My dad's recovery--Week 2

An accidental trip brought me to LA again.

It was end of May and I was in China on a business trip when my second sister brought my parents on holiday in the US. On the morning of May 26, I got a call from my sister, telling me that our dad had a heart attack and a heart surgery was needed. Dire situation then, and I had to decide if I wanted to come over or not as my family understood I was on a biz trip.

But surely my dad weights more than my work in China. So, I went online and was fortunate enough to find a ticket from Shanghai to LA. So, within a matter of less than 6 hours since I got the call from my sister, this accidental trip started.

The problem turned out to be much more serious than I had expected. At first, doctor here thought an angioplasty would suffice but the examination showed main arteries in his heart were severely clogged. An open-heart surgery--Coronary Artery Bypass Graft, to be more precise, was needed. It wasn't a small one for my dad who's 80 and has diabetes. We discussed the possibility of sending him back to Taiwan but he's simply too ill to travel then. So, despite all the high risks (and also the high cost....), we decided to proceed with the surgery.

He had to wait for two weeks at intensive care unit for the surgery cause he was too weak. On the morning of Jun. 11, the surgery finally was undertaken. A good 5 hours of waiting in anxiety, I was told in early afternoon by the surgeon that it had gone well. They did three by-pass and that was the easy part of the surgery. They actually spent more time trying to stop his bleeding. He had been receiving blood thinner prior to the surgery so as to allow blood to flow more smoothly through his clogged arteries. But that made it hard for the blood to clog which is necessary to close the wound. Fortunately, the internal bleeding problem just subsides later.

Now, it's been two weeks into his post-surgery recovery. The first week he showed very good sign--staying clear-headed, starting to demand things/drinks, wanting to get out of bed---trivial things that indicated his gradual return to a normal life.

But things took a strange turn in the second week. He started to complain about chest pain, getting lethargic most of the time, and dehydration problem. His blood pressure dropped all of a sudden and kidney functions went bad on last Friday. So, the doctor sent him back to ICU, having him receive dialysis again (which he had received before the surgery). They suspect that the gradually worsening kidney function resulted in cumulation of toxin in his body. Hopefully the dialysis this weekend can make him better.

As one of the doctors put it, he is on the right track but with some deviations sometimes. I think that's quite true about my dad's situation now. He's still ill and weak, and no one has the slightest idea when he can be discharged from the hospital, not to mention the full recovery. But I should faith (well, I have to have) that he'll recover eventually. After all that he's been through, he just got to recover!

As for me, I've been in LA for one month. I have been fine albeit all the anxiety and frustration from time to time. I stay at a friend's and spend most of the time at the hospital. My eldest sister who lives in Dallas also came to LA to help. So, we take turns taking care of our dad who is anyway under very good care at this very nice hospital.

I will talk more about my life here in my next article. In the meantime, if u read this article, please send your prayer for my dad. That'll be very much appreciated. Also, please take good care of yourself too. Nothing is more important than your health....A lesson learned with high cost here now.....

父親的復原之路--第二週

現在是美國時間六月二四號星期天，距我父親手術後，即將邁入第三周了。

經過第一周非常正面積極的恢復後，第二周的復原等於是有點走回頭路。

第二周開始（大約就是上週二開始吧），他開始出現昏睡，胸痛的症狀。X光顯示他的肺部外面有水，可能因此導致胸痛，抽掉後胸痛確實好轉了。但是，週五早上他的血壓忽然降低，腎排毒功能似乎也有點問題，所以醫生決定將他轉回加護病房。低血壓應是導因於脫水，因為他不能自行進食喝水，當時還是透過點滴注射，所以可能導致缺水。後來到了加護病房，給他多一些點滴後，血壓在沒有任何藥物控制下，就恢復正常。

原以為這樣就沒問題了，但是因為多給了水，似乎又讓肺負荷過重，導致呼吸急促，加上腎排毒不好，毒素在體內累積，讓他持續處在昏睡狀態中，所以這個週末連著兩天都要洗腎，希望能趕緊降低體內毒素，讓他意識更清醒。其實他今早已經清醒許多，比前幾天都要好很多。但是還是需要再次洗腎，好讓他更清醒些。

老人家一生病，真的就是問題像滾雪球般，接踵而至。看我父親這樣受苦，除了心痛並幫他祈禱之外，卻是無能為力。這時候真的會覺得生命之脆弱，更當注意健康。

父親的手術

在等待兩個多星期後，父親的手術總算順利進行，也順利完成。
星期一(六月十一號)早上六點半多，我爸爸就被送進手術房。手術原定是七點半開始，不過他們很早就在準備，感覺美國醫院的醫療品質，確實是很好的。

他被送進去後，我就到食堂去吃早餐。其實我自己身體狀況也不甚佳，感冒了，因為洛杉磯早晚溫差極大，約有攝氏十度的差異。早上可能還不到20度，需要薄外套或毛衣，下午卻是陽光普照，短褲T恤即可。加上醫院病房溫度特低，我就這樣感冒了。

所以去食堂喝杯咖啡，暖暖身子，就趴在食堂桌上睡了。真的太累了。反正那段時間我什麼事也不能做，只有等待。

八點半左右，接到手術房打來的電話，通知我們要將他送到開刀床上，要正式開刀。我其實不緊張，因為也於事無補，只能等。

這一等就是4個小時。到了快一點，又接到電話，通知一切順利，正在做後續清理的工作。聽了真讓人高興。

我與我大姐稍後回到加護病房，見到了動刀醫生Dr Cohen。他說總共作了三條繞道，都很順利。反而是手術後，出血現象比較令人擔心。可能是因為先前替他打blood thinner的藥，讓血液比較不易阻塞。但是也因此，真正要讓血液可以凝結止血時，反而就出現問題。

醫生說要持續觀察幾個小時，如持續大量出血，就必須在回手術房。一聽到這，又頓時讓人心寒一下。真是處處充滿令人意想不到的變化。

所以，我們一整個下午，又繼續等。我仍舊很不舒服，只有一直睡。從大廳的沙發，睡到外面有陽光的中庭咖啡座上。等到傍晚時分，才聽說他的出血量已經減少，總算讓人稍寬心。

手術後到現在已經兩天，復原狀況看起來還算順利。呼吸管已經拿下，可以自行呼吸，出血狀況也逐漸好轉，但是因為他年紀大，還是需要多觀察，才能確認不會有其他併發症出現。但目前，可以說so far so good，總算是令人相當興奮的。