I am doing. His creatin level has come down from 2.5 to 2.1 so that is why they are going forward with the angioplasty and putting in some stents (answer to every ones prayers -thank you).

So that is the update for now, once again we thank everyone for their prayers on Dad's behalf and on his doctors and nurses behalves as well and the out pouring of Love and Aloha to our Ohana, we are humbled and grateful for the blessing of being able to call everyone of you Family and Friends.

Aloha,

Ronald

Update on My Dad

I flew to Honolulu on Wednesday to see my Dad who is in Queen's hospital because of a minor heart attack. He is doing okay, still having issues with his heart rate and rhythm. The doctors were going to do an angioplasty today but since my Dad has diabetes too, his cretin level was higher than the doctors wanted so they called it off to try and get his cretin closer to 2 down from 2.5 where it was at this morning. However because his heart stopped for a couple seconds here and there this morning they decided to attach an external pacemaker. That is making Dad a bit uncomfortable because they went in through his right jugular vein so that hurts a bit.

Well other than all that he is feeling good, his blood pressure has been pretty good 145/68, heart rate is 97 and pulse is in the 90's. Blood sugar has been the issue lately high 200's after eating but that's because of the dies they put in him for the catheter? s/p, to look at his heart is really hard on his kidney's. So they have been giving him diuretics s/p so he can pee more to get that crap out (read Ronald has to help him do this and it is just so much fun! not :-)) So I have figured out most of the machines, and am following the tests they are doing so its been a learning experience. Hopefully this learning experience ends soon and in a good way.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers on behalf of my Dad and his Doctors.

I will try to keep you updated,

Ronald